Randall Lowe » Uncategorized

A Blazer Amazer

Randall — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 05:57:39 +0000

I got a new (very old) Blazer back on July 4th of this year, and after messing with the small-block chevy for a few months now – trying to get a little more mileage out of it, a little better performance, a little better reliability, I’m through. I had forgotten why I like fuel-injected engines and why I work with primarily LS1 engines. So, as a result, I’m now trying to track down an LS or LQ family engine to install in the Blazer. My current small-block gets about 7 MPG (if I spend most of the time going on flat ground). With the fuel-injected engine, I should be able to at a minimum double the economy, and maybe a little better. Of course, adding an overdrive transmission will help this immensely. As soon as I get the engine (and hopefully some help from kickstarter.com), I can start this project and begin the process of documenting what I’ve made, and keep everyone updated. It would be great if I could help other people also get their older trucks up and running with newer engines, and maybe shake some of the fear that older car enthusiasts have about electronically controlled engines. They aren’t really as scary as you might think.

More updates

Randall — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:32:34 +0000

So it’s been a while since my last update, but this one should be good.

We scrapped the narrowed C4 idea because… well, it just wasn’t working out that well. It was going to cost us about $500 to get the thing narrowed, which was unacceptable. Instead, we went out and found an XJ6 Jaguar rear-end. We removed the cage, narrowed the drive shafts and the lower control arms, by 5″ on each side, and what do you know? $200 later, the issue was solved. We have the IRS in place, and are now working on the front end.

To do this, we’ve gone back and Zee’d the front frame rails upwards by about 4 1/2″ at a point around 20″ forward from the middle x-member. The front x-member now has a 4″ drop on a 60 degree angle towards the middle, and crosses at the centerline of the front wheels. The center line of the spindle is supposed to sit 3/8″ up from the bottom of the frame rail. This will give up the appropriate ride height and lower control arm clearance during upward wheel motion.

By the way, thank you Welder Series for posting your instructions up to the web, it would have really been difficult to figure this out without those instructions.

NOW, we have a new problem. It appears as though the LS1 is a 27″ tall motor. That’s fine for most cars, but the Devin only has 20 inches of vertical room, accommodating 7″ of ground clearance. In all reality, that means we have zero clearance with the engine in. WTF!?

We’re going to try to find an engine cheap that we can prototype around, cause this may require a lot of custom fiberglass work in order to get it to fit, which doesn’t thrill me. I’ll post back with more details as we are able to figure this out, but it has suddenly become the new 800 lb. gorilla in the garage.

Devin SS Progress

Randall — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:00:29 +0000

We’ve made a lot of progress on the Devin this weekend. We narrowed the C4 rear-end by 16 inches! That thing looks like a dragster now, and looks really mean… from the back. We are also in the process of cutting the rear frame rails to support the rear-end. Next on the list, we need to get two new half-shafts made that are 8 inches long (not including the end caps). This will give us enough suspension travel (should be around 6.33 inches), and width on the rear-end to fit the car properly. Once I get back to an ipod cable, I’ll be uploading some videos I took documenting what we’ve done. All-in-all, it’s a lot of work, but it’s not too difficult. The most challenging part so far has been making sure that we are considering all possible scenarios.

Check back later this evening for my vids.

Jaguar Rear-end

Randall — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:21:29 +0000

I’m looking for an old Jaguar IRS with an overall measurement of about 50″. If someone can source one for me on the cheap (<$500), please contact me cause I’m interested.

My Weekend Involved…

Randall — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 07:21:15 +0000

A) Cleaning the garage?

B) Laying around being lazy until 11 AM?

C) Doing burnouts in the Mustang?

Answer: