Well spent most of the weekend working on the shop, installing some new lights and a parts washers, got a new heater setup ect ect. Did take a few minutes this afternoon and finished cutting the y pipe loose and removed the exhaust manifolds and popped the heads off, nothing to alarming inside the cylinders though I didn't inspect to long, biggest thing I saw was a lot of black carbon build up on everything. I'm not to familiar with gas overhauls, I've been a diesel technician, but this motor reminds of a diesel with all the carbon, I'm guessing that's due to the passing oil

I think I'm just going to run this cam I got. I ordered new lifters and push tubes, the head studs came today, shove it all together and see how she runs

 

Well lifters and pushrods showed up today, unfortunately they sent flat lifters instead of roller so have to get those sent back and correct ones coming

A difficult decision was made today, gonna have to pass on the turbos for the time being, still hope to in the future but at this point I just want to get this thing back together and my weekend shop project went a little over budget. I still went ahead and ordered the pacesetter ceramic coated long tube headers and off-road y pipe. Still gotta decide on what I want to do for there rest of exhaust

Im thinking either a Y exit, or I've contemplated some kind of side pipe, although with ordering the off road Y pipe that's a little off the books now, originally coming out of each header to a side pipe would've been ok, see what happens

 

Got some goodies in the mail today, heads valve covers and harmonic balancer

Dogs got into the head boxes and ripped the plastic and we got a down pour so stripped em open blew em of and oiled em hopefully they don't



get rusty

 

Why were the dogs so interested in the heads? Did the heads ship with mice as well? Or are your dogs just gearheads?

 

Haha no I don't think so sadly, they just tend to naw on anything that's soft and doesn't run away, needless to say they got a nice vocabulary last night

 

So headers and offroad pipe showed up last night ordered stainless stage 8 locking bolts, dropped rims off to get polished up and mirrored out, dropped the new heads off to get the upgrade springs done and get a quick run over make sure everything is good. Everything kind sitting in a stall now waiting for parts to get back, my machine shop mentioned theres another one in the area that has a tool that can spec out the cam for me, so I think Im going to run it over there just to kinda know for sure what im dealing with

 

Time to move down the line and think about other things. Trucks gonna get all new brakes, was thinking rear disc conversion, did 3rd gen 9.25s have disc? otherwise ill have to source a kit out, also looking and rear locker, an electric locker would be awesome but not sure about the price tag just yet, maybe wait down the road, i have had a lock right in the past no real major complaints with it, are all 9.25s 31 spline? i keep seeing 8.25 at 29 spline and 9.25 and 31 spline so just wanted to double check or if i should open mine up and make sure

 

stage 8 header bolts showed up, along with the FF dynamics electric fan setup

also stumbled on an 02 rear axle with disc brakes, debating it instead of swapping my axle for disc, but I'm concerned about wheel size, not sure even 16s fit a on an 02 axle much less 15s. Being Christmas weekend I didn't look into it much next week ill go get some measurements and see what we're working with. I think the rear disc conversion is my best possibility for fitting 15s, even that Im wondering about, also not to mention the 3rd gen axle is 3.92s which i wouldnt have an issue with but then id have to swap gears in my front or buy a 3.92 front, and run into the same issue about fitting wheels on a newer 2nd gen axle

 

Make sure the inner wheel will clear the caliper. Back around 1980 or so, I got a Blazer in the yard that they thought the front end locked up. The owners pulled the drive train and sold it to use as scrap. When I pulled the front end, to dismantle it I needed to remove the wheels. I ended up wailing away with a sledge hammer. They were stuck on TIGHT! When I finally got them off, the front end worked just fine. They had used regular wheels, not disc brake wheels. Today, all wheels have clearance for a caliper. The older wheels had a more shallow curve that wouldn't clear the caliper. They junked a nice vehicle because of the wrong wheel.

15 inch tires are still available but I think 17 would be easier to source. Also more likely to clear the caliper.

 

I do know the smallest wheel that came on a 3rd gen was 17s. A good reason to upgrade to 17s is cheaper tires and availability.