Might buy a 1987 Chevy S10 2.5L 4cyl 4spd manual
 

I local guy is selling a 1987 S10 with a carbureted 2.5L 4cyl and a 4spd manual for $400. I can probably get the truck for $300 or less. It has 137,000 miles on the motor and transmission, and has a new clutch. Its lowered a little with steel wheels all around. The body is pretty straight, apart from the dent in the front right, and the body is primer gray.

http://i489.photobucket.com/albums/r...x/s10001-1.jpg
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Im only looking for a vehicle for the winter because its pretty dangerous riding my Ninja 250 in the snow (the girlfriend and family are very uneasy about me doing it). Insurance is going to be about $350 for 6 months, which isn't too bad.

I was just wondering if anyone has had experience with these trucks and particularly with this engine and transmission? Is it worth buying? Is it a good candidate for my ecomodding hands?

S-10's are great little trucks, honestly. Being carb'd makes it easy to work on, repair, and adjust. The first things you should look into are status of the tune-up, and making sure the carb is properly tuned and adjusted. The truck, by all rights, SHOULD run a bit lean. The 2.5 "Iron Duke" doesn't like too much fuel, from what I've seen of them.

Also, that whole engine is Iron... it can "take the heat", if you know what I mean.

If you're serious about modding, don't think about transmission swaps. They're all the same. You could get a V6 rearend, though, which (IIRC) has a longer ratio.

Beyond that, if you like style, Camaro and Corvette are the only OEM wheel options for it (and the variants thereof). After those, it's aftermarket or wheel adapters.

There is a huge aftermarket available for S-10/S-15, but not much of it benefits MPG or aero, so you'll have to pick and choose for what's important to you.

Most of the S10 had a "cold air" intake base, where the air cleaner is ducted to the core suppor by the radiator. It could be adjusted to draw air from behind the radiator for a warm air intake. Drop in K&N filter?
I agree, full tune up, carb adjustment, etc would be in order.
Exhaust already has a "tubular" type exhaust manifold (mine did anyways) that is better then a log cast iron version. With 140K, I would consider a converter replacement (original may be the dreaded "pellet" style, incredibly restrictive and failure prone [expecially behind a carb]), and a lower restriction high flow muffler.
The existing lowering should help aero. A cheaper tonneau cover (soft vinyl) would be in the 225 range, if you wanted to go that way.
Roll pans are generally pretty cheap, if you wanted to ditch the weight of the rear bumper, and could be modded for aero, if you wanted it to not act like a parachute.

In general, the columns are "theft encouraged" GM so a collar might be wise.
Door hinges wear, particularly on driver's side.
Radio is INCREDIBLY easy to steal, so hide, relocate, or glovebox if you want fancy tunes.
Mine liked thicker oil, bearing tolerances got loose, and a new oil pump helped, but ultimately needed a crank kit and bearings to remain alive.

They're not all the same trannies....

He states it's got the 4spd manual tranny. That's the predecessor to the T-5 that's in most S-10s and it has no OD.

It's certainly a cheap truck and will likely do just fine for getting you around. But, if it were me I'd spend a little more and try to find a 2nd gen with a 2.2L and a T-5 tranny. I used to have a '98 S10 with this combo and regularly got 33mpg hwy. It was a good little truck and ran like a top (w/ 262k miles).

for 300$ you can't go wrong. I have a friend whos gone through several of the little guys. They're great. We've hauled half a ton of gravel in them without issue.

The 2.5/Manual/2WD regular cab is the one he usually goes for. The one he has thats fuel injected seems to be burning a bit more oil than the carbed one so he's probably gonna switch it out soon.

It's an extremely simple truck, most of the technology on it is from the 50s if not earlier. We've gotten 30~35 mpg a tank when we tried. Usual city driving is more like 20. Check to make sure its not burning any oil and it shifts through the gears fine, brakes are decent, and I say go for it. Not a lot can go wrong with them and what can is usually cheap to fix.

Im not sure i can justify it...

If i got the truck for $250
Transfer of title and registration = ~ $150 in NJ
Insurance is $300-350

Just to get the truck and put it on the road will cost me $700.

That's just about 2 YEARS of gas in my Ninja 250. :(

Yea, but can your bike ride safely in the snow? Can you haul anything larger than a backpack and saddlebags on your bike?

100MPG on a bike is great, don't get me wrong, but when one wheel slips in the snow, it's a lot more dangerous on a bike than it is in a car or truck. And, how long is your commute? I mean, once you travel over, I don't know, 10 miles or so, doesn't riding a motorcycle get really cold in the winter?

I mean, if you don't need a truck for anything, then don't get it. If you never plan on hauling anything, then just go for a Metro or something small. But trucks can definitely serve a purpose, as long as it's something more than just getting from A to B.

I understand the dangers of riding in the snow on a motorcycle, and I'm not going to do it. I used to ride dirtbikes in the snow all the time and it was "interesting" to say the least. I'd rather leave it for having fun offroad than doing it daily on the road!

The cold doesn't bother me at all. I made a tall windshield for my bike that blocks out pretty much all the wind from hitting me in the chest. I could go down to below fre

I never really have to haul anything other than clothes and stuff. The only reason this vehicle is attractive (in a economic sense) is because the cost of just the vehicle is cheap and i could probably squeeze mid 30's mpg out of it, maybe more with heavy modding.

It just pisses me off that the price of getting it titled, registered, and insured is so much!!! Fees to register+title the vehicle shouldn't cost more than what you paid for the vehicle itself. :(

You're not risking much by buying it. Ask a local junkyard how much they'd give you for it as scrap. It's probably a large percentage of the purchase price.

I'd prefer a 5MT and fuel injection. I also prefer manual steering and low rolling resistance tires, but this truck is good for a $400 set of wheels, especially if you won't be driving very far this winter. Do the math on your fuel costs before you buy any car: http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/compx2008f.jsp?year=1987&make=Chevrolet&model=S10% 20Pickup%202WD&hiddenField=Findacar

Back in the day, we had a 1980 Chevy Citation with the Iron Duke and 4spd manny. Say what you will about Citations, I liked that car. Aside from the fact that the engine ATE a stack o' water pumps, and the whole broken shifter cable fiasco (15 miles in second gear only), it was a pretty good car and aside from the water pump, the engine was great.

The Duke is no power monster. Forget big power. It isn't even big on torque but it'll get out of its own way. A lightweight chassis like the S10 is a good place for it. But not even trying to get decent mileage, our 1980 Citation was delivering low 30s mpg with Dad really wanting to get to Minnesota in decent time. That's pretty good economy, for a car with four aboard and the trunk completely full.

And we had no air conditioning. So all the windows were completely down. We finally got rid of ours, not because of the engine but everything else, mostly the tranny. The Duke held tough. And that tranny issue won't be a problem for you either, since I think it has the same bolt pattern as the SBC, so if you can make it fit between the frame rails of the truck, you can have whatever tranny you want, if you can find one that will fit a SBC. Since that's the most popular repower choice out there, no problem.

I'd jump at it. Make a cheapskate aerocap, cover those rear wheelwells, fair in the rockers, open up the exhaust a bit, I bet it'd break 40mpg, easy.

If you ever want to get nuts with a big four, check out the Super Duty Four. It looks just like a Duke, fits in the same space, makes more than twice the power. Stroker versions push 3.0 liters, make gobs of big power all day long, sound like an angry tractor under the hood. Awesome stuff.

87 i would think would be fuel injected,i agree with everyone very dependable,cheap to work on and descent on gas.
i see your point on money though, i keep thinking a 50cc scooter would be nice find one for 5-$600 no insurance or plates needed
but for a few bucks more a real motorcycle i could go faster and father on but then comes plates, insurance ,title ect.

I was looking for a 1984ish 1.9L 4 speed before I got putt-putt. My first S-10 got me 33 mpg at 65 mph by advancing the distributor and NO hypermiling. My second S-10 was an 87 2.8L V6 4 speed that got mid 20's.

Not sure about the bigger 2.5L though. My best guess would be upper 20's and better. It would be a fun truck to play with and cheap to fix.

I've always equated it to a cammed up 2300 in a Mustang Pro-Stock chassis running on alcohol. I've only ever heard one of the SD Dukes, though, and I'm not sure what displacement, etc.

Re: The transmissions - Ok, so lets nit pick the one thing that was out of place there... Obviously, the 4 speed tranny isn't the same. What I meant there was that swapping between 5 speed 4cyl and 5 speed 6 cyl will do nothing for you. You don't even get better internals. It's remained that way all the way up through the end of the S10 production run, that I can tell. Of course, I haven't looked at every single transmission out there in the early cases or in the later NV cases, so there may have been some with different gears. I do know that swapping in a small block is as simple as changing the bell housing and making new mounts.

S10 winter driver
 

I had a 91 Sonoma (GMC version S-10) for 10 years. It was a club cab 4.3 V-6 with 4 speed auto. I still managed to get high 20s mpg with it and I drove it hard. Under half throttle acceleration it would rip off a 3-5 second "chirp" and if floored it would smoke whichever tire had the least weight on it when it went for second. My driving style is a little different now.

The tire spin was because it was light in the rear. If you are gonna drive it in the snow you will need to put weight in the bed. That was my main complaint about mine, helpless in snow. Of course I never ran anything except the original 70 series "all season radials". All those burnouts didn't help the tread depth either.

Got rid of it in 01 because the wife hated the peeling blue paint and it needed valve guides so it smoked when first started. Plus she wanted me to get a 4x4.

You won't have the power I did but it should be a good winter truck for you. If it's not too rotted out with rust.

As far as eccomodding it, it is pretty square and mine got pretty squirrely over 95 or so but I doubt you will be doing anything like that. But pushing a brick through the air takes it's toll. For the price, if it gets you through the winter, who cares about your FE rep.

I feel for ya about the insurance and license cost as I used to live in Eastampton. Then I moved to Arizona and the costs went up 150%. So Joisy aint so bad.

Looking at the photos, except for the grille and cab length, it brings back fond memories of the ol Sonoma. Even the color is about the same as the dark blue looked at one point. No matter what I did the paint just died.

A later 5 spd is a direct replacement for the 4spd,
GM went cheap on the carb 4cyl S10 it was a fleet rig in their plan.

It would be interesting to do a actual axle gear swap if you could find one of the 4x4 5 spds and put it in the truck, the 4x4 had a lower 1st gear in most of them... SO you can get it moving with a higher axle gear.

Oh and here is a tidbit after some googling...
Axle Gearing codes from the S10 forum!

G80 = LIMITED SLIP DIFF
2.73 = GU2
3.08 = GU4
3.42 = GU6
3.73 = GT4, GQ1
4.10 = GT5

Dave

I remember those. I drove a five speed van with one. What were those called anyway, chevies little van.

As christ said the engine, it is a heat keeper. the trannies absolutely hate it. Even the forward yoke could melt. :rolleyes:

the four speed is a bit more brut internally...and the fuel, because of the heat soak, it is a perfect candidate for hypermile.
clean that engine as much as the truck. if egr'd do away with it.

S-10
 

A neighbor had one.He never saw over 24-mpg at the old double-nickel speed limit.
Gale Banks took the GMC variant to Bonneville and set a LSR,with one of the downwind passes at 210-mph.
They were able to get the drag coefficient down from Cd 0.47,to Cd 0.315 ( lower than the Corvette of the day ).With that 33% drag reduction they would have picked up about 16.5% better mpg at 55-mph.
If the baseline was 24 miles per gallon as was my neighbor,then the aero mods would push it to just under 28-mpg.
Gale Banks ran the California Custom kit nose/airdam,rocker panel extensions,the truck was stretched a foot(extended cab),MOON covers all around,and GM's patented 1/2-tonneau,which on that truck,works better than a full tonneau.
An aero-shell would have got the drag even lower(although you wouldn't want to drive that fast with it),as well as wheel skirts and bellypan.
Tailshaft overdrives are available today from two suppliers.With a shortened driveshaft they install in 45-minutes and allow gear splits in any gear.One of these units would give you an 8-speed transmission and allow the engine to operate close to it's maximum BSFC at all times.
HOT ROD Magazine just installed one from Gear Vendors on their Ford Ranchero and picked up a clean 2.5-mpg.
There's no reason why a truck like the S-10 couldn't get into mid to upper thirty mpg territory.It just depends how much money,time and energy you want to put into it.

Go for it! If you're just gonna keep it for a few months those costs sound very reasonable. Plus, you sound like you are probably not gonna be driving it every single day, so it'll probably be cheaper than renting a car or taking a taxi.

Now, to answer your questions:
1. I'm with my second s-series truck and I've always liked 'em a bunch. No experience with that combo of engine and trans(mine have both been 4.3L and 4spd auto).

2. I think it is definately worth buying. The peace of mind for your family alone justifies that cost. Plus, maybe you can make a few dollars by moving sfuff for folks, which will help offset your costs. When younger I was able to get bunches of pizzas and beer:D, and a few dollars here and there.

3. I think it'll be a great candidate for ecomodding. Like others have stated, you should be able to pull some very respectable mpg's with just a few tweaks and mods.

If I was going to do that with an ol' S10, I'd hog out all the junk and drop in a really tall rearend, like 2.73 if I could find it, plus a five-speed with an overdrive. An SBC in that would have mountains of torque to call on, you could make it a really long-legged, easy highway cruiser. Perfect for long trips with the mill just ticking over.

Small block swaps are so common in S10s that the kits are openly available to make them bolt in, including basically plug-in wiring harnesses and adapter kits.

The NV-series transmission, you can use the 4 cylinder, V6, or V8 NV trans, and just swap the front half of the case (bell side and front half of the gearbox, 2 piece cases), which allows you to use whatever gears you want, in the event that you can even find different ratios. I think the only changes in the NV-equipped trucks was the rear gear ratio. Finding the 2.73 rear (or even lower, if you could.) would really be nicely loading the SBC, and with intelligent driving, you could easily see 30's with it.

From what I remember of my days of old, the SBC's could handle lower RPMS all day, as long as you didn't break the 1k barrier. They really didn't like to be under that, at least not in stock trim. Add in some tight long tube headers and a long-runner air-gap style intake, and you get more mid-range and low-end torque, at the expense of a choked out top end (of the rev range), which allows you to basically run 50 MPH idling in high gear without so much as a hiccup.

I've always been more about using longer gears to extract torque than using short gears to get the RPM's up there. I follow Larry Widmer's idea that RPM = Ruins People's Motors.