Seeing some cheap 5.3 trailblazers led me to the thought of how would one go about making a cheaper slower version of the trailblazer SS?
Or even a challenge type build for a 5.3 trailblazer.
Would it be as easy as hit with lowering stick and add turbo or nitrous?
Are the axles and transmission, and transfer case up to the task in the 5.3 version?
looks like there is a cheaper lowering kit
Are the 5.3's the longer wheelbase and the SS the standard?
We owned a 2wd LS for 15 years - not a bad ride. Work gave me a 4wd one that was decent too.
The rearend isn't up to the 4.2. That is why the SS got the 14-bolt. Half the reason to buy an SS is the better rearend, IMO.
The non-SS has a 10-bolt with a magnesium centersection. It isn't all that strong, the bearings spin, egg out the case, things get wonky. Sometimes I get the idea of making a really light rearend out of it, kind of like how stadium truck racers used to use magnesium-cased Dana 60s that Dodge used in some vans in the 70s. But everything has to be bolted to it, no welding, and corrosion is a big problem...
It's probably not hard to find a genuine SS with a bad engine, and swap in a 5.3 to get it going. I had a used car lot buy an SS at auction really cheap and bring it to us for a replacement engine. When we told him it'd be about $6-7k, he flipped out, because you can find "these engines" for like $300. No sir, not the TBSS engine.
Saab 9-7 is a version of the Trailblazer. They offered all the engines including the small 5 cyl but in the version labeled Aero they included a 5.3L.
Also, most Buick Rainier's had the Aluminum 5.3 V8 and were the short wheelbase version. V8 Trailblazers are long wheelbase, but make GREAT engine donors 
In reply to John Welsh :
The aero has the 6.0 ls2 and is essentially a nice tbss. The Saabs handle better than any of the other badge engineered attempts because they actually let saab engineers do more than make a front bumper. Ours was nice but gm can suck it with the afm killing the engine.
definitely not a platform I would bother with again
In reply to John Welsh :
LS2s were 6 liter, not 5.3 
Talk about a unicorn, though! Hard to find used anymore because after SAAB shut down, banks would refuse to offer loans for them, because any biody damage would result in a total because new parts were no longer available. Value tanked because the only lots that would touch them were shady buy-here-pay-heres, and their clientele are not the most diligent at keeping cars well-preserved so they fell rapidly into disrepair. It's been forever since I've seen a 9.7, and longer still since I've seen one that didn't have a rusted-out hood...
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
So the both the 4.2 and the 5.3 got the weak rear end? Only the SS got the good rear am I following that right?
My thought was could you make a 5.3 trailblazer/rainier/97x etc 3/4ths as good as a real SS. For challenge type budget?
In reply to Indy "Nub" Guy :
Is there an easy way to tell the aluminum ones apart from the others?
Do all Rainers have the LS? There's one for sale near me.
In reply to Somebeach (Forum Supporter) :
Don't quote me on this, but I think all the V8 Rainier's were the Aluminium 5.3's
In reply to vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) :
No, there were also 4.2 six cylinder Rainiers. A quick look under the hood tells all.
Here's a 4.2:
Here's a V8:
Note the V8 has the air enter front center, 6 cylinder 4.2 has the valve cover front and center.
Somebeach (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to Indy "Nub" Guy :
Is there an easy way to tell the aluminum ones apart from the others?
Magnet, or look for rust.
All V8 Raniers got aluminum 5.3s, but they aren't worth much except for re-engining a Ranier because they had crappy rods, crappy heads, and a goofy oil pan. I would buy one and use its block with a cheapo Silverado 4.8 rotating assembly and heads.
SOME 1500 HD extended cabs got the L33 (the "good" aluminum 5.3), probably to reduce weight to keep it under some limit. These also had the lightest 8-lug wheels I've ever seen. Er, carried. Local-ish yards are wise to these and are charging accordingly. These blocks can be bored out to take LS1 pistons.
ALL "LS" engines are aluminum.
ALL 6.2s are aluminum.
MOST 6 liter Escalades are aluminum.
vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) said:Do all Rainers have the LS? There's one for sale near me.
NO Raniers had LS engines. The V8 models had the LM4, in 2004 only.
LS engines were only ever installed in cars and the Trailblazer SS. Need to be careful with the terminology, a truck engine is a Gen III but is NOT an "LS" anything.
The problem is, even if you hot rod it, it's still a Trailblazer. They aren't a pleasant vehicle. There is no room under the hood, they are prone to leaking every fluid known to man, the driver's door switches catch on fire, the fuel pumps rot out and the level sensors dies frequently, and there is just a lot of asinine engineering, like running the front differential through the oil pan.
In reply to NickD :
Trailblazers have the amazing ability to require $1500-2000 in repair every three to six months.
I wouldn't call the diff routing asinine, everyone does it that way in one chassis or another. BMW, Mercedes, Nissan, Toyota, everyone who makes a longitudinal AWD vehicle that has a separate front diff probably has at least one vehicle that does it. Welcome to packaging. It's a hell of a lot better than the alternative, where the front diff needs to have its own separate mounting brackets, thus space and NVH concerns.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Trailblazer/Envoy owners are also generally a strange bunch. It'll have 200k miles on it and be a complete rotbox and you tell them it needs $3k and they buy it without blinking, even after I repeatedly stress that the vehicle isn't worth putting that money into and they'd be better off putting that $3k into purchasing a different vehicle. And they never listen. The only thing I've found that routinely kills a Trailblazer is when the 4200 needs timing chains. Something about the GM labor rate for timing chains being 34 hours tends to frighten off customers.
Replacing the steering rack on these is a special kind of hell.
In reply to NickD :
My record is 45 minutes for a Trailblazer rack I have a pair of Vise-Grips large enough to grab a socket that I slip over the mounting nut, so I don't have to take the axles out,.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Brilliant. The worst part is always the damned eyelid seals for the lines.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) said:Do all Rainers have the LS? There's one for sale near me.
NO Raniers had LS engines. The V8 models had the LM4, in 2004 only.
LS engines were only ever installed in cars and the Trailblazer SS. Need to be careful with the terminology, a truck engine is a Gen III but is NOT an "LS" anything.
Are they called vortec? Or is that yet another V8?
In reply to vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) :
"Vortec" is GM-speak for "engine put in a truck". The LM4/L33/LS2/etc are the RPO codes for the engine, that you used to be able to find on a sticker in the glovebox or in the trunk somewhere.
Starting a few years back, they got rid of the RPO sticker and just have a QR code, which is great if you have access to the GM computer network. Sucks if you are an independent and you need to know if a vehicle has one of three different suspension options, or if it has some obscure option, so you're off to Google looking up what each of those options are and how to tell them apart by looking at the parts on the car.
GM has had a history of using these internal RPO codes as badging. ZL1 engine, Z71 suspension, FE3 suspension, etc. And of course, the engine codes we know and love.
Noted on the overall crappiness of the platform.
What about using front differential transfer case and engine for a AWD swap? Seems like these are more Set up for using AWD full time than a 4WD truck.
I think I actually like the look of the Buick option better than the trailblazer or the envoy.
Are the transfer cases the same between the AWD SS and the AWD 5.3's?
Pete. (l33t FS) said:In reply to vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) :
GM has had a history of using these internal RPO codes as badging. ZL1 engine, Z71 suspension, FE3 suspension, etc. And of course, the engine codes we know and love.
I love the story of how when the H.O. 305 came out, the marketing folks asked the engineering department to assign it, in their exact words, a "sexy RPO code", in hopes it would catch on like Z28 or ZL1 or L88. The engineering folks thus gave it the RPO code of L69 as a joke.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) said:Do all Rainers have the LS? There's one for sale near me.
NO Raniers had LS engines. The V8 models had the LM4, in 2004 only.
LS engines were only ever installed in cars and the Trailblazer SS. Need to be careful with the terminology, a truck engine is a Gen III but is NOT an "LS" anything.
Oh you're one of those people, it's just semantics. For simplicity sake Gen3/4 small blocks are LS engines. The only difference between an LS6 and an L33 is the bore diameter and the camshaft. It's "LS swap" if you say "Gen3 Vortec truck engine swap" you just sound like an shiny happy person.
Somebeach (Forum Supporter) said:
Are the transfer cases the same between the AWD SS and the AWD 5.3's?
I don't know all the GM alphabet soup option codes, but the short answer is no. The SS uses a true AWD transfer case with a Torsen type center diff; while the other models have different options including a single speed full time 4wd case (computer controlled front drive engagement), and a case with selectable 2wd/4-auto/4-hi/4-low. Apparently there is another true AWD case that would work well in a swap, optional in certain Tahoe/Suburban/Yukon and Denali; but I don't know the RPO for that one off the top of my head either.
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