I recently moved to cincinnati from Goldsboro NC, where I spent 9 years enlisted in the USAF. I bought my ex wifes 4.3l 97 blazer in early may for $1000. She had owned this vehicle for 6 years. The first year it had major problems with overheating. I think it had something to do with corrosion in the coolant system. After half a dozen flushes a thermostat, fan clutch, radiator and new hoses it ran fine.

Three hours into my trip from NC to Ohio the engine developed a knock and threw a rod in the span of about 60 seconds. I had to rent a uhaul and trailer to tow it to my shop. My boss was nice enough to let me store it in the parking lot while I got together the cash to get it fixed.

From the start I figured I would do the engine swap myself. So I called a few local salvage yards and had them look out for a decent engine with average miles. I got lucky, after a few weeks I got a call back. They had found a 98 bravada totaled with all the damage to the left rear of the car. It had 110K on it.

I read quite a few threads here to figure out the tips on pulling the engine. I ended up lifting the body to get at the upper bell housing bolts. Next week I plan on getting this thing back together so I can finally start driving it lol. Ive found this site an invaluable resource when it comes to maintenance and repair on this vehicle.

Just wanted to say thanks for that.

 

Welcome! from down under, any pic's?
Hope the install goes well.

 

Welcome from New Zealand.

 

Welcome!

 

Welcome! Your right, this IS a great forum!

 

Since this is the first engine swap that I have ever done I know things in the bay are not at all neat. I tried to clean up the area as best I could with some simple green and a 2 gallon sprayer. Im waiting on a set of mounts but after that the new engine will be going in sometime this week.

It wasnt hard to figure out what was wrong with the engine lol see for yourself.

 

Welcome from up North!

 

Welcome!

 

welcome! hope your swap goes well!