1984 S10, an ongoing evolution

[Andrew S]

Hello guys,
My name is Andrew and I'm from Ontario Canada.
This has been an ongoing project for a little over 3 years now. My father and I both enjoy working on it together. Over that time I've learned quite a bit from him and reading articles online. To be honest when I originally started working on this truck I couldn't properly change a tire.

I have a thread over on s10 forum and I'll copy/paste bits and pieces to get caught up today.

My dad purchased this '84 S10 brand new from GM. It was the only brand new car he has ever bought and I grew up riding around in it.

A couple days after he received it,

After 20 or so years of a fairly hard life and 360,000 kms the little 2.8 was very tired and the truck was getting to a point where it wasn't very drivable especially in the winter. It sat for a couple of years in my Grandma's driveway while my dad decided what he wanted to do with it. He contemplated trading it in for another truck or selling it but it held quite a bit of sentimental value.

At this point and time I was getting to the age where I had saved a little bit of money and was shopping around for cars. I was looking at everything from silvia's to old beat up mustangs. After a while of looking and not finding anything I could really see myself in, one day my dad said he was thinking about selling the '84. I had quite the sentimental attachment to the truck as well. So I told him not to and that I would sink the money into it that I had saved and we could rebuild the 2.8, something he had wanted to do for quite some time.

So here is the truck as it sat at my grandma's

The plan at this point was rebuild the 2.8 with a bit more pep and get the truck to a point where it was reliable again. Little did I know what I was really getting myself into.

We brought the truck to a very good friend of my fathers, Sheldon, who conveniently builds high performance motors for a living,

Sheldon has a very large shop with everything we could ever need,

The very tired 2.8,

rad was toast

This is my father, he'll be in a handful of the pictures.

around this time I bought my dog Kayla,

over the course of many weekends we tore down and rebuilt it,

The plan was;

2.8 block, bored/stroked to 3.2
heads are off a 2.8fi Camaro, 1/8" bigger valves
3/4 cam lifter kit
Edelbrock intake w/ 4barrel adapter, 600cfm holley
Index ground 3.1 Crank
Line bored crank internals
Blue printed
bored/honed to 40 thou over
Deck the heads
Runs at 9.5 compression
hedman headers

my first appearance,

boring the block,

We were rebuilding it over the winter and just about every Saturday morning I had this to contend with,

Sheldon honing,

Kayla was getting a bit larger,

another Saturday of snow removal,

My father and Sheldon,

before/after

As well as learning about the 2.8 I got to see some pretty neat stuff happening.
Sheldon's in house dyno,

Kayla is getting larger still,

We weren't in any real rush and my dad was teaching me as we went so progress was slow.

finally back in,

hauling it off to get an alignment and the exhaust done,

After this it was finally home again. I started to tinker around with little things.

continued in next post,

 

[Andrew S]

Re: 1984 S10, an ongoing evolution

Once home I had time to mess around with it however I pleased.

typical "grazing" picture

around this point in time I discovered the wonderful world of junkyards and started replacing all the broken and faded bits and pieces

We had also done 2" spindles and blocks at this point as well.

I purchased my first set of wheels,

At this point the major drawback of the truck was the body/paint. It had some minor rust and a bunch of scratches/dings. After a little while longer I saved up enough money to have it painted. So we prepped it for paint,

and off it went,

Another friend of my fathers, Roger, who conveniently is a painter did the work for me.

I got to learn a lot about the process through him as well,

a couple pics of rogers truck, talk about clean

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd164/kyboshh/Feb4th%202009%20and%20on/July%202009/bfd7ba91.jpg

progress,

and ready to be put back together,

Kayla is pretty well full grown at this point,

my grandmother who was nice enough to let me use her driveway,

the motor in all it's glory at this point,

back home

getting the interior back together,

waiting on weather stripping from LMC,

finally back on the road,

new parts,

At this point I just enjoyed the truck for a few months and weeded out a few minor issues,
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd164/kyboshh/Feb4th%202009%20and%20on/July%202009/DSC_6833.jpg

My dad was missing having a truck of his own so he bought this '83,

old pic of my father, brother and I,

many more junk yard runs and small fixes later,


so you can put a face to the name,

only blue craw-dad I've ever seen before,

back on topic,
many more junk yard runs and small fix-it jobs later,

LMC products at their finest, 2 weeks after install,

continued in next post,

 

[IpHoOnDyou]

Re: 1984 S10, an ongoing evolution

Very nice build!! Im just curious as to why you decided to build the 2.8? I would have thought a 305? Or a 350? Did you build the 2.8 for reliability?

 

[gkrcr882]

Re: 1984 S10, an ongoing evolution

Great build! My S15 was the exact same color combination. I'm glad you kept it, it's an excellent combo IMO. Only reason I got rid of mine was the body and frame were in bad shape due to rust

 

[Chest Rockwell]

Re: 1984 S10, an ongoing evolution

Pretty cool build so far, looking forward to the next installment!

 

[Andrew S]

Re: 1984 S10, an ongoing evolution

went to my first car show with the '84,

Also went drag racing for the first time,

Did as well as I expected. No official times as it was just arm-drop. I imagine I was running low 16s though.


The '84 has been in 2 accidents. A buddy of mine rear-ended me in his blazer when I was in high school and messed the bed up pretty good. We replaced a portion of the drivers bed side but the shop who did the work were hacks to say the least. The tail light gap was off as well as the tailgate. Underneath was also rusting away so a new bed was on the agenda.

I found this s15 with a brand new southern bed and bought it,

waited until spring,

Now that it was winter and I didn't want to drive the '84 with brand new paint in our winters I saved up for a dd and bough this blazer,

spring time finally came around and we picked up the s15

after only 2000 km the blazers 4l60e broke and towed it off to sheldons at the same time,

stripped everything worth keeping off the '85

and scrapped the rest, only had the truck for 10 days but grew attached to it enough that I really didn't like leaving it in the scrap yard,

spent most of the summer fixing small things on the blazer like this piece of work, garden hose to boot...

replaced the gas tank,

At this point I was enjoying the '84 but starting to get a little bored so I started doing some reading on what parts to buy to make it a little more fun to drive,

picked up this zq8 box, and this was the way I found sy/ty forum and the wealth of information you guys have here. Through the fellow selling these.

zq8 front bar,

blasted & painted a bunch of stuff,

made the mistake of buying some cut junkyard zq8 coils,

ended up with this, went back to stock coils

It was my dads birthday so I booked some test drives for him,

decided to swap to a serp belt drive over the v-belt for reasons to come,

picked up a fageol roots blower,

rebuilt some zq8 leafs,

tried some 2" eibach coils up front, hated them. Also did pp steering linkage,

eibach coils were terrible, way to soft

enjoyed the truck for a while,

I really enjoyed the immediate response of a carb and the fageol blower came with a tbi adapter. My dad conveniently being a machinist he decided we could make our own adapter,

angled so the carb sits dead level,

picked up a hurst "short throw" for the t-5

turned out to be a gimmick as it was identical to stock,

we were both pretty hyped on shortening the throw as that was robbing a good second in the 1/4. so we modified the hurst unit to work,

lengthened the shaft movement to shorten the throw precisely 50%

the provided base was now to short,

so we made one to suit,

continued in next post

 

[cat-vi]

Re: 1984 S10, an ongoing evolution

Very good looking clean truck!

 

[Andrew S]

Re: 1984 S10, an ongoing evolution

much better but not perfect,

The shifter felt cheap and loose even when bolted down very tight. Se we splined the shifter/shift pin so they would hold firmly and not feel cheap,

pulled the motor, it's so small,

test fit,

after messing around with a combination of different parts from different years we got the right combination to run the serpentine drive,
It was time to clean up the engine bay a bit more as well,

Flaming river steering shaft,

going back together,

we were worried about belt wrap on the blower pulley so we made up an idler pulley bracket,

measured it up for a belt,

had some pieces anodized,

waiting on parts so I took a lot of pictures that lacked any progress,

looking down on the adapter, made some castle nuts and safety wired them just in case,

finally back in, lets see you LS guys do this,

It was late in the year and I really wanted to enjoy it for the little time I had left so I cut a hole in an old hood,

my first ever burnout, 1 wheel squeal and all,



realized I disliked the resonators and opted for some spintech's and their x-pipe,

last picture before winter,

Over the winter I did some reading up on spring rates and torques and figured out what I needed to know to choose a spring I would like,

Stock coils,

air/fuel and boost gauge,

bought a hood,

ended up choosing a Hypercoil 5 1/2" x 12" - 900#

checked it to make sure it was as advertised,

Those coils were one of the best things I did to the truck as far as handling went.

finally spring time again,

cleaned up the garage and tried to convince my father to start working on his boss again,

picked up a posi/disc brake rear end,

kayla is a little older,

I was getting pretty interested in racing my truck at the local road course at this point in time so i picked up this scale and figured out my corner weights,

Front*
Driver - 925 lbs
Pass - 926 lbs
----------------
- 1851 lbs


Rear*
Driver - 676 lbs
Pass - 623 lbs
----------------
- 1299 lbs

rebuilt that rear-end

bought a proper carb for the blower,

did brake lines for the first time,

continued in next post,

 

[elorejas]

Re: 1984 S10, an ongoing evolution

very nice project

 

[Andrew S]

Re: 1984 S10, an ongoing evolution

swapped rear ends

and went racing for the first time on a road course, and I was hooked.

did the 1/4 mile that night as well,

After a couple of road course events I really began to see where these trucks are lacking in their 2wd form. The biggest issues were weight in the front end and traction. After doing a lot of reading on awd conversion and seeing some sy/ty's on youtube I was convinced that was the next step.

So I picked up this 4wd '97 sonoma and started,

Didn't quite make it home though. 30 km's outside of town the wheel fell off. Lesson learned here, double check to make sure you torqued down every wheel.....

we got there though, the damage,

the truck was rock solid and for $450 I couldn't have been happier.I sold everything off of it except the motor/trans.

I started collecting some parts at this time, new wheels for the new build,

dogs kept us company while we tore it down,

made over $200 back in scrap.

found this nos 4472 on the local classifieds for $250

The plan now was to build a chassis/drivetrain and in the meanwhile continue to the enjoy the '84 in it's present form. I see so many projects go unfinished because there is no balance. It's hard to remember what you are working towards if you haven't driven your truck or car in years. So I can understand why a lot of people give up on their projects. Doing it this way I can continue to attend events and enjoy my truck while making it better.

This year I attended a number of road course events and my first auto-cross. I joined a local car club as well.

first event of the year,

had a blast literally and figuratively. Make sure your fire extinguisher is secure.

I was just relieved I didn't blow the motor as that was my initial thought

bought a gopro, thank you again Mike.
skip to :55


This was my first event ever running cones so I was just trying to remember the course, the driving is sketchy at best.




found a deal on a set of R6's for the ZX3R's,

Before I finished stripping the frame I bolted up the wheels to see what kind of clearance issues I'm going to have,

a custom sway bar will be needed but aside from that everything looks great,

bare

started cleaning up the frame. To my surprise it was in really great shape,

another event, great turnout,

I was always running right in the middle of the pack.
Let's see that lotus do this,

plan for the frame is simple, back-half designed after a bolt in back-half offered by an aftermarket company. I took the $1500 they wanted for theirs and bought a millermatic and made my own,

griffin rad/e-fan for the 2.8

final product, it's amazing how clean and quiet the engine sounds now. Those clutch fans make a ton of ambient noise,

loving the posi at this point,

a little to much,

backhalf begins

another event,

continued in next post,

 

[Andrew S]

Re: 1984 S10, an ongoing evolution

I had talked to the owner of the boss at a few previous events. Brand new less then 1000 km's on it and he was nice enough to take me around the 4 km course a few times. That's one hell of a car I tell you,

Instead of just running the course for fun I was really trying to make an effort to clean up my line and work on braking a lot more aggressively. Well I pushed it a bit to much here. Money shot around the 1:00 min mark.




Hit the only mud puddle on the whole course. Figures eh?
Had to remind the '84 it was still I truck I guess.

and 2 laps around the course,




main rails done, I'm not dead set on my rear suspension yet. It's likely going to be a 4 link/pan hard. I don't think I'm feeling ambitious enough to try and do a satchel.

wire wheeled and cleaned up the entire frame and covered the frame in any black spray paint I had laying around so it doesn't get covered in surface rust. Eventual plan is to blast/paint.

cleaned up the front diff,

deburred the case as I had a lot of time on my hands,

drove the '84 a bunch more,

kept spending money on parts for the new build instead of getting the hood painted,

stored away again for this winter and the parts collection continues,

Now onto the front suspension.

My goal with the front end is to replace stock parts with some real quality components and keep down the weight as much as possible.

I'll be using Sport Machines lowers courtesy of Tom,

and these SPC adjustable uppers,

For the spindles I've choosen c5/6's that have been massaged by SC&C,

Over the winter we'll be making up some billet steering arms as the ones that came in the kit way back when were not intended for a half-shaft,

Penske 8760 triple adjustable adjustable fronts and 8300 double adjustable rears,

I'll be going to an LS and from everything I've read about clearance problems and the LS's starving themselves for oil during later g's I opted for the dry sump route. Should kill 2 birds with one stone. I found this ARE complete system used for a hell of a deal.

3 3/4" total height, should allow me situate everything exactly how I hope to,

awd axle tube courtesy of Tom again, thank you,

some comparisons,

11 lbs

I should have weighed a stock shock but these have got to be a good bit lighter. It would be interesting to compare torsion bar + shock to one of these coils over shocks + coil.

I am so happy I found a pair of these spindles. I looked for months until finally finding a g-body guy who had a set he never used. This was a product put out by SC&C several years ago marketed as the G5 suspension package. It's one of the best if not the best suspension package ever developed for a G-body imo. It's to bad they made so few and stopped making them because of cost. If these spindles ever brake I'm in a real conundrum.

Notice the ball joint orientation,

I should get almost to exact ride height desired with these, without comprising suspension geometry to do so.

these were the dream wheel for me and way out of my budget, until I came across a used set for less then the price of the tires on them. The plan is to refinish them.

My current American Racing Torq Thrust M's 17x8's weigh 50lbs each.

The front 18x10.5's weigh in at 45lbs each.
The rear 18x12.5's weigh in at 49lbs each.

That's 12lbs in rotational and un-sprung weight savings with more grip, no complaints here.

Fronts 10.5's vs 8's

and a rear

I've been planning on keeping a tally of the weight deductions as I went along to see what I've really gained in the end,

Stock Uppers - 8lb
SPC Uppers - 5lb


Stock Lowers - 23 lb
SM Lowers - 9 lb

Stock Spindle - 11 lb
C6 spindle - 4 lb

Total Stock weight - 42 lb
Total Modified weight - 18 lb

I was really surprised by the difference in the lower control arms at 7lbs a piece without the balljoint. Kudos to Tom at Sport Machines that's over 1/3 less. I wish everything was that easy when it came to dropping weight.

With 3 components I've shed 24 lbs of unsprung weight from both sides of the truck. After the wheels that comes up to 29 lbs per side. Nearly 60 lbs shaved off the front and some great parts to replace it, again no complaints here.

I'll have to find one of the stock shocks and weigh it to compare to the penske. The stock unit is pretty beefy if my memory is serving me correctly.


phew that took a long time. So that's caught up to where I'm at, at the moment.
I hope it's alright to post an s10 in here as I'm referencing sy/ty's directly a lot during this build.

Andrew

 

[Andrew S]

Re: 1984 S10, an ongoing evolution

Thanks for the good words way up there guys,

Very nice build!! Im just curious as to why you decided to build the 2.8? I would have thought a 305? Or a 350? Did you build the 2.8 for reliability?

Originally when we had started working on the truck I was pretty set on keeping it as stock as possible. I didn't even want to do the 2" blocks and spindles. I wanted to keep it like I had remember growing up. So rebuilding the 2.8 to maintain the stock look was the original intention. It just sort of spiraled from that. I've pretty well reached the limits of the 2.8/blower at the moment. Unless I went nitrous/meth which I just don't have much desire to do. So with the new build I plan on going with a gen IV 5.3 sleeved to 427 with some other goodies. It will be a bit more appropriate.

Great build! My S15 was the exact same color combination. I'm glad you kept it, it's an excellent combo IMO. Only reason I got rid of mine was the body and frame were in bad shape due to rust

Thanks I appreciate that. It just wouldn't have been the same truck if I painted it another colour.

 

[Baythan]

Re: 1984 S10, an ongoing evolution

Got any pics?

That's BIG love for a LITTLE truck!! Wow.

 

[1BADV6]

Re: 1984 S10, an ongoing evolution

Very Impressive.....

 

[mattw]

Re: 1984 S10, an ongoing evolution

Wow!! Awesome!!! So is this AWD LS powered frame is going under the red/black 84? You guys do some very impressive work. So those spindles are actually 4x4 drop spindles? Very cool! I wish they were still produced.. Watching anxiously...

 

[Daron]

Cool thread / build. Please keep the updates coming


Daron

92 Ty
91 Sy

 

[hatrik8]

Re: 1984 S10, an ongoing evolution

Awesome. Thanks for sharing

 

[GM TURBO]

Re: 1984 S10, an ongoing evolution

Great read. Great project. I can't wait to see more.

 

[Ty92Resto]

Re: 1984 S10, an ongoing evolution

Great read. Great project. I can't wait to see more.

Was thinking the same thing. Love the photos and work! Reminds me of my 89 S-10 with a 2.8 and 5 speed. Great truck until my young impatient ass wanted a 4x4 and sold a perfectly good truck. Maybe thats why I have taken on a project that could have been another scrap Typhoon and bring it back knowing if I sell it I will lose a lot of $$$$.

 

[TY0618]

Re: 1984 S10, an ongoing evolution

Nice truck! Where abouts are you in Ontario?