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Blazer's 85 Suburban "Twinkie"

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It is street legal, under Utah's new buggy law.

My goal is to keep it looking like a Chevy Suburban, ish, no matter what I do to it.
 
a better goal would be to build it to not have it vapor lock and over heat every time you don't turn the fan on fast enough ...once you get the fuel injection installed its gonna be even worse.

build the thing so that it works and is reliable. Who gives a rip if some soccer mom in a mini van cant tell that its a suburban... No one and I mean NO ONE has looked at that truck and gone "I think its a suburban but I need to check the grill to make sure".. its like your a 60 old man trying wear skinny jeans with this grill crap...stop already

pull the whole grill off...get your bee smoker out...start it up and figure out where the air is getting stuck at...then fix it so the air can get out and doesn't pocket up like its doing now...I will bet you a front locker that those beloved fangs you cant live without are a major part of the problem.
 
Blazooki said:
a better goal would be to build it to not have it vapor lock and over heat every time you don't turn the fan on fast enough ...once you get the fuel injection installed its gonna be even worse.

build the thing so that it works and is reliable. Who gives a rip if some soccer mom in a mini van cant tell that its a suburban... No one and I mean NO ONE has looked at that truck and gone "I think its a suburban but I need to check the grill to make sure".. its like your a 60 old man trying wear skinny jeans with this grill crap...stop already

pull the whole grill off...get your bee smoker out...start it up and figure out where the air is getting stuck at...then fix it so the air can get out and doesn't pocket up like its doing now...I will bet you a front locker that those beloved fangs you cant live without are a major part of the problem.
Click to expand...

Sh!t that only his brother can say, Wow. It's okay my brother and I are the same way.:thumb:

Air flow is your issue, I would move the turn signals to below the grill, but under the headlights. Don't worry if their not really visible this whole exercise is about showing you have the right things not really having them technically correct for the new buggy law deal.

Move things out of the airflow period, I would even go so far as to remove the grill and lights completely and do some drive around testing to see if nothing in the way makes things good. With some lift and kind of open fenders etc. I wouldn't think that there is air getting trapped in the engine bay and keeping the cool air from coming into the radiator.
 
You da man Jack lol. Good idea about the bee smoker would be interesting to see. But get rid of the turn signals completely. Use little LEDs somewhere. And put smaller off road light in the head light opening.
 
By the whining that you were doing in the passenger seat about the hot air blowing on you, tells me the air isn't being stuck in the passenger compartment. :dunno:

The fangs if they do anything they keep the air going in the direction of the radiator. Or at least help pull it out of the engine compartment.

The only two things I have done to the front end is lower it. Which decreased the amount of frontal area. As well as lay the radiator down a bit.

Fans are on the radiator so air movement with them on is not an issue.

The only other thing is the lack of frontal area.

So going to move the turn signals and go with one set of head lights.

Buying a different set of head lights at this point is not an option. Also different turn signals is not an option. I have the old ones I ran before I redid the fenders. So I can use those. The turn signals all duel filament so what ever i do has to be two or another dual filament.
 
How wide is the radiator? Looks like the side tanks are about center of the headlights? Would it help to make diverters in the lower headlight holes (funneling air towards the center/radiator)?
 
Radiator is basically as wide as the grille opening. Diverters in the lower lights would work but would be a pain to make.
 
tough love....


Your missing the point, its not the lack of frontal area. The engine compartment air has no where to go once it gets around the motor. the small front just makes it worse.

The laws of physics do not lie and cannot be defied.

look at the truck from the front...the air hits those fangs like a wall...then it gets pushed out away from the engine compartment and down the side of the truck...creating a big giant dead air eddie around the engine starting behind the radiator...

the small front covered by your must have grill and the lowered hood just help to send the air out around the outside and trap any air that makes it thru in that dead spot eddie.

any air that does get thru is nice and hot as it leaves the radiator to circle around the engine with no way to get out, because the faster air flowing past the fenders traps it in there...it heats up and heats up until finally is gets too big and blows out right thru the hole in the passenger fender (the path of least resistance) and right into the passengers legs...then it repeats the process over and over.

loose the fangs, cut the fenders up high like we talked about

make a grill out of expanded metal...paint it tan...cut out a chevy emblem in the center and put two tiny headlights in the top corners. mount the turn signals on the fenders

if that doesn't fix it then drill some holes in the hood.

I would be doing all three without hesitation.

or you can keep trying to wear skinny jeans, risk frying your fuel injection once you install it and burning up your motor...not to mention if Jill ever sits in the passenger seat she will kill you the first time she gets hit with that hot air.
 
Blazooki said:
if that doesn't fix it then drill some holes in the hood.
Click to expand...

Why not start there. A reverse scoop hood would give it the release for the negative air and he can (maybe) keep his grill the way he wants.
 
So I put in another trans cooler that I had. Benefits of collecting parts for a few years. It is the same size and shape as the old one that cracked at BB.

Took the grille off so just had the headlights on it. Drove it down to the gas station to get some fuel for the lawn mower, with out any fans on and............ ran at 190 degrees the whole way. Its about a mile and a half each way was doing about 40 mph. In Moab doing that had to run the fans to keep it cool.

So next step move the turn signals and put the grille back on or what is going to be left of it and then see what it does.
 
Sounds like your on the right track.

I don't think your getting air stacking like your brother is thinking. Reason is that most aerodynamic stuff becomes an issue with speeds more than 60mph. You aren't dealing with that speed range on this as much as the trail speed up to 45mph range.

I think you just shrunk the frontal area that allowed air in to the point that you weren't getting air in front of the rad. so yo can't get air out of the back.

It's all a big air pressure game.
 
You should reinstall the factory airdam, those help force air through the grille ;)
 
Grille is basically done. Going to do some touch up paint and maybe change the color on the pieces next to the emblem.

Not sure why the turn signals are different sizes not sure what I am going to do to make it look like they are not.

It is running cool now no heating issues at all.

grill30.jpg
 
Have the second set of wires for the high beams, not sure what to do with them. Maybe some off road lights in the future.

Going to figure out a stinger or bumper of sorts for it also.

Save some money for a couple of fuel filters then start on the MPFI.
 
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