72 Blazer Fremont Skunk Works vehicle??

[Dust Bunny Queen]

Hi all. First time post.

6 years ago I bought this blazer, shown in my avatar. 72 K5 CST, from the second owner. The first owner who was a friend of the guy we bought it from told us it was manufactured in the Fremont Ca plant and that the original owner worked at the factory. I was in love with this Blazer and finally wheedled the guy into selling it to me.

SO.....last year we had a cracked manifold and our friend who is a retired GM master mechanic and does shade tree mechanicing ordered the appropriate part manifold before he started work on the engine. However, the bolt pattern didn't match and thinking that the NAPA (No Auto Parts Anytime) guys ordered the wrong thing, took the old manifold in and LO and BEHOLD it is a Corvette engine manifold. And....we have a Corvette engine in our Blazer. Wha????

Getting back to our seller he assures us that neither he or his friend, the original owner who is now deceased, had EVER changed out the engine and that was as it came from the factory. We are going to need to pull the engine to get a good look at the block ID.

BUT....he suggested that perhaps his friend who worked at the factory had the Blazer modified at the assembly line by himself and his friends. Skunk works? We do know that the Blazer runs like a sun of a gun down the freeway and has power to spare. Also my husband thinks that the gear ratio has been altered to 'give it legs'. Now I'm not a mechanic....just a gal who loves her Blazer, and don't know all that much about the technical details. When he gets home from work, I'll ask him to give the details. We did replace the transmission and just recently changed the wheels and rear shocks to level out the look.

How can we tell if the engine was factory installed? I have a photo of the original order sheet.


Here's another shot of the side.



http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f2...ps3f37ed16.jpg