What should i do to my 1988 S-10?
 

This is my Blazer, and i love her. :icon_razz: Its the 4.3l Fuel injected vortec v6. nice engine with only 106k miles on the clock. other than regular maintenance and fixing broken things on my truck like, my steering column and what not.

So basically i want to know, where should i start. It handles like a tank out on the trails and through the mud. And for its age i am quite impressed with how it runs. This is my first car.:icon_razz:

You have a decent looking low mileage (for the age) truck with arguably one of the most trouble free engines used in these trucks.

What you do with it depends on what you want out of it. You could go all out and drop a TBI 5.7L v8 under the hood, toss a solid axle under the front with a beefier rear axle with leaf springs all around -OR- be creative and 4-link both the front and rear suspension.

What you do also depends on what you can afford to do in terms of money/experience/tools/etc.

Basically, you need to give us something to work with for what you want out of this vehicle.

Basically i know i want a lift, but definatly nothing too huge. big enough for beefer mud slingers. In terms of experience that is some what low. i have done most of the work myself but all thanks to the haynes automotive book, that book is the bible to any car. cash wise its a somewhat low budget build to a medium range budget, basically i want to make it a beefer truck off road, but still look clean when driving down the road.

Idk if that helps any but i am looking forward to hearing from you guys.

First and foremost, if you plan on playing off road, remove the running boards. I can promise, if you don't, the trail will do it for you.

Bigger tires means a lift. Easiest and cheapest is a body lift.

Ok, so i took my truck out again yesterday and i bent my passenger side running board and tore my rear trim line a bit. :icon_doh:
But anyways this weekend i want to do a lift on my truck but i am not sure what to do. I have started looking at shackle lifts and i want to do a 2 inch lift. Only problem is, I cant find anywhere telling me how to do the lift. If anyone knows any threads on the forums that have instructions or a video for it please let me know.

Also i am not sure whcih brand of lift i should get, i started looking around and if i am goign to shell out just under a hundred for the shackles i want to be sure i get a good set of them. Any suggestions?

Also is the shackle lift the same thing as a body lift if not, could someone elaborate a bit on the difference and what not? thanks and much appriciated.

Have you even looked in the "Lifting Tech" section? In particular, the very first sticky?

No, as i said i am new to the forums. pretty much found the build section and have been looking through here for the most part. i havnt really seen the other sections. i am going to go check it out. thanks.

And for the running board, i was thinking of actually changing it to the step bar. they seem like they would be a lot more durable? anyone have any thoughts/ have them on thier blazer and like them?

Step bars are every bit durable as running boards. If you REALLY need something sticking out on the side of your Blazer, have some sliders made.

If you have torsion bars on your truck like i have on mine which i think it came stock on most of these trucks you can simply do your two inch lift on that but if you dont want to go that way i would look into a suspension lift body lifts are cheap but you have to replace them after a few years because the blocks rot away