I'm guessing ford and John Deere fan lol.

I was just thinking for simplicity. You could always cut the axle tubes off the ford front and flip flop them to make a ds drop. But you'd either need a jig and really good welding skills or a machinist. Also you'd have to be careful to flip them so they are EXACTLY the same length on each side as they were before (only reverse the sides) or you'll have to have custom axles made.

Edit: is the front axle a 9" as well? If so does it have the removable pinion carrier setup? Of it is you can flip the carrier and internals without cutting the axle tubes. But I think you have to then get a reverse rotation kit for it iirc.

 

I have an '88 F150 with the TTB front axle, and the carrier/front driveshaft is on the driver's side just like the blazer, so I thought maybe it would be a good candidate for a swap if you could make it work. I'm not sure how hard it would be to mount everything up though. My F150 has a Dana 44 TTB, I imagine if you find a solid front Dana 44 you'd be in good shape. Probably need to put new gears in the front or rear to match, but it's all part of the process.

But either way, the ford drivetrain looks like a good idea. Not something you see everyday, and seems like it's virtually free for the base vehicle. I thought about using the axles from my F150 in my Jimmy so I could do a solid axle/9" swap in my F150 then use the TTB/8.8" rear in my Jimmy which would be more than strong enough for my 4.3

 

No the way I came up with that color sceme is I had a set of goodyears and the side walls were yellow and my blazer is blue and they just went together good .

 

I installed a 3 in body lift a last year and a most of the lift cylinders went through the floor panels . My welder friend and I fixed the passenger side already ( that was a full 8 hour day for two guys ) . Now I have to do the drivers side , with out the lift this would be about impossable .
Side view of motor

I wish I had taken some before pictures , This engine used to be pretty rusty . I still plan on getting a different intake and water pump , maybe even a electric water pump . I already can't wait to drive it , but I'm still taking my time .

 

I have been researching the solid axle swap for quite awhile now , trying to decide what I'm going to do . And 4wdfactory.com has the kit I think I'm going to go with , everything is pretty much bolt on . And I still haven't quite made up my mind on the front axle but the kit goes with several axles from chevy , jeep , and ford . I'm thinking I'll go with a axle from a ford f250 though .

 

I was wondering if any one knows about how much clearance the oil pan has with the front diff . My oil pan that we made has about 1 1/2 inches , and I'm going with solid motor mounts . So I should be good but I'm worried about it enough to where I'm thinking about just taking the 4x4 diff out until I do the solid axle conversion . If I didn't want to do the suspension lift , I could just run all the stock blazer drivetrain , but I need some serious lift .

 

Well the clearance to the front diff doesn't matter in this case. Unless you're worried about the diff exploding? The diff doesn't move with the suspension so you don't have anything to worry about with the diff......

 

The reason I'm a little worried is I built a ford 360 and put it in a ford f150 with a 300 6 cylinder , and made solid mounts and they kept breaking and it would poke a hole in the oil filter every time . Of couse I beat the living crap out of it , using it to skid logs . But I'm definatly going to do the solid axle before spring , and then I will have zero worries .

 

The engine is in the vehicle , finally . I have some pictures I'll post later , I don't know how chevy v8s fit in a s10 , but this 302 is huge , alot of firewall fabrication . And I still will have to use elecric fans to cool the engine . But everything else went pretty well . Its not any wider than the 4.3 just way longer so I have plenty of clearance for my headers , and fuel pump . But the oil filter would have to be pretty small so I think I'm going to go with a remote oil filter . Its coming together so great though .

 

I'm stoked as heck to see it, It's a personal favorite to see "frankenstein" vehicles, and I wish you the best of luck. Do you have pics of the whole thing though? I'd love to see the engine bay, and transmission, as well as the interior and stuff too!

Best of luck!