Blazing a New LS Trail

A couple of decades ago, the only way to put stupid power in a small truck was with one of these a

blown 408 small block Chevy pumped out 786 horsepower.

This 1988 S 10 only came with a small four cylinder or V6 and stuffing something like this in meant lots of modification money and time

the end result not very drivable more in tune for the strip. Well, times have changed

the introduction of the Ls made it possible to gain a huge amount of power with very little weight gain.

The versions require minimum modification

and a much smaller parts list.

Not to mention the list of benefits, better mileage, better emissions, more reliability owe it a whole lot of power. Here's some killer trucks that were built by a friend of ours, Scott Hamlin. His work can be seen in sport truck magazine where 08 Colorado Ss was featured.

His conversion are known for being super clean and appearing like they came from the factory. This way,

he even does the unthinkable swapping an LS one into a GEO tracker.

We asked him to join us on today's project, which is

putting this used 5.3 L Ls that was bought for $800 into this

Rick Bacon's 1998 Blazer. Not a fitting ride for the arsonist.

In fact, he bought the engine. I was going to do the swap himself, but we owed him a favor and it gives us chance to work on something a little different

first SUV, in the shop and we're doing an LS swap in it. It's yours. Tell me a little about

it. Well, it's a 1998 blazer and it's been a great little family truck store. It's got a 4.3 in it, but it's got almost 200,000 miles on it now. She's getting a little tired. Yeah. Well, I figure if the motor's getting worn out, I ain't putting the time and money into putting another 4.3 into that thing. You know, if you're gonna swap it out, you gotta go bigger. Um, you gotta make me one deal. What's that? When we get done? Putting the 53, the wheels gotta go.

Come on. Now. You hating on the rallies, man. I ain't hating on the rallies. They gotta go. I'm doing worse than hating.

Let me explain.

It's not the look of the wheels. It's the fact that they're made of steel

and notorious for getting bent.

You see what I mean?

And just for fun, we're gonna see how much power Rick's parts hauler. Can wobble down the pavement.

Oh, man. A whopping 140 horsepower. Let's get this thing out of here.

But now it's time to put this thing where it belongs over on the left.

Mike can start thrashing away, pulling parts out for the engine and trans removal.

We lucked up by getting Scott to pitch in on this LS swap.

He's been through the drill before with just about every application you can imagine. Of course, it always starts with the tear down. The stock harness is no good to us since uh we're going the blazer. There's a company out there that actually makes a direct snap in

harness to make this Blazer conversion go.

That company called current performance wiring makes these for all types of conversions. This one's about 800 bucks.

Everything is OEM connection, just plug it in, turn the key, start it up and dried it.

This engine came out of a pool size truck requiring more conversion than if it came from a car.

All the bones of this long block are completely different than the Camaro.

Therefore, we're gonna change all of that by putting the Camaro intake on it. Corvette Accessory Drive.

We've got some headers for it by looking at the engine. You'll think it came out of Corvette when it's all said and done.

Got it without breaking. We're throwing another curve at him today.

He's never put an LS in a four wheel drive blazer before. There have been people who claim they've done this to a four wheel drive and claim, hey, you know, it's

no problem. Easy fix, blah, blah, blah. But hey, we know better than that.

It's the added components to this drive train that could hurt us.

Plus we're not confident that old four L 60 tranny can handle the power we're gonna feed it.

Ok. Never used a tire for a tranny stand.

We got some outside help for that too.

I believe it's gonna work out pretty good

for a makeshift stand. Andy Mays is a die hard

Mopar guy and drag racer, but he's also a whiz with transmissions no matter what they're behind,

he's tearing into this tranny like a chicken plucker on the assembly line.

Glad he's not a heart surgeon. They look good.

You gotta look for a lot of things that break sometimes. Um You know, as we're taking this apart, you know, I'm looking at the clutches, I'm looking at this, I'm gonna look at this brag and you know, we're gonna look at a lot of different things,

but as far as uh first impression

so far, so good

and we can say the same for our 4.3 removal. Sure. You got everything

I hope with some loving care

and some finesse

is that you d

look at that.

All of our tear down for this project is done

and the real challenge has just begun, might go get Rick Timms Blazers ready.

We're back with our LS conversion. Rick's Blazer got washed while the engine got a new tray pickup and pan.

It's a stock replacement for the Camaro

and should help out by giving us additional clearance underneath. These taller custom mounts could help as well.

The,

all right. Come on back. All right. Ease down a little bit.

One more tip a bit.

Alright. Come on. Now,

those new mounts

and pan helped clear the front differential,

but that's about it,

man. The back of that think it's awful high. That's the only thing that's holding, falling backwards too.

Yeah.

Yeah, sitting against the uh ac box.

I don't like how the top of the bell housing area on the block is so high in relationship to the firewall. Yeah, I need to get this thing up in there and look at

it.

The bell housing bolts are already

look like they're too high.

See how much clearances we have

not even close.

It's nowhere close to going on.

We look to be about 2, 2.5 inches.

All right, you just saw the clearance issues we ran into. Now we got two options here and the first one is down in this box to fix it

and that's using a two inch body lift kit on the vehicle. Now, what this does is it actually spaces the body away from the chassis now that takes away from stability and drivability of the vehicle plus it'll look a little odd.

Our other option is the way we're gonna go and that's using two wheel drive L SS swap mounts on the engine and lowering it down that way. Now, that is gonna give us some clearance issues on the oil pan in the front differential, which we're just gonna notch the oil pan and re weld it up. Now, that'll give us the clearance to move it down, have the bell housing, bolt up and move forward with the swap

while Plan B gets underway on the engine.

Andy found no surprises with the four L 60.

Most parts show a little wear

but some get replaced with an upgrade check from TCI

and there's a suns,

the suns shell is one of the leading causes of failures in the four L six.

Ok.

They either strip the teeth out of them or it breaks the whole ring off of them. This is a new one

that's going back in it. It's called the Beast.

A fitting name because of the reinforced ring

compared to the stock

and these factory, he,

they simply can't compare.

It. Also uses Torrington bearings for less drag

and a wider band for more grip.

It's amazing watching Andy work. What's his secret

to me? It's a hydraulic system,

you know, and if I keep it in my head, it's just a hydraulic system.

A pump, a reservoir fluid and I try to keep it simple in my head. And it always seems to work out pretty good.

Simplicity is out the window for Mike and Scott.

Will it work? We'll find out in a minute.

Yeah,

we're back and on our second attempt to shove an Ls into a four by four Blazer.

The first try, cleared the differential, but set the engine way too high.

So was some scrap aluminum.

A tig welder

and patience. Mike and Scott are done with their oil pan modification.

Oil pan turned out pretty good.

Clears the pickup

clears the frame.

There's a lot. It clears the differential. Yes.

And we're trying it again with shorter engine mounts.

No

way off.

Maybe that 4.3 wasn't so bad after all.

Looks like a plan C is in the making.

Andy, however, is finishing up on the trans upgrades

as good as he is. He's not too proud to follow the instructions. You always make sure your balls are in the correct place.

What advice for a guy at home who wants to try to do this, bring it to me and pay me to do it

now, actually, uh, you know, maybe go to the junk yard, get a couple of these units, tear them apart. Getting familiar with them and buying a real good manual piece. I'm out of here.

There's no peace for Scott and Mike yet, but here's the plan.

Take another chunk out of the pan

before filling it in. We'll hang the engine where it needs to be and check the clearance.

All right,

you're good.

Since our motor mounts didn't work, Scott is cutting the needed 2.5 inches off the bottoms of the originals and then hangs them on the block.

It's not my first rodeo with the S series, but it is with the four wheel drive,

but I think we've got it all licked. Now,

confidence is running high.

So Mike burns up the last few pounds of Argo

to finish off the path

with the Ls back in place

and resting on what's left of the mount.

We're adding an 1800 stall TCI converter to Andy's masterpiece,

which now has plenty of clearance to bolt up in its proper place.

That's where she needs to be.

It looks like we finally found our sweet spot.

Um It's

just a matter of tweaking plenty on the firewall.

We got enough on the heater box. Oil pan looks good.

Oil pan is clearing real nice. Yeah,

at this level,

actually, Mike looks level right there.

Once everything is in the perfect spot,

simply weld the mouse to the frame

customization. You know, everyone knows customization.

You're gonna run into issues and sometimes the quick fix isn't always the best fix

is. Sometimes it's just easier to,

you know, bite the bullet, do a little fabrication in the long run. You have a better product. It'll look factory and you'll be happy with it down the road. But the good thing about it. This is my first four wheel drive and my last one.

Huh?

You're watching Horsepower for a DVD copy of this episode. Just go to Power Block tv.com and order your copy for just 595 plus shipping and handling. Start your own horsepower collection delivered right to your door. From the power block

Year one is best known for its restoration parts, parts that enthusiasts buy to bring muscle cars back to life.

You can see a lot of them at their car shows held monthly at the company headquarters.

This one held on a September Saturday special, first of all, celebrity car designer, Chip Hoose is here. He

did

a beautiful

job on this

and money raised goes to a research foundation for

Progeria, a rare genetic fatal disease that attacks Children like Sam.

Sam's parents are both doctors. So what they did, of course, the first thing is they went to the literature and they said, ok, well, what's going on, what's going on with the research

um with the progress of this disease? And unfortunately, they found out that nothing was happening

is

very dear

to

my

heart.

I

am

who had

and

you know, we didn't have

Progeria Foundation to help them.

So we've got it today

and it's amazing what you guys are doing

and thank you so much

and thank you all for being here and helping us in this rise

at

the Friday night kickoff for the Braselton bass, local citizens paid $1000 each to play poker

and other games of chance for prizes each one of you

tonight. Thank

you.

The next morning, 100 car guys had shelled out 100 bucks each to hang out with Chip

and smile for the camera.

Meanwhile, hot rodders from around the country were arriving to support a cool car show with a cost

year one. President Kevin King helped pioneer the hot rodders Children's Charities organization.

One really large event was at John Force's place and people came out and drove for that from out West just kind of blew us away. Great hospitality and the money there was the Darryl Wynn Foundation which benefits Children who need wheelchairs. And then this one here, of course, today again for the high rise Children's Charity in Georgia is gonna benefit the Progeria Research Foundation.

The event was full of cool restored and modified Chevys Mustangs and such.

But it's the oddball stuff that often gets the most attention

like this trailer. Tote No Studebaker. Now with a hemi

to helmet haul

or Jim Dorsey's hand built 1928 Ford Spectra.

It's a model eight frame, front end and rear end. It has a uh B engine which is 32 that's modified. It's got 1935 40 spoke Kelsey Hayes wheels on it

and then I hand built the stainless steel body

and uh I wanted a stainless steel car.

So

uh that's the way you get one, I guess is to build it. This is the spark control

uh like just like model a has it uh sets the timing up and down on your spark, your advance

and uh this is uh your throttle. You can,

if you're going down a straight road, you can pull it down just like cruise control.

A couple of car builders from Ottawa Canada came down in what had to be the ultimate show stopper.

A 1968 Camaro powered by a 540 cubic inch 765 horsepower engine.

Stefan and Oliver are French speaking, but car talk is kind of universal.

Yeah, it's a race car. We do lapping with the cars

at table

in Quebec Canada

and we

go to the show and he's a N driver too.

Yes.

Very, very

fast.

Of course, you don't have to spend a fortune to get attention.

Tommy Parker with the frugal route building this 71 bug.

Now with a 350 up front. No less.

He even added touches like a tilting telescoping steering wheel.

Ok. Right now it's time for what is it? All right. Here's a hint. The model year is 1966. It came with a 327 cubic inch engine

and it's not a mo

all right, time's up

the 66 A MC Ambassador 990 convertible

pretty rare piece. Uh, only one of about 1200 with this V8 motor combination and it was really just meant to be a driver, but we just had so much fun with the car. It gets a lot of attention because, uh, it's usually, what is it?

Not the first?

No, no, you're not the first. This long, long line is not for the concession stand.

You know, it's full of fans waiting for an autograph from our own Courtney Hansen.

And of course, Chip

who tirelessly gives time to support

Progeria research

that recently has revealed information that could help us all some day

and they die of heart disease at an average age of 13,

the same heart disease that you or I may be afflicted with. But in our sixties or seventies or even eighties.

So these Children have a remarkable, very unique insight. They give researchers an insight into really heart disease that affects millions of people worldwide as well as the aging process. That of course affects us. All.

Hot rodders take a lot of heat for building high horsepower gas, consuming sometimes noisy street machines.

But events like this remind you that inside every car person,

there's usually a big generous heart no matter where we go. California up north, out west south, it doesn't matter.

They always come out and they always give it's phenomenal.