The Blaze Machine
If you didn't build it with your own hands, it's not really yours.... Tim Taylor
Here's how my truck started life.
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A mundane little grocery getter with a 2.8 liter V6, a good family car type of thing. As fate would have it, the S10 didn't stay this way for long...
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The Blazer was given to me by a total stranger who didn't want to pay to have the vehicle disposed of. A rod was thrown thru the block and the guy had no idea what to do, so I took it off his hands and had a rebuilt running 2.8 back in it for a mere $500. Several months later, the tired 700R4 transmission went and I had to put my new 2.8 in another car to get mobile again. A week later, a guy offered to trade me a working TH350 automatic transmission for the bad 700R4 tranny, combined with a 350 four bolt I had in my basement,
the stage was set....
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So I have this empty shell of a mini truck laying around, an engine and tranny downstairs....I'm thinking hmmmmmm, what if?? So I take ten days leave from work and head to the shop. Two weeks after rolling the shell into the shop the V8 powered beast emerged. Due to a lack of funds, the truck wasn't very impressive at first, although it was no slouch either. It had a stock 350, a stock tranny, stock manifolds and the stock 2.8 liter single exhaust with a Crane Fireball cam.
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Since then almost all aspects of the S10 have been performancized (is that a real word?) in one way or another. The engine got a set of Keith Black 10.3:1 pistons, MSD ignition, a Holley 700 double pumper with a Wieand X-cellerator intake, a Dyna-Gear gear drive and Pro-Form roller rockers and a Lunati Bracket Master cam. The factory iron heads have had the intake ports opened to match the gaskets and the bowls blended on the valve end. A dual electric fan handles the cooling duties. The tranny has been stuffed full of the B&M goodies, to include a transpack, a shift kit, a Torqe Master 3000 stall converter and a Megashifter. The gasses expell through a set af Headman headers followed by 2 1/4" pipes and get quieted by Hooker Maximum Flow mufflers.
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The Blazer ran super consistant 9.86-91's in the 1/8 mile at our local track the summer of 97 and would have won the points series had the computer not broke at the track during the final race. The truck had two wins and a runner up out of 5 races attended, to include a hard earned victory at the International Doorslammer Shootout at Pirmasens Raceway, Germany. Since the ported Kieth Black piston engine was installed, my Blazer hasn't been to the track, it closed. My good bud Glenn has a super fast Mustang GT that has run high 13's in El Paso, my truck ran with him up to about 100 (Not that we ever drive that fast in Germany).
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As for the styling changes, the truck had a seven color paint job, including the tailgate. There's a 2" front 3" rear drop in the suspension with Weld Pro-Stars holding onto the rolling stock. The latest change on the truck is the silver paint job.
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I spent about two weeks sanding, smoothing, prying, spraying, more sanding, more smoothing.....you get the idea. I removed the rook rack and all the chrome roof strips. Took the trim off the bumpers and filled the holes, cut the spoiler off the rear hinges and fiberglassed, patched, and filled all the holes that remained.
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The inside of the Blazer has a few improvements of it's own. There's a two inch mini tach where the shift lever used to be. A Grant GT steering wheel turns the beast left and right. Tunes are handled by a Sony CD player, Alpine EQ and a pair of Pyramid Pro 500 watt amps. The noise comes out of factory speakers in the front, Kenwood 3-way 6x9's in the middle and a band pass subwoofer box with a pair of twelve inchers in the rear. I have one amp driving high through the 6x9's and the other powering the bandpass box. Talk about rolling thunder...
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Future mods include Edelbrock Pro-Flo fuel injection, a 4" front 5" rear lowering kit, and a set of Camaro SS wheels. 17"x9.5" front and 17"x11" rear with 275/40 ZR17 and 305/40 ZR17 tires respectively. A set of 4WD S10 fender flares will make sure the tires stay tucked in legally. I'm going to lose to gear drive to help quiet it down, going for the sleeper thing now.
It's still a family car, just one with an attitude....
Jan, 2006: Thanks for all the GREAT comment on the Blazer. It's was a fun toy in it's day, especially in Germany, but it has been sold and I am now working on an 84 Regal to run on the circle track here in Tucson, AZ. A page for that is soon to follow.
Check out some other V8 S-trucks out there.
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This V8 S-series Webpage is owned by:
Jim Huff aka: Blaze Racer
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