I'm active on coloradok5.com and have read numerious accounts about folks with the M1009 CUCV Military blazers that keep them stock and but swap in a 700r4 over drive trans and set the tire diameter and gearing to equal 1900 rpm for whatever speed they typically drive and 28 seems to be the magic number. The military blazers were 15 more horsepower than the regular diesel blazers and that helps. They still sell regularly for $1000-2000 on the govt auction sites, but you have lots of paperwork, have a limited window when you can pick up the vehicle, can't work on it in the military lot, and never really know what you're getting into. In most parts of the country you can find folks that buy them as a hobby, have their own stock of spare parts, fix them up and make them driveable, then sell them for $2000-3000. That's the way to go, pay a little bit more but then know what your getting. Their on ebay and your local craigslist regularly, as I think more about this you can get running 6.2 diesels locally for $400 - $600 all the time, drop one of those in with the overdrive trans and mabye a modern transfer case out of a suburban into your blazer and enjoy. After having spent some time disassembling my chalet camper unit (now for sale as a whole or parts) I think it would be easier to buy a used diesel truck or suburban (diesel 2wd burbs are practially free) and swap the drive train in, rather than trying to transfer the camper to the other blazer. A few guys that know old chevy's could do the drivetrain swap in a weekend, or a week at most. As far as gas to diesel all you have to do is drop the tank, blow it and the lines out with compressed air, install a pair of inline fuel filters before the motor, and then about 3 wires and that's it. Since that body style of blazer had diesels in them you can buy motor mounts at any auto parts store and the transmissions bolt up the same, or just use them from the donor vehicle. Yeah, it would be pretty easy, I'd keep the chalet and do a diesel conversion, you could get it down for $1500-$2000 and though the camper is aerodynamically challenged could probably get in the low 20's easily instead of 9 with the gas motor.
I think you're the first V-10 SD to chime in, how do you like it? If you're getting 10 mpg loaded I guess you aren't as far off the diesel numbers as I thought you'd be. We did some really cool supercharges for a company putting the V-10s into cop cars and running them on natural gas when I was at Magnuson. Unfortunately the conversion never took off. It was a neat set up though!
