Finally found the truck of my dreams lol, but seriously this was the first car i ever owner and have always had a love for the sport side/ reg cab s10’s. This truck isn’t going to be anything special, just a daily driver, parts getter and fuel saver. After searching for a few weeks on craigslist and offer up I decided to pull the trigger and buy this truck yesterday. Towed it home with my Escalade since I went to pick it up early in the morning and most of my buddy’s weren’t up yet.
its a 2.2l, 5 speed truck, 3.73 gears only 133k miles and minimal options, manual locks and windows. I wanted a second gen s10 and I wanted it to be lighter, to me lighter = more fun to drive. I had just recently traded a bike I built for a 03 s10 zr2 which was a sweet truck but scaled at 4300lbs. This truck scaled last night at 2900. I have plans for some weight reduction, lowering the truck, some suspension work and overall just working on cleaning it up. The motor seems fairly peppy for a 2.2l, truck cruises on the freeway at 75mph with ease.
Here’s what I have planned so far:
Engine
-eBay header, stock exhaust manifold is cracked and reading reviews seems like a header makes a decent increase in power.
-k&n cold air intake (came on the truck
-quad 4 throttle body swap
- some sort of straight through muffler
-e fans, does anyone know if you can use the Ecu to control fans? I have hp tuners and will be timing the truck as well.
-hptuners tune^
-possibly underdrive pulleys
-ac delete, just did this today, weight reduction, makes the engine more accessible and it wasn’t charged anyways plus it doesn’t get that hot here in Oregon.
Let me know if there’s anything else that would be benifficial, not looking for it to be a rocket just fun to drive and get good fuel economy
suspension:
-3/4 drop
-blazer 2wd front sway bar
- some sort of rear sway bar, I have the stock —rear bar off my Escalade I might narrow and retrofit to the s10.
-2wd blazer front brakes
-possibly 4.10 rear axle, might keep 3.73’s but will most likely get a mini spool for it.
weight reduction:
-removed spare, jack and tire iron
-ac delete, still need to remove the condenser and core. If anyone needs I’ll have the full ac setup, brackets, belt and lines available.
-removed washer fluid reservoir, never use them and it frees up space in the bay
-cut out whatever I can, might hole saw inner door skins and under hood webbing. Won’t drop a bunch of weight but it all helps.
-clutch fan and shroud replace with efan.
here’s some pics of the truck, had no tailgate, smashed passenger side fender and broken grill as well as the mounting tabs on the headlights, already have most of the parts to fix from pick a part, lucked out and got everything for $150.
PCM should be able to control fans, but I haven't messed with a 4 cylinder PCM with HP Tuners yet.
I'll suggest picking up a Cavalier (single fan/single speed) or Grand Am (dual fan/dual speed) radiator and electric fan assembly. It should drop right in where your original radiator mounts without modifying anything other than cutting off the shroud portion. It has the same dimensions as the S10 radiator and has the built in fans, but the core is a bit thicker.
Also I'm guessing the sway bar won't be super effective being cut and rewelded. Xtreme S10s will have a sway bar and the factory mounts to make it bolt up to your truck. There are usually a couple options for the brackets on eBay if you can't find them at the local pick and pull. The Xtreme truck use the same sway bar as the 4 door Blazer, which should be super plentiful if you can make or get your hands on the frame brackets.
I’m down in Salem. I downloaded the stock tune from the s10 and it has fan control accessible I just need to find the Ecu pinout to figure out what pin to use for fan control then wire that to a relay. As far as the gmt800 rear sway bar I’m pretty sure it would be overkill as it’s a 35mm rear sway bar but I think I could make it work and if it doesn’t I wouldn’t be bothered by having to pull it off to change for another. Frame mounts I can fab up my self and use shortened gmt800 end links. I’ll post some pictures once I dig into it and write up how I went about it and wether it worked well or not. Also spent some time cleaning the engine bay, it’s far from perfect but allot cleaner then it was and it will make working on the truck more enjoyable.
Its just bad taste is all. One of the previous owners put a crap load of that bright blue wire loom on everything along with the tape and bright blue vacuum lines.
Hope you found a tailgate. A straight stepside tailgate is difficult to find around here. Tailgate condition is a dealbreaker/deal maker with me when it comes to stepsides.
I lucked out and got a decent tailgate from pick a part for $100, needs a little body work and paint but that’s fine. And yeah I was hoping I was gonna find one, the only other one I saw for sale was on eBay for $300 and it had rust and wasn’t perfect.
Yeah,I’m in the odd situation where I have an entire spare black stepside with gate. I bought the twin of my old truck only a ‘98 instead of a ‘97 to swap over my old trucks parts,since Alabama attached fines to the VIN®istration...it was just cheaper to get a new body&VIN...they’re both black extended cab stepsides. At least it’ll have the 3rd door in this incarnation 😂
I downloaded the stock tune from the s10 and it has fan control accessible I just need to find the Ecu pinout to figure out what pin to use for fan control then wire that to a relay.
new fender and grill are on. I have some oem headlights and turn signals coming as well. The fender is just spray painted and clear coated. I need to color sand it after a few weeks and it will look pretty decent. I really should have waited till it was warmer to paint it but I couldn’t stand the old bashed in fender.
went to pick a part today to look for a quad 4 throttle body but didn’t find any. I did find a 4 door 2wd blazer front sway bar and a blazer 4x4 rear sway bar for the truck. Cleaning them up and throwing a nice coat of paint on them and I’ll install the front bar using the old energy suspension poly bushings from my 04 escalade stock front sway bar. The rear I’m going to wait till mid week once it’s lowered to throw on and fab brackets for the sway bar end links. Oh by the way I got the two bars and links for $40.
front sway bar is on. The paint laid out really nice, unfortunately the rest of the truck looks aweful compared to it lol. I’m gonna shorten the links once I drop it and switch over to my poly end link bushings that came off the dadillac. Just took it around the block and it feels a bit tighter but I’ll test it out more when I take it out next time. Can’t wait for my drop springs and blocks to come. I need to order some drop shocks also I’m just trying to hold back on my spending for right now.
I just picked up a 97 SS with a 5.3 swap. I am going to go through the suspension, and just wondered if there is anything that makes a big difference in handling? just looking for a fun daily, dont plan on autox'ing or anything. I see quite a few people running the Speedway control arms, is that...
I’ve read through that. I got a little confused on the tall ball joint thing till I read an article explaining how to make a g body handle well. I installed the eBay header today, kind of a pain in the ass, mostly because the cat nuts were rusted and seized, stripped one completely so I pulled the whole exhaust off and cut the Nut off and hammered the stud out and replaced it with a bolt and nut. Also while I had the exhaust off I cut the stock muffler out and welded in a 2.5” straight through resonator. Has a decent tone to it and no rasp because I kept the cat on it. After the test drive around the block the truck definitely felt considerably better but I can tell I’m going to need to tune it to get the full potential out of it. I’m gonna throw my wideband in the exhaust before tuning it so I can see what afrs it has in cruising, idle and wide open throttle. That will give me a decent idea on how much tuning it will help before I spend the $100 on hptuners credits for a 2.2l lol.
Fitment on the header was pretty spot on. No complaints about it for $66 shipped. Did however drop a big half inch extension and socket on my forehead. That hurt.
converted the truck to An electric fan today. Works great, tons more room, a little more power and holds temp as it should. Also pulled out the ac cooler while I had the radiator free. I kept the top half of the fan shroud and trimmed it up to hold the radiator in place. I also put my window visors on which are a must for Oregon with how much it rains. I picked up a set of 17x8 Bmw type 157 wheels for it and they would have fit but sat in about two inches too far
and just looked funky. Got them for cheap so I’ll post them back up for sale and probably make a few bucks off them. I also added leaf spring clamps and I was blown away but they completely got rid of the wheel hop I was getting with the truck. Super worth the $17 and 15 minutes of my time. Overall I’m super happy with the truck. Can’t wait to do the 3/4 drop on it. I ordered v6 front springs because I was originally planning on a ls swap on it but I may still go that route just a little further down the road. I found a nv3500 at the junk yard I’m gonna go pull tomorrow to have Incase I go that route.
got my 3/4 drop today, as expected the front is a little high, this is with the suspension not being settled yet, I was planning on doing 2” blazer 2wd drop knuckles and blazer brakes down the road. Still have to wait for my belltech performance street shocks for the front to come in tomorrow, luckily I ordered some because I had to cut the rusted off passenger shock. Also going to install the rear sway bar and fab up some brackets for the end links tomorrow. Im happy with how the truck is coming along. Can’t wait to drive it after the suspension is finished tomorrow.
List of stuff done so far ;
New cats, flowmaster 40.
Bumper delete
Basic maintenance
Planned upgrades ;
383 Swap & tranny (undecided)
2/3 drop with spindles leaves and shocks all around
17x8 front 18x9 rear (undecided rims)
Truck bed mounted turbo(???)
2 inch cowl hood
Custom flatbed...
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