Well........ After many years of himmin and hawwin, the 4.3 just got way to tired. About two weeks ago the bullet proof 4.3 :haha: decided it was time to throw in the towel. She was a good motor that lasted me 340,000 miles with no internal parts going bad. (Changing the oil religiously really helped in this case I believe) But a stubborn head gasket will change all of that. :rant: So I figured it was time to put a v8 in place of the v6. I'm 25 now and have been wanting to do this build since I was 16.
The Blazer (dubbed Ron Burgundy):
She sat out in Wisconsin for 5 years under a pine tree (this will end up being my worst enemy as the project moves forward) until one day I went and picked it up. The blazer used to be my father in laws and he had it sitting out there because the tranny went bad and he didnt think he had the money to fix it. Well money isn't an issue when you have the balls to do it yourself. Well not necessarily balls but just the willingness to tackle it yourself.
Brought the blazer back to my fathers shop and I knew only two things before getting started on it, the tranny is shot and I needed to get the motor running.
This pic is after we unloaded the truck and started to see what I needed to get it running.
Needless to say, all it needed was a good fuel pump and fuel filter and some fresh gas and she fired up on all cylinders and was surprisingly quiet and smooth running.
Now we were on to the tranny. Right out of the gate I had first gear and as soon as it wanted to go into second, slip and rev. Anybody who knows even the slightest bit about transmissions knows that in a 4l60e when this happens it's.............2-4 gears are out. I won't go into detail on how to remove the tranny but I rebuilt it myself with the help of another member/friend/co-worker (acehaag) <-GM GURU!
Jegs 4l60e complete rebuild kit for $200.00
Started ripping the tranny apart and found out that nothing bad had happened. The thing just got tired also.
Anyways, that's all I've done leading up to my build. As for my build now, I have the front clip off the blazer, engine sitting on the floor propped up by 2x4's and the tranny again has had some more updates.
The old 4.3 may you rest in peace.
This is where most of the oil and smoke was coming from the engine when I decided it was time to put it into retirement.
The rest of the photos are just eye soars because it looks like a mess but honestly it's going a lot smoother than I anticipated.
When I said that sitting under a pine tree would be my worst enemy................ Yeah, The mother f-ing rust and snapped bolt and rusted shut bolts!!!!!! It's a pain!
But I prevail, there was so much rust I just ended up ripping the core support out, literally.
This is what it looked like a few days ago.
I removed the tranny and did the proper updates to accommodate the v8. I needed a newer valve body because I had a hard down shift issue. Got one from a donor 2003 4l60e provided by acehaag. Did the corvette servo swap, new valve body separator plate (transgo part #46-plt-96), and rather than use the steel balls in the valve body I used .250 torlon plastic balls, this will help keep the plate damage down to a minimum. Ford uses these plastic balls in almost all of there transmissions now a days.
With all of that being said, I'm on the road to putting it back together.
My future updates include:
411 pcm swap
V8 Swap kit
Chrysler 300m E-fans
Want to find some aluminum race valve covers. (I just like the way they look, so any help will be apreciated.)
Find a good sounding sleeper muffler. I like a quiet tone at idle but when I get on it, I want it to sing!!!! Was thinking of the new muffler.
That's it for now, after the holidays I'll be getting back to it. Thanks for taking a look!!!!
Please leave any feedback you may have or ask any questions!
Travis
The Blazer (dubbed Ron Burgundy):
She sat out in Wisconsin for 5 years under a pine tree (this will end up being my worst enemy as the project moves forward) until one day I went and picked it up. The blazer used to be my father in laws and he had it sitting out there because the tranny went bad and he didnt think he had the money to fix it. Well money isn't an issue when you have the balls to do it yourself. Well not necessarily balls but just the willingness to tackle it yourself.
Brought the blazer back to my fathers shop and I knew only two things before getting started on it, the tranny is shot and I needed to get the motor running.
This pic is after we unloaded the truck and started to see what I needed to get it running.
Needless to say, all it needed was a good fuel pump and fuel filter and some fresh gas and she fired up on all cylinders and was surprisingly quiet and smooth running.
Now we were on to the tranny. Right out of the gate I had first gear and as soon as it wanted to go into second, slip and rev. Anybody who knows even the slightest bit about transmissions knows that in a 4l60e when this happens it's.............2-4 gears are out. I won't go into detail on how to remove the tranny but I rebuilt it myself with the help of another member/friend/co-worker (acehaag) <-GM GURU!
Jegs 4l60e complete rebuild kit for $200.00
Started ripping the tranny apart and found out that nothing bad had happened. The thing just got tired also.
Anyways, that's all I've done leading up to my build. As for my build now, I have the front clip off the blazer, engine sitting on the floor propped up by 2x4's and the tranny again has had some more updates.
The old 4.3 may you rest in peace.
This is where most of the oil and smoke was coming from the engine when I decided it was time to put it into retirement.
The rest of the photos are just eye soars because it looks like a mess but honestly it's going a lot smoother than I anticipated.
When I said that sitting under a pine tree would be my worst enemy................ Yeah, The mother f-ing rust and snapped bolt and rusted shut bolts!!!!!! It's a pain!
But I prevail, there was so much rust I just ended up ripping the core support out, literally.
This is what it looked like a few days ago.
I removed the tranny and did the proper updates to accommodate the v8. I needed a newer valve body because I had a hard down shift issue. Got one from a donor 2003 4l60e provided by acehaag. Did the corvette servo swap, new valve body separator plate (transgo part #46-plt-96), and rather than use the steel balls in the valve body I used .250 torlon plastic balls, this will help keep the plate damage down to a minimum. Ford uses these plastic balls in almost all of there transmissions now a days.
With all of that being said, I'm on the road to putting it back together.
My future updates include:
411 pcm swap
V8 Swap kit
Chrysler 300m E-fans
Want to find some aluminum race valve covers. (I just like the way they look, so any help will be apreciated.)
Find a good sounding sleeper muffler. I like a quiet tone at idle but when I get on it, I want it to sing!!!! Was thinking of the new muffler.
That's it for now, after the holidays I'll be getting back to it. Thanks for taking a look!!!!
Please leave any feedback you may have or ask any questions!
Travis