87 ready for surgery

[chrisd68]

Help!! new project. I have an 87 4X4 Blazer (came with a 2.8 5sp), a lt1 and the wiring harness and computer out of the doner car. I would like to keep the 5 sp any help on the wiring of this beast and and direction on the tranny would be great. I am a Dodge man by trade but I love this little toy and want to make it better. Thanks in advance for all your help

Chris

[Melonhead]

Hello Chris, and welcome to the site. You can keep A 5 speed, just not that T-5 you have. The 2.8 is a 60 degree motor vs the 90 degree motor of the V8 and 4.3 v6. The better choice for the 5 speed is a NV3500. They are found in the s series and full size trucks. Best to get the ones from the S series. The LT1 is a great engine for a swap. Things you need to know. If you plan to keep A/C, you will have to notch the Passenger franme for clearance. Best to go with headers to avoid the second notching for clearance of the passenger frame with the manifold and exhaust plumbing. The steering colum would have to be moved away from the engine if you use manifolds. The cooling is better to run a Vette radiator in the forward position to allow more room for electric fans. A standalone harness is easy to get, just pricey. The computer will need to be reprogrammed to remove VATS.

I know I just threw a lot at you, don't choke. LOL

[BigMean]

Welcome to the site Chris!

[chrisd68]

Yep I know about the tranny problem. I have a sb bell and a v8 input shaft. the NV3500 is hard to come by around here. LOL I plan to beef up the t5 as much as possible. My big thing is how big of a pain is it going to be to merge the wiring harness. do you guys think a stand alone would be better?

[Melonhead]

There are a few options for you. First, do you have the donor harness and computer? If you do, you can ether do the wiring merge yourself or have some else do it. Jimsperformance.com has a service that takes both harnesses and merges the two as one. That service was done to mine to get a 93 Typhoon gauge cluster in a 88 blazer and the 95 LT1/4l60e. This works great for me. If you could care less about the stock gauges, then the standalone harness would be better.

[Melonhead]

Other places for Stand alone harnesses.
http://larryselectricsite.com/LT1.html
http://www.painlessperformance.com/faq.php?SearchCat=LT1%20-%20LT4

[manyfire]

Welcome to the site

[harleyboy]

welcome to the site man and enjoy you project.