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Been wanting to do a first gen S10 since I finished swapping a 4.8l/5 speed into my 2000 s10. This truck is gonna be a no frills turbo v8 hot rod. I dont plan on improving it at all cosmetically besides maybe a eBay lower valance. The roof has some rust that someone did a shotty job repairing and I saw some drips after pressure washing it so Ill have to jump on that asap. Its a base non ps, pw, pdl truck. Should be fairly light. Someone already lowered the back and I have some heavy duty springs to put up front for the added iron block weight. Just picked the truck up tonight for $100 and I gotta give the guy the 4 cylinder back after I pull it out. Its a reconstructed title but frame rails are straight and rust free. I really wanted to build something kinda shitty looking but fast.
plans so far are
2003 5.3l dbw motor I pulled from a Tahoe I parted out. Gotta go through it and fix the lifter tick it was having, check all the bearings and make sure its ready to run. Might do a cam, might just do some valve springs and run a bit more boost
hot side will be fabbed by myself, single gt45 turbo that is divided housing, 60mm wastegate, all turbo stuff was bought for my 2004 escalade but changed plans. Planning on doing a 4 down pipe out the passenger side fender. Wastegate dump will probably be next to it.
power goals will be 550 at the tire on pump gas.
trans will be a th400 Im going to rebuild with alto red clutches and a few other things. I really wanna convert it to full manual valve body just for simplicitys sake. need to find a good budget converter for it, new or used. I havent ever shopped for a converter but Ive been reading up on it as much as possible. I also have a 4l80e flex plate and spacer. I need to get some 4l80e flexplate to crankshaft bolts as I used mine on my manual trans S10.
rear end will be a Ford Explorer 8.8.
Last edited by T-RevMotorsports; Mar 8, 2020 at 10:10 PM.
back in my younger days that was a sweet mini truck, remember grabbing a copy of truck'n and seeing the slammed convertible with killer paint job on 15" rims and they moved to with that little 4.3 6v
Went to pick a part today and picked up a tail light, the better looking mirrors and a door panel for the truck today. Doesnt quite match but fits the beater theme Bluetooth stereo and a decent feeling grant steering wheel. Not bad for a hundred dollar truck.
also pulled the stock motor and Tranny out of it. It was crazy easy. Ripped the stock exhaust off and pressure washed the bay a couple of times. Still needs allot more clean up. I also ordered up some dirty dingo mounts for it since the ones in my 2000 S10 fit absolutely perfect and I have nothing bad to say about them. Decided to keep it stock cam and spend that money elsewhere on the build. Gonna just do some pac-1218 springs in it and a two bar map sensor. Planning on keeping the boost level to about 12lbs. To save a little more money I may try to cut the stock truck pan down and reweld it as well as shorten the stock pickup. If it doesnt work out Ill order a h3 pan for it. I will update with some more pictures tomorrow.
My 2000 with the 2.5l iron duke loaded up in the bed to return to the seller of the s10. It was part of the deal.
got started on the wiring today. Shouldnt be too bad. Not sure what to do for a speedometer since the th400 uses a mechanical speedo vs a vss sensor. Wiring should be pretty easy since the S10s harness is so basic. Funny, these old trucks use the oil pressure sending unit as a pressure switch to enable the fuel pump relay, kind of a bad idea in my opinion like I get they are trying to make it so it wont start if oil pressure is low but just seems like one more thing to fail down the road. Ordered up a 300lph fuel pump, relays for the e fans, fuel pump and ordered some 0/0 battery cable to relocate the battery under the bed like I did on my 2000 s10, this one will also get a fuel cell under the bed behind the axle as well.
also started mounting up the dbw pedal, had to trim it down quite a bit and Im gonna build a plate with studs to help bolt it in nice and clean to the s10. Also got the clutch master out and clutch pedal out.
Ls harness getting gone through and extra stuff weeded out Stock S10s 2.5l engine harness, almost nothing there lol. Drivers side bulk head plug pinout. Had to search a while to find the right schematics. Pinouts for the bulk head
Got most of my wiring figured out but I cant find a schematic on these two things in the truck. The smaller white connector labeled a-k tied into the original S10 engine harness. It has the ses, shift light, vss, crank and a few other wires on it. Also no idea what this small white box is, it has what looks like vss wires and a few others on it. If anyone has schematics thats will work for this 91 s10 or any input as to what this stuff is I would appreciate it.
Got some of the hot side stuff done today. Still waiting on the divided cast collector to finish it up. Doing it all out of the truck so Im hoping it will fit. Luckily I have my other ls swapped S10 to check and see what I need to worry about for clearance. Funny thing is the 91s engine bay measures about 1.5 wider and .5 longer then the 2000 truck. Also decided to place the wastegate on my turbine housing. Didnt wanna have to order two smaller Gates since its a divided housing. Should control boost really well from right there and the 110 welder I was using seemed to get really good penetration. Only problem I had was the circuit breaker kept blowing.
Feb 24, 2020 | 09:59 PM
The ugly duckling, 91 s10 turbo 5.3l build
