New Owner Advice

[White84Beginner]

Hey all,
I'm a new owner of a 1984 Blazer. I linked an image so if it doesn't work let me know. I'm looking for advice on what to do to it or what parts to use. For body work I'm looking for advice on what lift kit is the best, tires, and where to find a new rear bumper. (Mine wobbles and overall looks like garbage) I was thinking about putting a cowl hood on it, yay or neigh? Everything on it is stock except the exhaust I just had put on it. The previous owner said they had carb work done on it but I don't know if I trust his work. It just has a stock quadrojet on it and I was maybe looking to replace. I know it runs a little rich because it smokes sometimes and exhaust is really sweet smelling. Anything helps. Thanks!

 

[Bent77]

No dice on the picture.

I know you want an easy answer. But you owe it to yourself to be patient and read through a bunch of build threads in "the driveway"

Each mod works or not based on a lot of different inputs, so knowing why certain guys changed stuff and how it worked in their application will be more useful than "buy this"

Except shocks. Upgrade

 

[tRustyK5]

Good advice there, I'll second it.

My advice is put the truck to right in every way you can. Fix leaks, tune engine, change fluids, adjust doors, hunt down and fix sketchy wiring that could burn your truck to the ground. Drive it, wheel it stock. Become a K5 sponge and read the build threads here voraciously.

Take the time to diagnose problems properly rather than throw 73 new parts at something while crossing your fingers.

Enjoy it, don't rush anything. Mostly, enjoy it.

 

[Phil513]

Become a K5 sponge

Thus my user title. lol.

I read this site voraciously. The amount of knowledge here is incredible.

Vendor's websites like Off Road Design and DIY4X are good to just read through also, you can get lots off good ideas there.

First decide what the goal of the truck is, how much off roading, and what type? Lots of freeway miles, or just around town? That sort of thing.

 

[nutt7]

First and foremost, welcome! Second, figure out what you want to do in/with this rig. Do you want to crawl, mud, general off-road, stretch tires over 47" wide rims, bling, trail beater, keep it kinda classy, all looks, etc. with that being said, I couldn't agree more with @tRustyK5. Make it run well and wheel it. The trail will reveal shortcomings of the truck. From there you can research what you learned on the trail and what you might need to do first. After you do mods you can see the difference they made and what you need next. It all depends on what you want to do with it though. Read read read. Check out this thread for how lifts and tires look: https://ck5.com/forums/threads/how-will-my-k5-truck-look-with-xx-tires-on-xx-of-lift.170627/

 

[snowdriver]

Exactly what the other guys said,make it right,and keep it stock,drive it for awhile before you start modding,my blazer is basically stock,and all the things I do to it are to keep it reliable,useful,and running real good,and it is amazing how many compliments I get about driving a blazer that has never been lifted
I however do like your idea of a cowl hood,I have often considered doing this just to help with underhood temps

 

[handloader90]

I would invest in some tools if you don't have them already... angle grinder, pitman arm puller, harbor freight electric die grinder (cheap, warranty and gets all the stuff that's hard to get with an angle grinder)... so many more to list but you can't do a whole bunch if you don't habe the right tools.

I would pass on the cowl hood and put the money into maybe freshening up the engine if its kinda tired... spark plugs, wires, carb rebuild kit, dizzy cap, air cleaner, new battery cables, oil change.

I just took a 4" cowl hood off of a K5 that I just picked up, I thought it looked pretty ghey + it interferes with your view of the road.

 

[handloader90]

For a lift I will always recommend a shackle flip, Offroad Design and DIY4X both sell them, I've had both and recommend DIY4X due to the type of shackle you you use with it.

You can use your stock rear springs and net roughly 4" of lift in the rear while gaining articulation on the rear axle, you can also "flip flop" the shackle flip brackets and use to 56" springs (found in '73-'87 ('91) LWB truck and Suburbans) from the junkyard. Roughly the same amount of lift depending on the condition of the spring and you'll gain more articulation than the stock 52" springs.

I would recommend staying away from an "off the shelf" lift kit like Rough Country, Skyjacker or those kind of companies. I would definitely stay away from lift blocks too.

Up front there are so many options... lift springs, 52" spring swap, custom Alcan or Deaver springs.

The DIY4X EZ-Inch or ORD Zero Rate can help out a lot with axle placement and leveling the truck out too.

As mentioned before it's all in what you plan on using the truck for, you said the truck looks like garbage, I kinda like the "garbage" look and if its just for fun and a trail rig then who cares, I would recommend working on function before aesthetics.

 

[handloader90]

A few mods that are free would be removing all smog items if you don't have to pass emissions, remove A/C components if the A/C system is junk... every K-truck I've owned has had the A/C lines cut and crimped and none of them ever had an A/C compressor mounted.

You could cut an access hole in the rear floor just above the sending unit on the tank for easy access.

 

[handloader90]

Also, a well tuned Q-Jet will do good for you, I hear that the Holley Off-Road truck Avenger carb is good to put it take some tuning to get it running really good.

I would recommend staying away from an Edelbrock, I've had a few Edelbrock 1406's (their most popular carb) and it floods horribly on hill climbs and descents. I was going up a pretty steep grade one time and my Edelbrock flooded, the teuck turned off and I couldn't get it to fire up again and lost brake due to losing the vacuum needed from a running engine for the brakes to work and rolled down this steep ass hill right into a tree lol... got it fired back up eventually and charged the hill full throttle and some how made it all the way up.

 

[K85 Octane]

fix as much as you can using little to no money
then consider buying stuff
if it smokes or smells "sweet", I wouldn't think about buying a hood, I would think about carberation and coolant leaks

 

[82355]

Skip the hood. You could probably fit a Predator on a Super Victor, with a big air cleaner under the stock hood.

Keep the Quadrajet.

Martin