Blazer tank into K 10 ??????

[BIGCHEVYTRUCKDRIVER]

Does anyone know if I can use the pickup and sending unit out of my 79 saddle tank and put into a fuel injected blazer tank? Because I know that the fuel injected pickup is different. I also think that I may need to modify the float for the sending unit to make it read accurately. Does anyone know about that too? Any other mods needed ?

 

[Russell]

Mounting the tank and plumbing in the fuel lines is easy, took me a day at most. The part that sucks big time is setting up the filler neck to actually put fuel into the thing. I still haven't finished that part of the swap...

 

[dyeager535]

Unlikely.

The tanks have to be EXACTLY the same depth or else the fuel gauge is wrong, and you'll never pick up all the gas at best, at worst, the sender will hit the bottom of the tank before you can lock it into place(too tall).

 

[Russell]

Oh, I totally mis-read the question! Like Dorian said, you cannot drop a saddle tank sender into a K5 / Burb tank, or vice versa. Big time difference between the two.

 

[pseudomike]

I dropped a 31 gallon Blazer tank and the skid plate in my K2500. Definitely need a new sender. You could use a sender out of an older K5/Sub (86 and down). They are about $70 new at the parts store, or you could surf ebay for a better deal (if you got the 25 gal tank buy the 25 gallon sensor, 31 gallon tank so on). Aside from that IIRC I removed the rear frame cross member and replaced it with the cross member out of a Blazer (where the rear of the tank sits). I also stole the front tank cross member from the Blazer. I remember I had to do some work to make this fit because the truck frames start going into a hump before the K5 frames (at least in 8ft bed) so the tank will not sit level w/o modification. I simply cut a slot in the Blazer cross member for the bottom frame rail and slid it in. From there I built a spacer (1-1.5" can't remember) for the top side between the cross member and top frame rail. I jacked the tank in, lined it up, and tack welded the front cross member in. You may want to bolt it in but I went ahead and welded it in. For plumbing I used 5/16" steel brake line. I was able to buy it in a 25' roll which is a lot easier than 5' lengths, and it also seemed a lot more pliable. Mine has an injected tank so your plumbing may differ slightly. For the filler I used a couple small pieces of filler hose and some 1 1/2" steel exhaust tubing (the filler hose is $$$$). I have a flatbed so location wasn't that critical for me. I used the stock K5 filler neck but you could probably do some other improvising. If I were going to do it on a pickup I would probably plumb it out behind the license plate or something as with the factory bed I don't think you'll have enough room between the frame rail and bed (unless you got a body lift) to run the filler plumbing. Even if you did plumb it out the pass side you would end up having to cut the bedside and do some bodywork for a filler. I would advise against trying to run the filler all the way back to the original location...it's just too far...exhaust and what not back there?

 

[BIGCHEVYTRUCKDRIVER]

Great input thanks and I actually do have a body lift and I have about five inch piece of diamond plate to cover the gap under the tailgate I was just gonna cut a hole in that and use one of my current filler necks with some steel tubing for the filler but the most important question was answered I'll have to acquire a pickup off a carbuerated blazer for proper tank I think my new tank is a twenty something gallon.

 

[pseudomike]

Little tough to get good shots be here is the idea....

 

[BIGCHEVYTRUCKDRIVER]

Thanks for pics yeah I get the idea but the views are tough. How hard do you think it would be to re route the filler neck to the back so it came out like under the tailgate?

 

[pseudomike]

The neck points 90 degrees from the rear towards the passenger side..so you will need a 90 degree elbow of some sort, and this being the case it will probably be tricky to get it to come out directly in the center of the truck. Definitely possible if you got some room in there but will require some interesting piping.

Might add that the tank will probably be in the way of the exhaust too if you have rear exiting pipes. I used a 3" tailpipe off a suburban as it was pre-bent for the tank. Dual would require some custom work.

 

[Russell]

One major problem I've run into with my filler neck is that it has to be placed a fair bit above the opening on the tank to allow you to put any amount of volume through it without it spitting back out at you or shutting off the pump handle.

The suburbans run them just below the body line on the boxside.

 

[pseudomike]

Mine flows most of the time but could be better. I could always move the bed up an inch...not really an option with factory metal though. If he has a body lift he will probably be in good shape.