Top Five available eco-mod vehicles??

[Big Dave]

To me, it would be tough to beat an S-10 for a project vehicle. They have been made for over two decades and there is a massive aftermarket for them.

Being front-engine/rear drive, they can have all sorts of engine, transmission, rear axle swaps. The RC/LB versions have a seven-foot long bed - very easy to approximate a boat-tail.

To me a early 90s 4x2 RC/LB with 4 cylinder engine and five speed (T-10) transmission would be the perfect place to start.

I wouldn't hit a dawg in the butt with front wheel drive. Your engine/transmission/ final drive is dictated to you.

[RH77]

Originally Posted by Big Dave

To me, it would be tough to beat an S-10 for a project vehicle. They have been made for over two decades and there is a massive aftermarket for them.

Being front-engine/rear drive, they can have all sorts of engine, transmission, rear axle swaps. The RC/LB versions have a seven-foot long bed - very easy to approximate a boat-tail.

To me a early 90s 4x2 RC/LB with 4 cylinder engine and five speed (T-10) transmission would be the perfect place to start.

I wouldn't hit a dawg in the butt with front wheel drive. Your engine/transmission/ final drive is dictated to you.

I feel the duty to reply on behalf of all of us "FWD losers" out there.

First, the S-10 is a brick. The effort required to simply get the Cd down to decent levels would be significant.

Second, the last time I checked, FWD-based engines, transaxles, and/or the gears within them can be swapped, mixed and matched, etc. Have you ever owned or regularly driven a front-wheel drive vehicle Dave?

Third, in Winter or heavy rain conditions, S-10 rear drive traction is less-than-ideal, without adding weight.

-Rick / RH77

[fonque]

i dont if anyone on here has driven one, but a 1.6 litre Nissan NX1600 gets excellent gas miliage because of its gas friendly shape.

[IndyIan]

I think what Dave means is that he can swap final drive ratios much more easily with RWD and with many more options. S-10's probably had 3 or 4 different final drive ratios from the factory and I believe all sorts of trannys will work in it from bigger GM trucks. Compared to a 98 Cavalier, I think all you can really do is just swap trannys, I don't think you can easily change the final drive unless that tranny had another drive ratio as a factory option.

The honda world is a bit different with importing stuff from japan and lots of aftermarket support but not many other front drivers have that level of interest.

I was surprised to read here that people had been able to change just the 5th ratio in a transmission in a few different cars, maybe this is possible in more fwd cars than I think but I imagine most people would rather swap transmissions vs opening them up.
Ian

[Big Dave]

S-10s and the little Blazers are the grist for a huge after market. The variety of stuff you can get for them - no fabrication needed - is staggering.

Off the shelf you can get at least four suspension "slam" kits for lowering the ride height. I prefer the 3" front, 5" rear but you can put these things right down on the deck if your road is smooth enough.

Yup, the S-10 is a brick just like all pickups. Just like Phil Knox' (Aerohead) T100 was when he started. But with either a 66" or 84" bed you have a long way to taper down your wake area and still retain the boundary layer all the way down. A 10 degree angle is about a 1-in-6 slope, so that 66" bed will allow you to lower the wake area by 11" and still have good layer adhesion all the way down. With short little imports you are caught on the horns of a dilemma. Do you use a shallow angle to keep layer adhesion and accept a big wake area or do you try to reduce the area with a steeper slope and risk losing the boundary layer? With length (66 or 84" bed) you can do quite a bit of both. so, although it does start out a brick, it can be drastically improved.

All GM vehicles tend to have big engine compartments so you can stuff anything from a Briggs & Stratton one-lunger to a 454 in one. I've seen the 454 versions, they are hideously nose heavy but they do sorta work. there are many small-block conversion kits for the S-10. So literally anything you want short of a locomotive engine can be used. Myself I would favor one of three engines. I believe you can get adapters for VW TDI engines and Advance Adapter can (for a premium) make an adapter for a five cylinder Benz engine out of a 300D or the 4 cylinder from a 240D. There are a few old 4.3 V-6 diesels left over from the mid-80s. These would need a set of cylinder head studs (the weakness on 4.3 and 350 GM diesels of that time period. They can be had...just add money. The old 4.3 made 85 HP at a very low RPM. Its Roosa-Master injection can handle almost any alternative fuel that is somewhat oily and can flow.

Likewise you have a bunch of transmissions that will work in a S-10. You could keep the throwaway T-5 five speed. You could use a Richmond Gear 4+1 which is a close-ration T-10 with a long jump to a straight-through top gear. This setup would let you use a very low (numerically) rear end and have a drive train with no gear friction loss (except in the rear axle.) You could put a T-56 six-speed (actually fairly easy to find). The T-56 has a huge second overdrive and that would let you use a numerically higher rear end for acceleration and really slow that engine down in a cruise.

The list of axle ratios you can get for S-10s is bewildering. You can get them as low as 2.47:1 (fairly rare) or as high as 4.88:1. The stops I know about are 2.47, 2.73 (very common), 3.08 (very common), 3.23, 3.31, 3.55, 3.73 (very common), 4.10 (common), 4.56, and 4.88.

So, I have enumerated three engines, three transmissions, and ten axle ratios and haven't even touched gas engines or automatic transmissions (ptui!).

There are hundreds of thousands of these truck in junkyards if you want parts. My advice is get body parts from the Phoenix or Denver area (nothing rusts there although the paint is faded) and mechanical parts from the Pittsburgh area. In PA, cars rust like mad so their mechanicals still have useful service life left.

You walk into any garage, transmission shop, or body shop in America and you'll find somebody who has worked on a S-10. Remanufacturers like Jasper will sell you nice fresh remanned engines and trannies off the shelf.

S-10s use either 14 or 15 inch wheels so your rubber can be very low rolling resistance and as narrow as you like.

On top of the fact there are zillions of them out there, they were always considered a bit of a throwaway vehicle, so you can get one cheap - like three digit cheap.

S-10s are not favorites of hot-rodders and low-riders by accident. They are a very flexible "canvas" on which to work your "art."

[dremd]

If only they made an S-10 Diesel . . .

I agree on the TDI, except hat they are overvalued on the used market.

Echo is GREAT value for the $

I think your decision shouldn't be based on what ecomods best, but what you need!

Answer these

Need to tow?
Need to have a in-experienced driver drive it in the snow/ wet?
How much cargo capacity?
How much money?
How much do you drive?
Where do you drive?

If your our for max mpg get a CRX or the like and build Bassjoos 2.0

[texanidiot25]

Originally Posted by dremd

If only they made an S-10 Diesel . . .

They did... In Brazil. There are diesel S-10s in central/south america, that you could probably go down and buy for cheap if you were determined. Or possibly order the diesel through a GM dealership and swap it, their identical trucks to our US S10s.


http://www.cardomain.com/ride/761196

There are diesel Ford Rangers in other parts of the world too, while were stuck with the little 4.0(?)L V6 and the 4-banger here. Both of which with questionable reliability in my experience.

S10s are cheap as dirt, very easy to work on (even the 2nd generation), and the 4.3L V6 is a very reliable motor. Though the 4-banger is a hit-n-miss with reliability. My CAD/Shop teacher has one with over 300k miles and easily averages 30+ mpg on the highway. All the while, with out trying, I've seen 22mpg freeway on the 4.3, cruising at 70ish (my family owns a '98 GMC Jimmy).

And for all the reasons bondo stated above, if your looking at something to retain weekend towing/hauling utility and still return good numbers, and on top of all of that, has a useful aftermarket comparable in size to the ricer market for Civics, it's a win-win deal.

I'd like to nominate the 1990 and up V6 F-bodies (Camaro Firebird). Performance cars with more EF friendly engines, their designed from the start to be an efficient performing car. My firebird for instance already employs several of the mods y'all use on your cars. No grille, underbody panels, air damns (center scoops air for radiator, sides push air around tires), small mirrors, aerodynamics bodies, the 1990 and up firebird can be had with the optional body kits from the Trans-Am (I know on the 90-91 for certain), which had better Cd. Ratings then their base models, and a huge aftermarket in suspension and drivetrain. Though, yes the Firebirds have pop-up head lights, I would wonder if a flush-mount headlight conversion from the Nissan 240 and other such cars could fit..

While the V6s aren't backed hugly by the aftermarket, the 3.1, 3.4, and 3.8 are all reliable engines, and get can manage to get good mpg for their size. In my dads 01 Grand Prix GT, we've seen close to 30 mpg hwy in road trips, loaded up with luggage, 2 adults and a kid.

And these cars are everywhere. V6 cars can be found cheaply on craigslist almost all the time.

I'm gonna deffinatly change my habits on the '90 firebird and see what can be had with the little 3.1L. But from the start, the cars have many of the ideas used when "Ecomodding" the cars here.

[atomicradish]

A few cars worth mentioning:

Late 90's Sentra - 25 city/ 35 hwy , and widely available
Ford Festiva - widely available; earlier models got better FE
Toyota Tercel
Mazda Protege
Pontiac Sunfire

I didn't see any of these listed. All of them are relatively fuel efficient. If you modded any one of them, you could easily reach 40 MPG.