Chevy S10 - $2017 Challenge and beyond

So, a little more progress tonight:

1. Disconnected exhaust from the driver's side exhaust manifold. Passenger's side didn't want to work out, at least not with the tools I have. I'll try to hit the hardware store for a 1/2" wobble extension.
2. Unbolted the trans mount - I really want to beat a GM engineer for this one - they sandwiched a bracket for the catalytic converter between the trans and the trans mount. I could only use an open ended wrench, and only could turn it about 1/12 of a turn before repositioning it when unbolting the mount from the trans.
3. Removed the driveshaft, and let the transmission fluid drain somewhat. I suspect more will come out when we are pulling the engine, but at leas some of it will be out.
4. Pulled the power steering pulley.

Still have a bit more work to go before it's ready to come out, but hopefully it'll be soon. I'll put the engine up for sale, and probably keep the transmission, in case both transmissions are bad, I'll probably try to rebuild this one.

Yea, I hear your pain with respect to "packaging" in the S10, mav! My 2003 has a tiny 2.2 liter I-4 yet getting to things like spark plug #4, the pcv valve, the O2 sensor, etc is a collosal PITA. A real head scratcher, that design.

Two of the three passenger side exhaust nuts have been removed. The other is now spinning, because the exhaust manifold stud has broken loose Not sure how I'm going to deal with that one yet. Also, the impact wrench caused quite a bit of Florida sand to be dislodged from under the truck and onto my head. Thank goodness for safety goggles. Though I'm not sure how that much sand made it on the road trip back to Ohio. I'd have thought it would get shaken loose over 700-800 miles of bouncing around on the trailer.

You're talking the nuts that attach the exhaust to the manifold? I had something similar happen with the Blazer- I ended up having to use a combination of my cordless angle grinder and a nut-splitter to get that last nut/stud off.

In reply to Ashyukun:

Yup - I may just cut part of the Y-pipe if I can't get to the manifold easily.

wae stopped by this evening, and we proceeded to make a nice mess of the garage. Oh yeah, we also got the engine and trans out of the truck.

Next step is to make sure there isn't anything I need to keep from the engine, then toss it up on craigslist cheap enough for a quick sale. It's taking up way too much space.

Great job. Pics or it didn't happen

pimpm3 wrote: Great job. Pics or it didn't happen

. Maybe tomorrow. Too worn out to mess with Photobucket tonight.

And evidence of last night's destruction:

Need to pull a few things off the 4.3, then drag it to the front of the garage, and put it on CL.

I'm approaching something of a crossroads here, though. If I can confirm the engine/trans is good in the fireturd, I'll have a more solid idea of the costs of doing the swap, and thus will have an idea how much room I have for everything else. If I leave the engine stock-ish, I should have no problem buying suspension parts new, and installing them now, while the engine is out of the S10, and work will be a lot easier. I can also hope to find used/cheap parts down the road, which may or may not happen. I'm debating at this point whether to just go ahead and do the work I'd eventually do anyway (possibly after the challenge), and risk running a truck that'll do high 15s in the quarter mile at the challenge, or hope I can find cheap upgrades to the suspension, so I have room to build out the drivetrain for better performance.

Does your S10 have drum or disc rear brakes? In going through the garage I've come across a number of things including the hardware I pulled off I believe a Blazer to convert the Elky to rear drum brakes (and promptly put in a Tupperware tote and forgot about :P ), so if you can use those you can have them for next to nothing. If you find any parts on CL that you need from down here I'll be more than happy to get them for you.

Also, are the wheels that you got from me the Camaro ones? If so, I found the center caps for them if you want them.

In reply to Ashyukun:

I've got the Trans Am wheels, so the Camaro center caps might not work so well. The truck has a drum brake rear end, but I may be replacing it completely.

eastsidemav wrote: In reply to Ashyukun: I've got the Trans Am wheels, so the Camaro center caps might not work so well. The truck has a drum brake rear end, but I may be replacing it completely.

OK, I wasn't sure which wheels you had- means the Camaro wheels went with the Elky so I'll send them along with the box of parts I missed when I packed it up to go.

Yay, just sold the truck box after multiple weeks of flaky craigslisters. Got $50, so after taking into account the $4.92 it cost for a replacement lock, I've sold down $45.08 from the S10. I don't expect to sell much more, except the engine. At some point, I'll also take a trip to the scrapper to get rid of the old battery and any parts I've removed but don't intend to use, like the A/C system, and the original radiator.

No more work done in the garage, but I went out in the somewhat dreary morning weather to the junkyard. Finally pulled a non-AC heater box, which should open up underhood space considerably. If nothing else, spark plug access will be a lot easier. I also grabbed the heater control, I can put it in after the challenge is over, and not have extra controls. Picked up a v-belt pulleyed alternator, not sure I'll use it, but it was cheap, and looked to be in good condition.

Finally, I grabbed a fuel injection assembly from a wrecked TBI pickup, in the hopes that it is all I need to get the fireturd running again.

Time to add more room to the engine bay. Started with this:

After spending a bunch of time unbolting the heater box, and incorrectly thinking it was held in by some bolts on the inside of the firewall, I managed to remove it. It also takes some prying to break it loose once it's unbolted:

Supposedly, if you keep air conditioning, you need to cut out part of the heater box to clear the right valve cover. However, switching to the non-AC heater box prevents this from being necessary. It takes up way less room:

It's really noticeable in a profile shot. Looks to be less than half as deep, when you don't take the blower motor into account.

For a test fit, I bolted it up to the car, and took a look. I'll pull it off to clean and repaint it later. I may bash in a corner of it as a bit of future proofing - If the engine is set back, it still needs to be clearanced for the valve cover. I plan on keeping the trans in the stock location for the challenge, but afterwards, may make some changes.

Other than that, I did some more cleaning up and pulled any pieces off the 4.3 I wanted to keep. Now, I just need to take a few pictures of the engine, and get it listed for sale.

In looking over my budget, if the firebird drivetrain works out, and I'm willing to make some concessions (like keeping power steering, running springs instead of spindles up front, running a completely stock engine, etc.) for the challenge, I might be able to run in the sub-$1000 class. Thinking I probably won't push myself too hard to get there.

I'm hitting the point where it may be time to think about tires for the challenge. The S10 came with 14x6 wheels, and I should be able to get a set of 185 width R-comps to put on them. The fireturd has 15x7 wheels, and I've picked up a set of 16x8 wheels. I'm likely to use high performance street tires on the 15" or 16" wheels. What would probably be the best in the autox? The narrow R-comps, 205-225 width 15" tires, or 225-245 width 16" tires? Keeping in mind, it is quite possible I'll be running a 170 HP engine, with a 3.08 rear end, so the smaller diameter of the 14s may come in handy. So, I guess the big thing is, will wider street tires grip any better than narrower R-comps, and if so, will it be enough to overcome the disadvantage of the extra rotating mass?

Also, any idea as to what speeds R-comps become sketchy on a drag strip? We ran them a few times in the past, and they seemed alright at the 85-95 MPH traps speeds we've done.

Well, miraculously, the Firebird decided to behave this morning when I was getting ready to rebuild its fuel injection system, so after a very quick oil change, and airing up the tires, I took it for a voyage around the neighborhood. Seems to run pretty good for a $375 car. I didn't take it out onto a main road to see if overdrive was there, since it doesn't have tags. I'm going to just hope it is fine. The lower gears seemed fine with no noticeable slipping. Engine was, as expected, torquey, but rather underpowered. I don't mind, it was nice to be behind the wheel of a V8 RWD car again

In honor of knowing that my engine donor seems acceptable, I just dropped a ton of money ordering parts for the car, mostly suspension and engine swap related. Next week, the UPS, FedEx, and USPS drivers will be getting very familiar with dragging boxes up to my porch

If I don't do some more selling off, I won't be able to do a ton more to the truck, but I can deal with that, as other than the power, and the wheels I want to use, it'll be built into pretty much what I want for after the challenge.

Boxes of parts are starting to stack up in the basement

I've done a little hammering in the firewall area for clearance, but still need to do a bit more. I also removed the driver's side motor/frame mount. The passenger side looks a little trickier. Might be able to remove it by taking the front passenger coil spring out, but I think my guide book recommends just drilling a hole in the crossmember to get a wrench on the nuts.

A little more progress today. Hope I'm not boring everyone with all these small progress reports. I'm trying to make sure the truck doesn't sit too long without getting something done, even if it's only a little bit.

Today, I pulled the steering shaft in order to replace it with a Jeep Cherokee steering shaft. The reason behind this is the upper U-joint on the S10 steering shaft is fairly large, and can interfere with the V8 engine's exhaust manifold.

An additional bonus is it replaces the rag joint at the bottom with another U-joint, so it should get rid of a little bit of the slop in the steering. One item of note if you do this yourself, for the upper U-joint, it changes from a through bolt to a pinch bolt. The pinch bolt is just a smidge too big and rubs against the steering column shaft. Tapping it in a bit until it hits the threaded apart of the steering shaft seems to do the trick. However, when you tighten the bolt, the steering shaft wants to collapse slowly, and it risks sliding off the column. I was able to just push the steering shaft upwards while tightening the pinch bolt, and it held in place.

For now, I'm keeping the power steering, and may hold off on switching to manual steering until after the challenge.

On a somewhat annoying note, most of the suspension and swap related parts I ordered last weekend have arrived, except for the rear lowering springs. They've been sitting at a UPS location in Maumee, OH for almost three days now. I'm wondering if they got damaged, or if they've just gotten stuck in delivery hell for a while.

In reply to eastsidemav:

All I can say about the parts quite possibly being stuck in shipping hell is..... "Buggah!"

In reply to hemihauler20:

Pretty much. I think I've had problems in the past with stuff sitting there for a while, so I'm wondering if there is a general problem in the way that location is run.

In reply to eastsidemav:

It's probably how it's run. It's just so berklying maddening when E36 M3 like this happens because you just want to move on with the damn project instead of waiting.

In reply to hemihauler20:

Thankfully this ones not stopping me, at least not yet. I need to get under the truck and remove the exhaust anyway before I start thinking about lowering it and making it even harder to get under there

Isn't it great when you can drive your donor car around the block before tearing it apart? Loving this build. Keep it up, and more pictures!

In reply to eastsidemav:

Excellent! That makes me happy