S-10 with Ford 8.8 Rear

I am starting a new project, 89 s-10 blazer that I will be swapping a 383 into.  I have learned a wealth of knowledge from s10v8.com forum, but wanted to ask the pros here as well.  I bought a ford 8.8 rear end out of a 2000 explorer 4.10 gears limited slip with disk brakes.  There is a great write up about this swap on the previous mentioned forum.  The problem is finding wheels to fit the back.  The rear is 6 inches wider than the stock s10 rear.  So the options are to get wheels with a lot of offset (probably the cheapest), norrow the axel with another donor rear end (since it is offset, you use the axel on the shorter side and cut down the tube)  this results in about 3 inches, shorten the axel on both sides, or let the wheels stick out.  I am absolutly against having the wheels stick out, i want to go with a 4 or 5 inch front and 5-6 inch rear drop. 


So what do you guys think?  I already bought the axel, $100 off craigslist, so I am going to use it.  It is much stronger than the GM 10 bolt and is supposed to be equally as strong as the GM 12 bolt.


 

I plan to run wheel vintiques solid steel wheels, 15x6 up front and 15x8 rear.  You can get the 15x8 with 5-7/8 backspacing, but I doubt that will be enough to tuck with a 5-6 inch rear drop.

Bump....

well, you seem to know the wheel you want. figure out how much narrower it needs to be from there. maybe narrow the one side. or find an 8.8 from an older ranger and swap the gears and discs to it.

http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/Axles.html   Heres the axle sizes from the different rear ends, hope that helps.

any good hot rod shop can narrow the rearend for you and mosser will make you any size axle you want.. it may cost you a little up front but you will be glad you did it. you may want a new set of wheels next year.

for all that work of narrowing it, y not get a 9 in ford with your lug pattern made ot your specs?moser could build you new axles with the chevy lug pattern and have a machine shop pop new holes or elongagte the ones on the rotor. im sure a ranger or jeep guy would snag that rear axle up in a heart beat. its a popular swap in rangers/xjs/tjs/mjs.

I appreciate everyone's reply.  I was hoping someone on here had used this axel.  I am not going to spend a bunch of money getting this one shortened, the most I will do with this axel is shorten the longer side and lose 3 inches.    The whole reason for this build is to have a 12 second blazer for under $2k, i probably should have mentioned this up front.  I am doing it all with cash, no cc.  That was the promise I made to the ol lady...lol  I bought the blazer in decent condition (broken flywheel, 180k miles) for $200.  I bought a 383 with a TH400 from my dad for $600 and the axel with posi and 4.10 gears for $100.  That leaves me with enough $$ to get the headers, mounts, fan and hopefully enough nitrous to push me to 12.90.  This is an extremely low budget build and it is going to stay that way.  I am not going to be pushing 500 hp or shooting for 10's with this one or I would see the need for the 9 inch.  The 8.8 is as strong as a gm 12 and will handle what I am going to throw at it.  It is more of a build to see what I can do with basic bolt on parts from a junk yard.  If I dont end up meeting my goal and turn it into a real racer, then so be it.      Thanks again for the advice, James.

using a short side axle will only yield 2 inches, not 3. i tihnk finding a factory rear end with 410s and LS would work a lil better.

I totally agree.  The problem is that a 10 bolt that is the right length, with limited slip is $400-$500 and extremely hard to find.  Plus it is still weaker than the 8.8.  I believe the only vehicle that had it is a mid 90's s-10 with the CPI motor and manual tranny.  I had a 94 cpi with auto and it was a one wheel wonder.  Again, this basically a junk yard build to spank the local stangs and imports.  I have a 49 chevy truck that is going to get all the money spent and trick parts put on it.

  http://www.knant.com/axleswap/index.htm   This is the link to the write up.  It show pictures of how far the wheels stick out and he doesnt have a lot of backspacing.  Hopefully i can get the axel in this weekend and get some good measurements.  I am still hopeful that I can make it work with 5-7/8 backspacing.  If not, those 2 inches might just get me there.  In the end, if it is at least flush with rear fenders, I will just not lower it as much and be very happy.    James, thanks again for the advice.