Got sick of the bouncing, floating front end feel, in my 03 Blazer 4x4. So I took some measurements and adapted a new set of EMPI 00-9570-8 adjustable coil-over shocks that were made to fit the Rear of a "Baja Bug" Volkswagen Beetle. I had to tighten the mounting sleeves at both ends of the shocks into a vice and then drill out the sleeves to the 1/2" bolt size that are on the blazer (upper and lower). The EMPI coil-overs come with a sleeve that's 1/16th too small. Also had to use a bench grinder to shorten the length of the lower sleeves, and then shimmed the upper sleeves with galvanized 1/2 inch washers. After I installed them, I backed out of the garage to allow the ride height to settle and noticed that the front end was too high. I didn't wanna raise it any higher than I already had it to keep from damaging the CV joints and or blowing out a CV boot. So I had to back off the torsion bar keys a full turn and a half to get the height to where it was at before the install. The way I see it, these coil-overs are just helping out my torsion bars with carrying the weight. The torsion bars still do most of that job. As a result of this mod, my Blazer now rides exactly the way I'd hoped for. It rides very stable, without the floaty ride that came with the stock set up, and eliminated the need to install larger bump-stops to eliminate the blazers springy ride when the torsion was raised off the stock bump-stops.

I didn't change the spring setting on the new shocks from where they came out of the box, on the softest setting. There was no need to put more spring tension than the lowest setting.
If you're thinking about doing this to your Blazer, then I highly recommend that you DO NOT try to drill out the sleeves without a vice clamped on the sleeves while drilling, otherwise you'll spin the sleeve in the shock and destroy the rubber bushing that the sleeve is bonded inside of.
Good luck! Hope you guys like the ride improvement as much as I do.




Original replacement type shock that I took out of the Blazer, on the left side of this pic.





The sleeves on the coil-overs came with a 7/16th's inside diameter. I drilled them out to accept
the original 1/2 inch shock bolts, with a DEWALT 1/2-in Titanium Metal Twist Drill Bit Model # DW1332

 

Cool man. Ive got a 91,that i removed the 4x4 from. ive been looking for a coil over swap. I wanna delete the torsion bars. only thing i found so far was a coil setup on another forum for the sy/ty for like 800 bucks. i wish i could find a assembly i could make work to hold the front end up.

 

Nice job!! Can you get as much lift as you want with those? Im interested in doing this in place off a torsion crank. I've the 2" shackles on the rear and been waiting to figure out front end lift.

 

Welcome to the forum BTW!!! Just checked out your profile

 

The Coil-over shocks that I used have 3 settings. I've only used them on the lowest / softest setting, and even then I had to back out the torsion adjuster bolts a full turn and a half to get the ride height down to where it was before installing these shocks. I would imagine you would be able to achieve maximum suspension travel height if you were to put them on the highest selector notch on the shocks. I chose not to do that because I was concerned with binding the axle joints and didn't wanna take the chance of possibly blowing out the axle boots and losing the grease inside. I've been down that road awhile back ago, when I first began experimenting with torsion bar adjustment and ride height.

Good luck to you. I'd like to hear how it works out for you.
Thanks for welcoming me to the forum

 

Any suggestions on where to buy your shocks? Im concerned with the front lift too. I plan to use upper BJ spacers and ofcourse replace all BJs. Im only looking for that 2" allowable lift. Do you highly not recommend the 2" lift? Is it really do that much damage?

 

You have any pics of drilling out the sleeves? I think I understand what youre sayin but not sure.

 

If you Google " EMPI 00-9570-8 " You'll find that the coil-over shocks that I modified for the front of my Blazer are available for purchase through several sources. They're very affordable too. I paid $54.80 for the pair, with free shipping. Happy bidding lol.

 

No, sorry 'bout that. No pics of the sleeves being drilled out, I had both hands full at the time

What I did was support the shock on it's side on top of the box the shocks came in, and while on it's side I had the tip of the sleeve that the 1/2" bolt goes through, clamped securely in my workbench vice, So that the sleeve would be immobilized against spinning in the rubber bushing, which would damage or destroy the bushing if the drill bit were to grab the inner part of the sleeve as it was reaming out (the extra 16th inch larger size) to fit the mounting bolt.

I hope that makes better sense.

 

The amount of lift doesn't have anything to do with the t-bars or adding coil overs. Factory s-series are limited to 2-2.5 inches by design. Its the bind the cv axles and ball joints are put into past that. Heck most of the time the factory bars and keys are well able to get 3-3.5 and maybe more lift if you like replacing parts weekly/monthly. Add to it none of the shock mounts are really designed to support the weight of the truck lifting it like that.


I had a 88 reg cab I got to resale a few years back a PO done this to to try to get some extra lift. After I got the truck for $200 with a wiped front end and replacing everything damaged (total frontend rebuild) I didn't see any gains leaving the coil overs compared to my blazer with only a 2.5 crank on the factory designed front. He had also tried to use coil overs on the rear to lift it and they had cracked or tore loose all kinds of stuff. Took longer than I expected to fix but the easiest $2400 I ever made on a flip. I only spent $400 fixing it, first offer was 3k and he took it home.