My 70' K5 Blazer build up

[dorton]

I posted a thread recently about possibly building up a project we've had for quite a while. Here is the thread where I was curious, and posted about possible
powertrain combo's.
http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...on-PowerPlant-for-possible-Project?highlight=

The Project is going to be a 1970 Chevy Blazer, starting off with a carb'd 307, and a 3 speed auto tranny.

It has been sitting, collecting dust for the last 10 or so years.

Priority #1: Getting it running.....Done.

I'm going to drive it home from tonight (about 30 miles), and then hopefully to my work (toyota dealership service dept about and hour away) tomorrow.

Not sure exactly what all I want to do to it yet, but I've got a suspicion I can probably get some help around here with that :sombrero:

 

[1leglance]

SWWWWEEEETTTT
Even though I have a 70 Burb and a 72 Truck I gotta say I love the Blazers....and with yours having the full removable top it is even better.

Pretty sure I mentioned it in the other thread but 67-72chevytrucks.com THE resource...not so much for the travel thing but for fixing it up.

Looking forward to what you do.

 

[redthies]

How can something that beautiful have sat unused for 10 years???? It is AWESOME! Just do something cool, if you aren't going to keep it all original. Cummins, 5.3/6.0 liter, what ever you decide, it will be pretty sweet!

 

[Rot Box]

:Wow1:......:drool: Wow. Nice rig! Can't wait to see what you do with it.

 

[Billhilly]

Great to see another 67-72 Chevy truck on here! Well, Blazer, but you know what I mean. Looks good. To get discs up front, some say the easiest thing to do is swap in a '73 and up front end. Quick, tidy and easier to get parts. Rear end, Dana 60 with disc conversion? Kits to convert to discs are reasonably common. Listen to Larry regarding engine swaps (your other thread). Yeah diesels are cool, but you can get gas motors for so cheap, back on the road in no time.
Oh, and find one of the campers like in the photo. Get another cap and cut the back piece off it, camper on the top, and away you go. This combo would have to be my favourite 'smallish' rig period (well, a tie with Larry's rig I guess!). Tidy, modernise the interior. Crawl though into cab, very cool rig. Have fun!

 

[Sean VHA #60013]

dorton, This is awsome - I love to see old iron recycled and put to such excellent use! Keep us posted :coffeedrink:

I would recommend going with a solid v8 gas powertrain, what with the inexpensive nature of older v8s, their simplicity, and ease of repair in the us :ylsmoke:

 

[Balzer]

WOW that thing is clean! I would daily drive it just the way it is!

 

[Larry]

WOW Dorton, that K5 is CLLLEAN! The 307 and engine bay look great as well as the York compressor. You might even be able to keep that York around with a later model engine swap to use as an on board air compressor if you want. As Balzer stated, you could probably rock and roll just fine with what you have as is sits today.

Like Billhilly said, first order of business is would be to get that front end changed to disk brakes. Even if you do an engine swap you got to be able to stop it somehow. Heck, even with a 307 you still need to be able to stop and stop straight without worring which way it will swerve when you step on the brakes. Doing a front front axle swap would be a top of my list as that is the quick way to get front disks. A 71-78 Dana 44 with front disks would fit the bill nicely and they are pretty easy to find for cheap compared to the overhyped D60.

I had a ’72 K5 from 1992-1994. Figures, the only decent picture I have if it is when it had a blown out Kelley Springfield AWR tire on the side of the highway. Cameras weren’t so prevalent back then so not many pictures of it. Cool truck but it was killing a college kid with fuel costs and the normal upkeep of a 20+ year old truck. Sold it for the 90 Toyota Hilux that I told you about. Ironically, I sold the Hilux in 1996 for my K10.

I can also relate to your K5 sitting for 10 years in the garage collecting dust. I have a 1968 GMC that has been a garage squatter since 1999. This was actually my first vehicle when I turned 15 but it didn’t look like this then . Last time it was driven was the 1999 Detroit Woodward Dream Cruise. Even the tags are 1999. Somewhere along the line I totally lost interest in it but I can’t bring myself to selling it…so it just sits in the corner collecting dust..year after year. Has a bored and whored 396 now. Someday it may get one of the 8.1L's I have laying around or it just needs to go find a new home.

Looking forward to your plans with your K5. Let me know if I where I can help.

 

[dorton]

SWWWWEEEETTTT
Even though I have a 70 Burb and a 72 Truck I gotta say I love the Blazers....and with yours having the full removable top it is even better.

Pretty sure I mentioned it in the other thread but 67-72chevytrucks.com THE resource...not so much for the travel thing but for fixing it up.

Looking forward to what you do.

Thanks, I signed up over there officially yesterday. I've been searching/cruising over there for a few days.

How can something that beautiful have sat unused for 10 years???? It is AWESOME! Just do something cool, if you aren't going to keep it all original. Cummins, 5.3/6.0 liter, what ever you decide, it will be pretty sweet!

Life, and other hobbies got in the way. My wife didn't love it back when we were dating because she is short. She claims to be 5ft, but I'm calling BS on that. I think she's squeezing in an extra 3-4" or so.

At this point, I want to do the 5.3/6.0 swap, but I've been offered a really good deal on a 350ci GM, complete still in the box. Thats really tempting, as it would back on the road in next to no time. If I go that route, I'm still going to be carb'd. It's fine here (900ft elevation) but what i'm curious about, is how will it run at 8,9,10k ft if I stay carb'd. I've ran a stand alone fuel management system in the past on a little hot rod car I used to have, but never done much tuning on the old fuel/air mixer on a car or truck.

Great to see another 67-72 Chevy truck on here! Well, Blazer, but you know what I mean. Looks good. To get discs up front, some say the easiest thing to do is swap in a '73 and up front end. Quick, tidy and easier to get parts. Rear end, Dana 60 with disc conversion? Kits to convert to discs are reasonably common. Listen to Larry regarding engine swaps (your other thread). Yeah diesels are cool, but you can get gas motors for so cheap, back on the road in no time.
Oh, and find one of the campers like in the photo. Get another cap and cut the back piece off it, camper on the top, and away you go. This combo would have to be my favourite 'smallish' rig period (well, a tie with Larry's rig I guess!). Tidy, modernise the interior. Crawl though into cab, very cool rig. Have fun!

Disc brakes will be at the very top of the list of improvements. That is a very cool rig! The camper looks good on there. I'm going to be height limited on mine though, the doors on my garage are 7ft.

dorton, This is awsome - I love to see old iron recycled and put to such excellent use! Keep us posted :coffeedrink:

I would recommend going with a solid v8 gas powertrain, what with the inexpensive nature of older v8s, their simplicity, and ease of repair in the us :ylsmoke:

Thanks. I pretty sure at this point I'm going to be sticking with gas on it. Even as tempting as the oil burners sound, I don't think I would get to the benfit of the diesel for a long time.

WOW Dorton, that K5 is CLLLEAN! The 307 and engine bay look great as well as the York compressor. You might even be able to keep that York around with a later model engine swap to use as an on board air compressor if you want. As Balzer stated, you could probably rock and roll just fine with what you have as is sits today.


I had a '72 K5 from 1992-1994. Figures, the only decent picture I have if it is when it had a blown out Kelley Springfield AWR tire on the side of the highway. Cameras weren't so prevalent back then so not many pictures of it. Cool truck but it was killing a college kid with fuel costs and the normal upkeep of a 20+ year old truck. Sold it for the 90 Toyota Hilux that I told you about. Ironically, I sold the Hilux in 1996 for my K10.

I can also relate to your K5 sitting for 10 years in the garage collecting dust. I have a 1968 GMC that has been a garage squatter since 1999. This was actually my first vehicle when I turned 15 but it didn't look like this then . Last time it was driven was the 1999 Detroit Woodward Dream Cruise. Even the tags are 1999. Somewhere along the line I totally lost interest in it but I can't bring myself to selling it…so it just sits in the corner collecting dust..year after year. Has a bored and whored 396 now. Someday it may get one of the 8.1L's I have laying around or it just needs to go find a new home.

Looking forward to your plans with your K5. Let me know if I where I can help.

Thanks. I'm looking forward to messing with it. I'm sure i'll have a ton of questions. There have been a few vehicles i've gotten rid of that I wish i'd taken the time to snap a couple more photos of.

That 68' is sharp, it deserves some sunshine, and fresh air too.

 

[dorton]

PS. It got a about 10.5mpg thus far, and made the 1.5 hr cruise just fine


******Didn't mean to double post********

 

[redthies]

You can triple post if you like. I think the 5.3/6.0 is a great option, but if you go the 350 route, it stays a bit more " original", as I'm fairly sure (not a Chevy guru) they would have offered the 350 in Blazers of that era. You can always add injection later if you find you need or want it at elevation. If most of your driving and camping is at around tobacco town elevation, you might not need to rush into that.

 

[Cody1771]

imo save yourself the time and effort and switch to 8 bolt wheels right now, if you want to do it cheaper get a 72+ 3/4 ton 10 bolt front end with the 8 bolt hubs, shouldnt be more than $100 for the axle, they are a dime a dozen and just about every wrecker has some. if you want to upgrade and get something stronger down the road you can go D60 without having to worry about wheel swaps. the 2nd reason to upgrade to 8 bolt hubs is you can get a 14 bolt rear end, they are BULLET PROOF, go for about $100 at wreckers and have a rediculous amount of aftermarket upgrades, lockers and gears are cheap for them as well. 4.10's will be plenty unless you are planning on going above 35" tires, i was running 37"s on 3.73 gears and didnt have any issues other than the speedo being all but useless. go 4.88 if you are going 35 or bigger, they can fit 35's very easy. i would go with a newer 350TBI if you want to keep it cheaper otherwise go the LS route, you wont regret it, ditch the 3 speed for a Turbo 700 and NP205 or 208 Tcase, the 208's have a bad wrap but i ran one for 2 years with 37's no problem and they are cheap and easy to fix, and have shift on the fly, you could do the 243 route if you found a t700 tranny with one attached. check out offroaddesigns.com they are great guys and make amazing kit. and last of all have fun with the build! they are great trucks

 

[berg]

nice Blazer.. I had a 90' K5 ( bought new) I wish I would have never sold.

will follow with interest

 

[98dango]

I also say if you ever plan to be 8 lug do it now. You can pick up 44/14 or 10/14 axle sets cheap. I sell them all the time for 350 a set with gearing of your choice. 3.08-4.56. There mostly a bolt in the rear can need modification depending on what it came out of.


A carb can handle altitude you just have to mess with it. Not hard to do but can be time consuming and frustrating. I would swap in efi its not all that hard and worth every penny and amout of time twice over.

 

[lstzephyr]

That is an awesome looking blazer! I wouldn't worry too much about the carb. I've run carbed vehicles all over the place and once you get used to them they are incredibly quick to tune. I find them easier to work on than efi but I will readily admit I'm weird especially for my generation. I grew up with efi but I prefer mechanical and carbs. Carbs just take a bit more time to learn and are a bit more frustrating at first but get past that and you have a simple,cheap, fascinating device that works reliably.

10.5mpg isn't that bad really. I would consider just driving it like it is for awhile. Since it has sat so long it seems to me that time to work on a vehicle may be an issue so just gather your parts if you like but give it a shot stock. Yeah it may be slow and whatnot but it might be pretty nice too. I've had a lot of fun and a lot of great memories in big, slow, old vehicles.