Another auto enthusiast with a Trailblazer

[rjwz28]

Hey all! Sold my 6.2 Silverado 4x4 last August to buy my high school dream car and needed to pick up another 4x4, so I bought a 2006 TB with the 4.2 and 75k miles at the beginning of the month. The Trailblazer was the logical choice for my needs, with a shorter wheelbase and lower curb weight than a Tahoe with a more attractive price of entry and nearly 300 horsepower from the inline six (I checked out a couple 5.3 rigs, but the cost:benefit ratio was off). I took it to the Imperial Sand Dunes (same formation as Glamis, but further south at an area called Buttercup) today to show a friend how to rock and roll and bashed the radiator in after I accidentally jumped a hidden whoop (forty mph winds today, they'll cover up just about anything under a foot deep) midway around a bowl, so I figured I'd join up here and start co-conspiring with other like-minded individuals. I already replaced the water pump when it grenaded the second week I owned the thing, so now I'm thinking about upgrading the radiator and installing efans. I should've done the lift, adapters, and Tahoe rolling stock like I planned to before I hit the dunes (water pump explosion changed my plans), it might've saved the radiator.. but what's done is done, right?

I'll be surfing around here to find my next course of action, but I gotta be quick since I'm relegated to riding the motorcycle everywhere until I fix the TB since the Z06 is up on jackstands for a trans rebuild ; any finger-pointing in the right direction would be great. Also, this vehicle is my budget offroad beater since the Z gets all the financial love, so to hell with a Ron Davis radiator

Anyway, looking forward to being a part of the community

[navigator]

welcome, look up bartonMD in the vendor section to order a set of radiator and oil pan skids.
Fill out your location when you get a chance as well.

[Cable810]

Welcome!! Don't know if you've had a chance to read the Welcome thread or not. viewtopic.php?f=8&t=3060

[Opeth]

Welcome!

[The Roadie]

Hi, Ryan! I'm just west of you in Vista. I'm much more into scenic rock crawling in Anza Borrego and Big Bear, but am always looking for folks to go in a group for safety in case of carnage. Note - I've got experience using efans in the desert heat and mountain freeways in the summer, and it's not good. Use your money on other things, like a PCMofNC tune. Stay in touch as you install your lift parts!

[Trail X]

Glad to have another knowledgeable and well-spoken member. Can't wait to see what you may bring to the table. Bill will be a great local resource for you. He's literally and figuratively the ORTB godfather.

The lower radiator bracket is a known weak point. Fab yourself up a radiator skid asap, or get one from MDB fab (bartonmd).

[rjwz28]

welcome, look up bartonMD in the vendor section to order a set of radiator and oil pan skids.
Fill out your location when you get a chance as well.

Unfortunately, shipping costs from the northeast to the southwest negate the advantages of purchasing from bartonMD, so I'll be looking to have something fabbed up here or have a buddy assist with that task
Fixed the location. I thought the location I put down when I registered would suffice... oh well

Welcome!! Don't know if you've had a chance to read the Welcome thread or not. viewtopic.php?f=8&t=3060

Yup it basically said "hey, if you've never been on a forum before, here's how not to piss off everybody else here"

Welcome!

Thank you!

Hi, Ryan! I'm just west of you in Vista. I'm much more into scenic rock crawling in Anza Borrego and Big Bear, but am always looking for folks to go in a group for safety in case of carnage. Note - I've got experience using efans in the desert heat and mountain freeways in the summer, and it's not good. Use your money on other things, like a PCMofNC tune. Stay in touch as you install your lift parts!

Thanks! I do all sorts of offroading at work and while off (Picacho Peak, Fortuna Mine, Kofa Wildlife Refuge, Camino del Diablo, Imperial Sand Dunes, Bear Canyon, etc), but the dunes take a particular degree of experience and finesse that allow me to show other people who might not otherwise have the opportunity to see what it's like out there... this is the first time I've injured a non-ATV vehicle out there in four years of HEAVY use in the dunes, and I'd be glad to guide ORTB run through the dunes once I'm back together again. For the most part, as long as you go slow, most rocky trails are very forgiving; however, the dunes don't allow such a high margin of error since there are lots of times you CANNOT go slow. I would definitely be down to hit some trails and whatnot at some point as well.

I was hoping to use efans to provide room for a better radiator and prevent me from having the parasitic drag and strain directly on my water pump... That's not what I wanted to hear. I was looking to hit up PCM for their efans kit and adapt a 2" radiator to the TB. Any particular reason why not? I put my 2011 6.2 Silverado through this same hell (120° summers ) with the factory efans and had no issues whatsoever.

As far as the tuning goes, Yuma is pretty far from competent tuning shops (2.5 to 3 hours to Phoenix) so I have HPTuners as well as Greg Banish's first book and DVD and I plan to tune it myself

My lift plan is simple: Liftmeister 2.5" kit with 1.25 (or 1.5" since they are more common, as long as the fenders don't become a clearance issue then) 6x5-6x5.5 adapters and OEM Silverado/Tahoe 17s wrapped in the factory 265/70-17s

Glad to have another knowledgeable and well-spoken member. Can't wait to see what you may bring to the table. Bill will be a great local resource for you. He's literally and figuratively the ORTB godfather.

The lower radiator bracket is a known weak point. Fab yourself up a radiator skid asap, or get one from MDB fab (bartonmd).

Thank you! I will be keeping pretty simple, but as somebody who is an auto enthusiast in general and offroads on a daily basis, I hope I can contribute a great deal here. Before I moved here I was wheeling a 96 XJ (Cherokee) 4.0 on 31s in the Michigan snow, so I am not just limited to sand and rocks either It also might prove helpful to have another guy who is willing to put a TB to work close by.

Yeah, I found out about the radiator weak point already I hope to have a skidplate there before I go play again, and will look into recovery hooks for the front since mine doesn't have any. Apart from the items I've already listed and either a G80 swap or other traction device install, I really don't have any other plans for the rig.

[NC_IslandRunner]

Welcome!

[Diacom]

I was hoping to use efans to provide room for a better radiator and prevent me from having the parasitic drag and strain directly on my water pump... That's not what I wanted to hear. I was looking to hit up PCM for their efans kit and adapt a 2" radiator to the TB. Any particular reason why not? I put my 2011 6.2 Silverado through this same hell (120° summers ) with the factory efans and had no issues whatsoever.

Welcome.

The issue we have is the radiator does not provide sufficient cooling with an Efan setup. To compensate for less than optimal cooling, we are saddled with a ridiculously large mechanical fan to make up the difference. When you combine our smallish radiator and a set of Efans, your cooling needs fall short of what is required for our platform. Short of going with a higher efficiency radiator in combination with an Efan set up, your sort of "SOL" on having no heating issues if you try and play as Bill describes.

[rjwz28]

I was hoping to use efans to provide room for a better radiator and prevent me from having the parasitic drag and strain directly on my water pump... That's not what I wanted to hear. I was looking to hit up PCM for their efans kit and adapt a 2" radiator to the TB. Any particular reason why not? I put my 2011 6.2 Silverado through this same hell (120° summers ) with the factory efans and had no issues whatsoever.

Welcome.

The issue we have is the radiator does not provide sufficient cooling with an Efan setup. To compensate for less than optimal cooling, we are saddled with a ridiculously large mechanical fan to make up the difference. When you combine our smallish radiator and a set of Efans, your cooling needs fall short of what is required for our platform. Short of going with a higher efficiency radiator in combination with an Efan set up, your sort of "SOL" on having no heating issues if you try and play as Bill describes.

I understand that. Since my factory radiator is bashed in anyway, I was thinking that now would be the time to swap out that POS for something thicker in combo with efans... I need to make a decision quick, though, since my rig is out of commission until that point. I had been considering something along these lines:

viewtopic.php?f=27&t=4007