Blazer Forum - Chevy Blazer Forums - What I have been up to...

Blazer Forum - Chevy Blazer Forums (https://blazerforum.com/forum/)

- General Chat (https://blazerforum.com/forum/general-chat-34/)

- - What I have been up to... (https://blazerforum.com/forum/general-chat-34/what-i-have-been-up-26136/)

What I have been up to...

Sorry for the lapse in response time from my normal. My company has a plant shutdown between Christmas and New Years and I use this time to get a lot of things completed (or at the very least started...[&:];)).

This year, I have been working on my Blazer. Yesterday I completely removed the exhaust system in preparation for headers and a new exhaust system. The removal was easy. While I have everything out, I ran a compression test. Things looked quite good with the lowest cylinder being 120psi and the highest 136psi. Average was 129psi so all cylinders are within +/- 10% of the average. The motor seems healthy from this aspect. I would have liked to do a leak down test to assess the condition of the rings and valves, but I cannot find my leak down tester. I think I left it out at my dads place the last time I was checking out his old truck. Tomorrow I will squirt some motor oil on top of the pistons to see if the rings are the source of the low cylinders and just see how high the cylinder pressures will go with a solid ring seal.

During the dismantling of the original 2" exhaust system and standard manifolds on my truck, I was able to salvage the Flowmaster mufflers which I believe to be the standard 40 series. These sounded nice enough on it, however, having the tail pipes rotted away horribly made for some interesting noises. It will be interesting to hear the truck with a complete exhaust system under it again.

I had been told that I could use headers from a 70 Chevelle (hey, I have a set of those) on my K5. Well, they probably would work perfectly fine with a 2wd or a 4wd with a suspension lift, but not on my stock suspension truck. The passenger side header was way too close to the front drive shaft for comfort. I jacked up the front passenger corner until I just started to lift the passenger rear and it still did not hit, but I was still at least a 1/2" from the bump stops on the front suspension. So that was a no go. The driver side header was quite close to the oil filter which was likely from that header hitting the road when on my Chevelle.

So after striking out with the headers and already having the Hooker 2.25" mandrel bent dual exhaust system (16528HKR) on the way here, I opted for the Hooker Competition Headers (2453HKR black high temp paint) which I was able to order next day air from Amazon for $146 total to my door! I could not mess with my old headers for that kind of money!

Tomorrow I will have some pictures up of the header clearance with the old 70 Chevelle headers as well as some pictures of the dry fit exhaust system that will be installed. I still have to determine how best to route the passenger side as it looks like the kit is made up to route it under the transfer case cross member which I am not liking too much, but hopefully it will work equally as well routed over the transfer case, keeping everything tucked nicely in between the frame.

Again, pics to follow!