Chevy S10 - $2017 Challenge and beyond

Went to Cars and Coffee this morning, and had a long conversation with someone who had put a 2015 Camaro engine and transmission into their S10.  Really nice and clean install, and I got some ideas.  When I got home, I started futzing with the S10.  First thing was securing the parking brake cables so they wouldn't rattle around.  Zip ties have it handled until I can get back to figuring it out.  Also, taped up where the oil pressure sender wire had the insulation rubbed through, made sure it wasn't grounding anywhere, and made sure it had continuity all the way back to the gauge.  Replaced the sender and gauge with an Autometer.  Took a little trimming to adapt the light that was already installed, and it is a bit cheesy, but I really didn't want to pull as much apart as I would have needed in order to replace it with the light that came with the new gauge.  

eastsidewife helped out by holding the brakes while I tightened the wheel spacers.  Everything is now secure.  Once I hooked the battery up, I installed and configured the ultraguage.  It is sitting on the steering column, and is set up to display MPH, coolant temp, RPM, and voltage.  After a few distractions, I got take it for a quick drive.  I'll need to jump into the computer and adjust the speed signal.  Based on the comparison with the GPS, it looks like it is reading about 10% or so too fast.  Not surprising with the change up in rear gearing and tire size.  When I can get it on a straight road with no traffic, I'll get it to a steady speed, and compare the speeds again before making any changes.

Quick, not so great picture of it at dusk with the GTA wheels.  I need clean them up and order some center caps.

Two things stood out during the drive - I really need to pull the driver's side exhaust pipe, clean off the JB weld, and properly weld up leaks.  That stuff smells nasty when it is cooking.  Second, I really wish I could lower it again.  It looks and handles so much better that way. Maybe at the end of the season, I'll tackle that job. 

I have vacation time coming up, and a goal of taking the truck to the local drag strip for test and tune on May 19th.  Besides the pipe, I want to deal with traction in some way.  My homemade traction bars will not fit the truck in its current configuration.  They would need more shims than I made for the snubbers to hit the spring eye due to the stock springs, and the 8.6" rear axle has a large pad for the bumpstops that prevents them from being bolted on anyway.  I may bite the bullet and order a set of caltracs for it.  They aren't cheap, but it sounds like they work really well.

Ordered Caltracs and a battery disconnect.  They should be here in a few days, so if I can make some time next weekend, I'll get them installed (after dealing with the exhaust).  Got the low profile version to keep some ground clearance.  Wouldn't have been a problem now, but would be after I lower the truck again.

love the sleeper look because the black GTA wheels are so understated vs the gold ones

Those wheels are just perfect on there. 

They could use some cleaning, but, yeah I really like the way they look. 

I did not think of serviceability when I built the exhaust.  Unbolted the front piece I need to fix, and there is not enough room to remove it.  I may have to remove most of the exhaust system to get enough clearance to remove it.

In reply to eastsideTim :

1. Those wheels are so perfect on that truck!

2. A little lower would be ok but it's not desperately needed, IMO.

3. Serviceability is often overlooked in custom projects, but it is one of the things that separates us from the cows. That and opposable thumbs. 

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

If I was a better fabricator, I would not have used slip fit piping on the exhaust, I would have made every joint flanged instead.  I will try to remember that in the future.  My first impulse was fairly destructive, but at least I didn't follow through - pull the exhaust, get fenderwell headers, and switch to manual brakes and steering, so there would be less "stuff" to deal with

Fixed the pipe, reinstalled it, and took it for a drive.  After the high temp paint burn off was over, it took longer to pick up the burning plastic smell, but it was still there.  Parking it and sniffing around the engine compartment, I think it is coming from near the firewall on the passenger side.  No smoke anywhere, and no blown fuses that I know of, so it is probably not an electrical issue.  The three "easy" possibilities right now are the wiring at the bulkhead connector, the cylinder 8 plug wire (even though it is wrapped in insulating material, it is almost pinched between the header and the heater box, or the rain/dust flap at the bottom of the inner fender (it appears to be rubbing the header).  I'll try to make some adjustments on the rain flap, and see if that is the issue, but for the others, there may not be a lot I can do easily.

This was the first time I drove it in traffic much.  While temps stay around 197-201 while it is moving, they climb rapidly when it is stopped.  Makes sense, since there is likely considerably less coolant in it than when it was a full size truck.  For now, I'll adjust the activation temp for the fan.  Also, there is a lot of underhood heat.  It could probably use some way to extract some air, but that won't be a priority for now. 

For speed testing, I held it at 41 on the GPS for a while and it showed 44.7 on the ultragauge.  That should also be easy to adjust in the computer.  Went as fast as 60 and it tracked straight, too, which was nice.

It is parked outside, so I can do an oil change on the Miata, but that also means if there are any minor things I can work on in the driveway, it'll be easy to take it for a quick spin..  For now, figuring out the burning smell takes priority over getting it to the drag strip later this month, and some work on a couple other cars that I have been neglecting will take priority, too.

Need to download the current tune, just in case what I am looking at is wrong, but it appears I may not have enabled the cooling fan control in HPTuners.  Definitely need to do that before any extended drives.  I only have one fan, not two, so will need to do a little research online before figuring out settings.   I also have a few other subsystems I need to mess with. 

Pulled the #8 plug wire, and it looked good underneath the heat shielding.  The fender splash guard was not so great.  It is in pretty rough shape already, so I was able to rip it off where it was closest to the header:

The circled area appears to have had some melting going on.  It was also present on the other side of the material, but to a lesser extent.  After this, I took the truck for a drive.  I am still able to smell something, but I am not sure if it is residual, or if there is still another problem.  When I got home, I pulled out the infrared thermometer.  Unwrapped header temp was anywhere from 360-420.  Oddly the wrapped area varied anywhere from about 300-440, so I am not sure what is going on there.  The heat reflective wrap around the wiring was 250-260.  If there was pretty steady airflow there, I might not worry much, but since the heat can just build up, I am concerned this is still going to be a problem.  It would be nice if there was room to move the wiring even just an inch further away to cut down on the radiant heat.  I need to look a bit more, but I think the heater boxes (inside and out) are just not going to allow for it. 

I did pull the tune, and took care of a few minor issues, along with letting the software recalibrate the speedometer.  I also enabled the fan, and fired the truck back up to confirm it is working properly.  For now, I have it kicking on a 218 degrees, and off at 204.  It should have the stock 195-ish thermostat, so I doubt I should set the shutoff temp any lower.  Still need to drive it to see how close the speedometer is now, and if it needs a bit more manual recalibration, but lawn work called, and needed to be finished before the afternoon rains hit.  I also set the fan to run for 60 seconds after shutdown if the temp hits 230.  That may get adjusted more when I do some research on what it really should be, but I figured I was in the settings at the time so might as well add something for now.

I will need to update it again anyway, I realized afterwards the fuel cut off speed limiter is at 98 MPH.  I'm hoping to go a little better than that in the quarter mile.

On the cosmetic side, I scraped a bit of the Florida sand out of the bed that seems to have tried to become cement.  Still need to hit it with the wand at the car wash to finish that job, then maybe the bed can get the surface rust sanded off, and get some fresh paint.

Noticed a few other issues driving it.  Somewhere around 20-25, there is some vibration.  I am hoping it is not driveline vibration, but when the truck is in the garage again, I'll see about double checking the driveshaft angle.  Also getting an occasional rattle on the left side behind the cab.  I suspect it is just the parking brake cable.  Might wrap it in some rubber hose or something for now and see if it quiets down.

Have to do some work on another car in the fleet this weekend, so may not get to fool with it much in the next few days.

Shuffling the car around over the weekend, I ended up with two codes:  P0300 Multiple Misfires, and P0332 Knock Sensor 2 Circuit Low.  Not sure if they are related as the knock sensor one sounds like it is an issue with the sensor, and not that it is detecting detonation.  The truck ran alright, but I suppose it could be misfiring just enough to be triggering the code.  I checked the #8 plug wire, since it was recently disconnected, but it was on securely.  As for the knock sensor, I really don't want to pull the intake manifold if I don't have to, but that is not looking good.  I did replace one of them, but can't remember which one.  Of course, the aftermarket part could have failed, too.

And after digging around the passenger firewall, there is pretty much nowhere I can relocate the bulkhead connecter to to get it away from the header, without pulling the dash.  I might be able to get a smaller connector, and run the wires somewhere on the driver's side, but that will still probably require the dash to come out for some of the connections.  One other option I am seriously considering right now, is just yanking the blower box, and the factory heater core and box, and either just paneling it over, or getting an aftermarket hot rod heater box that will fit completely inside the car, and take up less space.  Another idea along that line is to see if I could try to adapt a junkyard rear heater box from an older three row SUV. 

Since the truck isn't going to be driven in extreme cold weather, the main thing I want is enough heat and air movement to keep the windshield defogged.

Started a thread in the GRM forum for the wiring heat issue.  I took the truck out for another drive, and it is not replicating the multiple misfire code, but it might need more runtime, as I understand that is a cumulative issue.  Charging up my cheap endoscope camera, so I can take a look at the knock sensors without pulling the intake manifold.  Looks like #2 is the rear knock sensor, which I am pretty sure I replaced, so either the aftermarket part went bad, or there is an issue with the wiring.

Also hit the car wash, and sed the high pressure spray to get rid of the sand in the bed.  Still a some loose flecks of sand, but no more clumps.  I can clean them out when I sand down the rust and prime the bare sports.

I don't think I am going to worry about re-measuring the driveshaft angle.  During the drive, I reproduced the vibrations at 20-25 MPH, then downshifted into second gear, and the vibration went away.  I guess the truck just doesn't like running around 1100 RPM.

I can tell you from far too much experience that driveshaft angle issues do not show up at 20-25mph.  You need to be be 50+ to experience them, and they will change with load.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

That was kind of my line of thinking, but just wasn't sure.  Seems 40-45 is where I usually pick up on an imbalance on a driveshaft or a wheel.  

Yesterday evening, wae stopped by, and we brainstormed wiring relocation ideas.  The prevailing one is to make an extension harness, and run the wiring through the passenger fender, and into the cab near the fresh air intake. I need to pull the intake flap and see if there will be room for this.  If so, it'll require buying another not so cheap connector, but may be the best way to do this without too much rewiring.  The other option is it appears there is a punch out for the clutch on the driver's side that could be used, but it would require shortening a bunch of wiring runs, lengthening a few, and trying to reroute a bunch of wires inside the cab.  

He also brought over his oscilloscope, and we tested the speedometer signal output from the ECM.  We didn't get a signal at all, so either the ECM is not outputting it, or I have screwed up the wiring somewhere.  Going to dig into that one a little more.  Since I can get a speed through OBD2, I know the VSS in the transmission is working.

Edit:  Oh yeeah, there were also some thoughts on trying to build a shield, and I may give it a quick try.

Really need to figure out the wiring issues, so of course, I pulled out the spare door cards and started getting them ready to be installed.  There is actually some method to my madness.  The Miata is in the garage right now, so there is room to work on them, and I've shuffled them around the garage for ages.  It seems like it was only a matter of time before something heavy falls on them and irreparably breaks the 30+ year old plastic.

First, I attacked the crack in one of them by drilling out at the end to keep it from propagating, and used some two part plastic glue on it.

I cleaned them up with dish soap, and thoroughly rinsed them.  Then it was time to lay them out one at a time for painting.

I thought about masking off the gray door lock/handle area, but decided it shouldn't matter.  This is supposed to be a quick, cheap job, so I started with 2 coats of Duplicolor adhesion promoter, then followed up with 3 coats (and a little bit of touch up) of Charcoal Gray vinyl and fabric paint.  Since most of the truck's interior is gray, this will blend in way better than red, even if the color is not exact.

Once it was dry, it was time to attach the new belt molding.  Had to drill and rivet it, instead of stapling like done at the factory.

Next, it was time to remove the falling apart, disgusting original door card.  After I pulled it, I also removed and replaced the outer belt molding, too.

A quick comparison of the two.  The original was from a higher trim line, but the carpet and upholstery on it was pretty rough, and I'm not sure any amount of cleaning was going to work.  The basic plastic one should be a little easier to keep clean.  The old one had also been drilled into in many spots, presumably in an attempt to get it to stay on the door.

This is kind of where things fell apart a bit.  I found out after my first attempt at installing that I needed to remove the b pillar trim to properly fit the door card.  The old one was in rough enough condition it did not need that step.  In the process, I started adding some scratches, so a bit of the red shows through.  Worse, when I finally did get it hung in place, the crack I had fixed broke open again, but not as far is it originally was.  Finally, the clip near the door handle would not go in, so it stands out a little bit there, but not enough to cause any functioning problems. 

All in all, not as successful as I had hoped, and it took long enough, and was frustrating enough that I decided to wait for another day to install the passenger one.  Thankfully the original on that side is not in as bad of shape.  I do need to keep in mind I am not trying to make this thing perfect, just better.  On that note, the positives are I can now touch the armrest without feeling gross, and with the new belt moldings, the window no longer rattles when it is open, and there is no longer the risk of the glass shattering when I close the door (had that happen on my first car once).

I need to finish this job to keep the other card from getting damaged in storage.  Parts have come in for another car, so I need to shuffle cars around again, and I don't want to do that until this job is done.

Beginning to think this door card project is cursed.  Removed the outer belt molding on the passenger side, and noticed a chip in edge of the glass.

It is possible it was there before, but since it lines up pretty much exactly with one of the metal clips on the molding, I'll bet it just happened.  Any ideas if the tempered glass is now at a higher risk of just randomly shattering?  Should I start looking for a new piece of glass in the junkyard now?

Another issue cropped up after I popped the door card on.  I went to screw in the armrest, and it appears the bracket on the door that it screws to is missing.  I went ahead and snapped the armrest into place, but right now, closing the door from inside will just pull on the door card, and probably eventually break it.  Next time I'm at a junkyard, I will try to snag a replacement bracket.

Started a thread for reducing underhood temperatures in the aero forum

I put the truck away for the winter over the weekend, and it decided to reveal a few new issues after taking it for its final drive this year:

1. Rear main seal leak is worse.  Not a gusher or anything, but bad enough it might get me kicked off a dragstrip if they notice.
2. Power steering is leaking.  I'll need to chase that down or switch to manual steering.
3. Driver's window only goes own an inch or so before snagging.  I am assuming I messed something up when I did the window sweeps earlier this year.
4. When I was trying to make sure the exhaust was hot enough to evaporate as much water as possible, I revved it to 3K RPM and held it.  The CEL almost immediately switched to flashing.  I shut the truck down, pulled codes, and there was nothing new.  I am assuming it is related to the P0300 misfire code.  Fire it back up, and no flashing CEL anymore.

In addition, the wiring still desperately needs to be relocated, and there's a bunch of other little stuff it needs to become more streetable.

I am feeling like it is time to E36 M3 or get off the pot.  The Mustang is a pretty fun fast daily, and the Mazda5 can do imperfect truck work, so once spring comes, maybe it is time to clear some space and tear into the truck to fix issues once and for all.  If I do that, I need to decide what way to go.  Should it be fast, but still usable as a truck, should it be a streetable drag car, or should I go nuts?  Or should I give up and sell it?  No matter what, I feel like I need to get more serious about it, as I have been storing so many spares and upgrades, which is part of why my garage is too jam-packed to do much over the winter.

What do you want to own? Is it even an ls swapped s10? Thats the question you need to answer. 

What will bring you joy, and make youturn around to look at it walking away? What will make you excited to jump in and go?

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

I liked driving it a lot more when it had the 305 in it, but I think that was due to the lowering, and the fact I wasn't worried about cooking the wiring and getting stranded.  Once it was out of challenge price range, I was mostly looking for something fun to drive that could haul, and maybe tow a little.  The other difference since then is that I have the Mustang.  I'd like to run drag week, but at 6' tall, putting a roll bar into the truck is not something I want to do, so 11.50 would be as fast as it could go, except to lower it, I need to cut up the floor, which may necessitate a roll bar at higher ETs, and a cage at lower ones (if I want to be honest at tech).  I've always wanted to build something ridiculous, and this may be the opportunity to just go hog wild, too.

If I am going to have to pull the transmission (and maybe engine) for the rear main seal leak (and maybe to add a slightly looser than stock converter), it's tempting to just hack up the floor so I can put the 2/3 drop back onto it.  It can still haul stuff at that point, and maybe I'll enjoy driving it more. 

Started work on getting the truck out of hibernation.  I've decided that for this year, I just want to get it running reasonably reliably, fix major bugs, and enjoy it.  Probably no trip to the drag strip, so leaks will be ignored, until they can't be ignored.

Two of the wheels were leaking air pretty badly, mostly at the wheel weights.  Even with them removed, they are still leaking, but now slowly enough they don't get flat overnight.  I took them to a local shop last week, to have the tires dismounted, bead sealing surfaces of the wheels cleaned, and tires remounted and balanced.  About half and hour after dropping them off, I got a call that the air line on the tire machine blew up when he went to dismount the first tire.  I'll take them back next week, assuming the machine is good to go.  Tires aren't his main thing, but I'm guessing he'll still want the machine back up and running.

The window issue appears to be the outer trim being worn out, and letting the window flop around a bit.  When the new sweeps weren't in place, there was some room for it to realign itself.  Pulling the door card lets it roll up, but I'll still look into replacing the window trim, so the door card can go back on.

I have spent the last week or so racking my brain over the wiring.  Investigating new locations to run it, then ruling them out, as impossible, or just highly impractical.  I was thinking of relocating the bulkhead connector over to where a clutch master would be if the truck was manual, but that may have required pulling the dash, and I'd want to build a deflector in case the hydroboost unit or master cylinder started leaking.  Don't need a Ford cruise control situation.  I think I have settled on a temporary solution.

Here's where the connector is now:

The red arrow is where I want to move the wiring towards.  The problem is there is a HVAC unit in the way on the inside.  Even with a smaller connector (I'm only using 11 of the 29 spots on this one), I'd barely get to move it.

I pulled the connector and started yanking pins, verifying they matched my diagram.  Note the amount of electricla tape goo on the wires, even though I used high temp tape:

Finally fully de-pinned, I was able to stuff them through a 1/2" grommet.

The plan is to drill a 1/2" from the inside of the cab as far up as I practically can, seal up the old hole, re-pin the bulkhead connector, and just have both sides inside the cab.  It means pulling the engine side harness will require taking it all apart again, but the dash harness will still be easy to remove if the dash needs to come out.  More importantly, it should significantly increase the distance between the wires and the header.  If I'm still concerned, there would also be room to put in a heat shield.  I'll plan on doing this part tomorrow.  I want to sleep on it, just in case I come up with a good reason not to go this way.

Also, checked continuity on the VSS signal wire in the engine bay harness.  It is good.  So either there is a bad connection at the factory harness connector, or at the bulkhead, or for some reason, the ECM isn't sending the signal out.  It is displaying fine through OBD2, so I know the ECM does "know" the speed.

Need to patch the old hole, but the wires are now 3.5" from the header instead of 0.5".  Knocking it down to 3" to account for the tubing and heat wrap, and that's still 6 times farther away, so it'll be getting 36 times less heat from the header pipe.

Pulled a coil to start testing them, and am getting some results that do not make sense to me.  I must be doing it wrong.  I am assuming connection D is the positive connection, and A is the ground.  I am getting 28.8K Ohms between the two, and I thought I was supposed to get almost no resistance(0.4-0.6 Ohms).  And I am getting no connection at all between A and the output, where I am assuming I should have 5000-7200 Ohms.  I couldn't find a specific link for the truck coils in a few searches, so I need to improve my google fu.  Since the wires are new (and I tested them as I assembled them), and the plugs are new, I am assuming the P0300 is due to failing coil(s), or sensor starting to go bad.  Could be injectors, too, I suppose.  I did check fuel pressure last year, and it was fine.

Quick updates before today's update.  I patched the firewall hole, so no fumes in the cab.  It turns out the VSS wire was in the wrong location on the engine bay connector, so once I fixed that, the speedometer started working!  Tires have been dealt with and are no longer leaking like crazy.

I also wired up the blower motor to a switch in the cab, so it can now run at full speed.  For some reason, the heater controls can't get the blend doors to move properly, and the air is flowing out the floor vents and the dash vents.  I might worry about it later, but having the ability to defog the window was the main reason I wanted it working.

Been driving it some, and have decided it just is not as much fun at stock ride height.  I think I will take a chance on it being down a while, and drop it again soon.