Yeah I tune for a living in Oregon and with this crap weather there’s not a whole lot of work to do in the off season so I get to mess with my projects. And I really enjoy the truck, it handles well, drives nice and tight and it’s really fun because it turns heads like crazy from the blower noise and blow off valve. The front definitely needs more drop for it to sit proper but I’m waiting to find a complete 2wd front brake setup so I can pick that up then order some blazer drop spindles and that will be a nice little budget brake upgrade for it. As for the radiator it is just an oem replacement from orielys, has a lifetime warranty on it though so that’s a plus. I made a dumb move on my stock radiator and didn’t mount the e fans well and one rubbed a hole in the old core, probably a good thing though because with the built in oil cooler and trans cooler it was probably a good thing to have a new one on there.

 

just getting caught up because i only found this build tonight. good stuff going on in here!

now to be fair, that blazer ain't quite indicative of the full-size NV3500. the first 2 gear ratios are a little taller in the mid-size trucks (3.49 - 2.16 vs 4.02 - 2.32). combine that with the anemic 4.3 & you've got a gutless-feeling truck after driving that LQ9 & zippy CRX around.

not sure how it'd fare with a turbo, but for N/A, i'm running the BTR 219/224 cam, and it'd be alright as an aggressive DD cam with low end for that LQ9 that's still okay with or just barely more than what you'd want for a stock converter. it's fine in my 5.3 but made me glad for my 4.30 gears when driving around town.

but the turbo will eventually eat that 4L65's lunch, so if you still want to do the stick swap, an NV4500 would be a good bet... AND you can still keep the AWD. it'd just need a 32spline input shaft swapped into the t-case. even better would be to change to the NVG149 t-case (along with swapping one front axle & reprogramming the BCM to 2wd) while you're at it so you've got a stronger, fully-mechanical AWD setup. that'd be a much better bet than running a T56 ragged trying to pull that weight and losing the front drive wheels.

the first couple year NV4500s had a 6.xx granny but you'd be looking for an 01+ version. technically, the 95-00 would work but i believe have external slave setups & non-synchronized reverse.

i was looking hard into doing a 5speed escalade until we found my wife's current H3 (which is gonna need a 5.3 quick... this 3.7's a joke).

 

I think it was really just the blazer itself I didn’t like lol. Nothing against them it just was kind of a turd all around hence the super low $1200 price the dude had it up for. When I picked up the 2.2l 5 speed s10 on the first drive I was like oh man this exactly what I was wanting out of the driving experience vs the blazer. Yes the 2.2’s make like 85hp to the tires but the truck it’s self is fun. I’m having fun with the little supercharger setup on it for the mean time but I have a buddy who is gonna gift me a free 4.8l for it and if I can find a nv3500 for it I’ll swap that in as a budget setup with room to grow down the road. As for the Escalade I don’t mind leaving it stock till I can figure out the trans situation. The more I think about it the more I’d like to keep it awd. Manual swap nv4500 awd sounds like it would be a ton of fun and super unique around my neck of the woods. Still gotta find a decent trans for not a million dollars first though lol.

a 5.3l will be sweet in that h3. They should have made more of the h3 alphas then they did. Gm seems to do that allot though. They should have also made a 5.3l Ss option for the s10’s I’m sure gm would have made like 3k or less over the 10 year span of the 2nd gen and they’d be worth gold just like the syclones.

 

can't remember the ratios or other differences, but i'm pretty sure the non-v6 S10s got the even-tinier NV1500 (or T5 in the pre-96s). just make sure you grab the Blazer/S10 version of the 3500 because the tailshaft (or tailhousing... can't remember which) is a different length than the full-size truck version.

i've still yet to find anybody who's actually done an NV4500 SUV swap with AWD... but from the research i've done, it's possible. i found where folks did stock t-case to NP149 swaps & auto to manual swaps (both 2wd & manual t-case). due to the way the BW t-cases work (using the stabilitrac [brakes] for torque vectoring), the best bet would be to do the 149 & reflash the BCM to the 2wd setup so that stabilitrac still works - just not trying to manage the AWD.

the H3 Alphas surprisingly ain't that hard to find... GM just never made them with a stick. the Aisin from the 5cyl does good to move itself, and nobody's found any better trans that'll fit. from what i've found, it's still MUCH easier to put a v8 into a stick truck than to put a manual trans in an Alpha. that said, i've found 2 or 3 with a 5.3 swap & all said it drives fine... just don't expect to hot rod it or tow anything (which the stick H3s were already terrible for anyway) but since i'll always have my own full-size truck, that's fine. probably stick with a small cam to make the wife happy & call it good... or maybe even a 4.8, since it's got 4.56 gears & gonna be revving up anyway.

 

https://www.performancetrucks.net/fo...thread-548272/

IIRC he sold it, but its out there, and this is probably worth a read if you haven't.

 

It's a rad ride that makes for a good everything hauler. The man that built it (Z286speed) did an awesome job and is a standup dude. Wish I had bought it instead of talking my buddy into it and then settling for my Tahoe.

 

wait, so you bought axekicks 2wd out of Austin, and your buddy bought z28's denali out of DC?

 

Yes we are hording all the NV4500 swapped SUVs in Florida.

 

Yes we are hording all the NV4500 swapped SUVs in Florida.

 

The tranny ordeal is basically the thing holding me back from wanting to build this truck more. Its crazy I’ve been looking for quite a few months now and almost never see any 4l80’s pop up, or I did see a blown up nv4500 local with no bell housing for $600. I think my plans have changed a little with this truck since my little S10 is meeting my fun truck need. I’m gonna plan on fixing a few small issues on the dadillac. I have almost all the turbo parts ready for this truck but I’m gonna try to sell them. If anything it will get a mild cam and some long tubes/ ory

One issue I’ve had with this truck for the last few months is a parasitic power draw, it was pretty easy to diagnose I just used a volt/ohm meter and measured for amperage acrossed the fuses. The pid/dic fuse under the hood has a 1.1 amp draw on it and from what I’ve read that’s usually something in the cluster. I have replaced a few of the stepper motors in it (fuel gauge, voltage) because they weren’t working properly. If anyone has any info or anything that could help me pinpoint how to repair the cluster to get it to quit drawing voltage that would be great. Or if its just something that needs swapped out with another cluster.

Also since this truck is just the family hauler, road trip vehicle I think it’s long over due but I’d like to figure out a way to add in Bluetooth capability to my head unit. I remember seeing a write up on a forum for how to add aux but I’ll have to look for it.