Rick,
I have a 1989 S10 Blazer. Now it has a 454 Turbo 400 Ford 9 in. with slap bars. It hooks up good now, but I am getting set to install a 488 - a lot more motor. I plan to put 36 in. ladder bars. I need to know if I need floaters on the rear housing or not. I run 12 in. tires, 4500 stall converter.

Thanks for any advice.

Bob

Bob,
I would probably stay away from 36-inch and go with a 32-inch ladder bar or so. If you are going to leave the leaf springs on the back, you will need floaters. I would recommend going to a coil over shock, though, because the cost is not that much more and it will handle more power than the leafs are capable of. They are more user friendly than the leaf springs as well.

In summary, I suggest you go with 32-inch adjustable ladder bars with a diagonal link and coil over shocks. You put a little bit more money into it, but you get more tuning options and increased safety. You will get a long life out of this setup, and you'll be able to tune it to your reaction time as well as track conditions. In the long run, I feel you would be much happier going with this setup than you would in keeping the leaf springs.

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