cage. must. have. full 8+ pt cage. MUST!which will definitly slow down your 'body swap' lolhave you decided on ride height for it eventually?i think that will determine whether or not you wanna bother with custom steering.as for suspension... just do it now loli can help out with some machining if need be over the summer. bushings, etc. (no job) lol
I'm going with 18's for the simple reason of brakes. The C6 Z51 brakes will fit under them. Don't get me wrong, big rims look good but tires weigh less then wheels. Pick the tire sizes you want before you start working on the frame this way you will know if it has to be narrowed and the size of the notch if needed. Tire diameter is needed to figure out what drop you need to get the ride height you want. X2 for the cage even if you have to wait just because it all has to come apart to install a cage.
think about tire availability too. 18s probably have the best selection / price. but with a smaller tire overall diameter, the less unsprung, rotating mass you have, not to mention more 'torque' at the contact patch. its about time you decide how deep you wanna dive the blazer into 'race' territory and how much you would sacrifice for aesthetics
No matter what size shoe combo you decide on, ya might as well design some adjustabilty into your geometry anyway. With Triaged's calculator you can get an idea of what your dealing with for tires of different diameters. I personally ran #'s for tires from 24" to 27" in diameter and located mounting points for those different rolling radiuses. Plus you might just decide to change your ride height, AS, Rollsteer, SVSA or whatever after you seat dyno the truck. Nice to have options when you make compromises & not be locked into a set ride height, single mounting point or certain tire size, especially considering a future V8 swap & the additional traction issues you might encounter w/ the added torque.
I'm going with 18's for the simple reason of brakes. The C6 Z51 brakes will fit under them. Don't get me wrong, big rims look good but tires weigh less then wheels. Pick the tire sizes you want before you start working on the frame this way you will know if it has to be narrowed and the size of the notch if needed. Tire diameter is needed to figure out what drop you need to get the ride height you want.X2 for the cage even if you have to wait just because it all has to come apart to install a cage.
A 5.3 built right is nothing to sneeze at. Look at the power the "tuners" are putting down. Now google "Parish Silveraldo". As far as width I went balls out and chose a 13" rim because I like overkill. A 295 is enough, a 315 fits most second gens fine. What do you want? You know about the 9" rim up front so.....
335's fit a 10-13 rim so your fine. The measurements, 335/30/18, I came up with require the frame to be narrowed 1.5 inches per side on a second gen pick up without cutting the fender lip. Not sure what the Blazer is but the PU is 40 1/8'. I pulled it in ti 36" just to have a little room to work with.
can you fit a 295 or 315 with a 6in drop on a 2nd gen...
stock frame yes 295, 315 if you dont plan on going hard around turns.
25.6 something dia for 275/40/17s watch out for inner fender clearance although i think you already planned on no inners. also, you may run into the same issue as me with the alignment not going negative enough. if so, well. time to make new arms lol
looks good, interesting slots.lose that dust shield!