Hello!

[Gene910]

Hello! My name is Gene I'm new here and i've always shot for high mpg in my cars but now I have to get a truck the one im looking at is a 1990 chevy S10 2wd Manual 4.3 v6 and my goal is 25 mpg now this is a major decrease from my saturn which i average about 37 mpg on my maine trip from nj traving 80mph the whole way but i was wondering if you guys could give any suggestions for increasing the fuel economy of this truck thanks in advance

[Frank Lee]

You are going far too slow.

[elhigh]

Hey, Gene,

Punctuation is your friend. I read your post in one breathless rush.

My experience with the 4.3 in the truck I drive at work is that it is a shocking gas pig. Granted that truck has both the automatic and the 4x4 working against it, but still - you'd think there'd be more than 200 miles to empty. It's amazing.

I understand the 2.2 makes decent power for its size and in a manny compact truck it might be all you need. If you never tow more than a ton or so, it should get the job done; the 2.4 in my truck has been sufficient and I have towed a couple of 3000-lb loads with another half-ton aboard. Under those conditions it isn't the engine that is the limiting factor anyway, but the brakes. If you don't need the extra power, could you live without the two extra cylinders?

[Gene910]

I tried finding an S-10 with the Iron Duke 4 cylinder but i could not find one with low miles. Now the v6 version I'm going to look at friday only has 109k. We have a 17ft Grumman bass boat but i don't think a 4 cylinder would be able to pull it all the way to greenwood lake, there's way too many hills. Do you think it would be able to tow it? sorry about my punctuation i'm always in a rush.

[elhigh]

People talk bad about the Duke but I liked it. It suffered from beancounteritis, being designed down to a price tag and, initially, to a fuel economy goal. It delivered a solid 30mpg in our 1980 Citation, which was actually pretty good for the time in a car that size.

They stopped screwing the Duke into S-10s around 1993 or so, and by that time it was delivering a modest 105hp and 135 lb-ft. That's comparable to the 22R in the compact Toyota that was available at the same time. The torque number is what really matters there.

We have a 1987 Toyota pickup and it dragged around a 16' Bayliner with no difficulty. That wasn't a bass boat so I don't know how the weights would compare, but since this one was set up as a bowrider just for pleasure use, I'm guessing that there was more weight dedicated to seats and stuff...but a bass boat may have comparable weight dedicated to livewells. So you'd have to compare them.

At a first guess, I wouldn't attempt to tow anything more than 3500 lbs on a 2.5-equipped S-10, same rating as my truck. Again your most limiting factor would be the brakes, but no one likes the smell of cooked clutch either. If it's mostly level where you tow it may be less of an issue.

If the price is right on that low-mile truck, nab it. Then do what you can to mod it and make it thrifty. That's what the rest of us are doing, refusing to be satisfied with the factory equipment.

[Frank Lee]

Gramps had a 4 cyl S10, nice little truck, easy on gas. It's replacement was an S15 with a V6, what a sow, night and day difference.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

An uncle of mine has a '97 Brazilian S10, originally fitted with an Opel-designed 2.2L SOHC gasser, and swapped a '92 2.5L on it. In spite of its OHV layout being deemed outdated, it's still one of the most dependable engines for a compact truck, no wonder it was used for so long in those Grumman-Olson LLV mail carriers...

BTW the Iron Duke is still available brand-new for marine and stationary/industrial applications, enlarged to 2.8L, which were even used in some Chevrolet Caprice taxis and export versions in late 80s.