I guess I'll join the fun (minitruck content)

[fackinsteve]

Decent update. Made a lot of progress the past weekend but have been working on this every chance I've had to get it back on the road. Prepping the truck for the 5 speed swap I ran into a few snags, the first of which totally caught me off guard.



Being a New England truck I should've expected it but still it annoyed me but I ground it all down and undercoated it. Not my best work but this truck will never see a winter again under my ownership so I'm not too worried about it









Once that was all set I cut a hole in the floor for the shifter to go through and then laid down some dynamat for a little extra sound deadening to here all the little squeaks and rattles that plagues every single 00's domestic car ever.







Also mocked up the shifter and clutch pedal for the lolz





Decided to freshen up the brakes a little bit with some new calipers and pads. I would do the rotors too but they're only a year old. Put some fresh paint on the calipers and painted the wheel wells and undercoated the frame a bit while I was there












While collecting parts for the swap I continued to prep for the install by removing my old downpipe. For reference on where this hang this will parallel to my transmission pan on the auto. The 5 speed provides a lot more clearance which is one of the main reasons I've opted for doing the swap.





As you can see I had a "slight" exhaust leak

I picked up my transmission locally from a buddy of mine for a decent deal and got it cleaned up a little bit.



Started getting it ready for install







Was kind of a pain the ass to get it in but I wouldn't have been able to do it without a second pair of hands. Got everything else buttoned up the next day.









Back on the ground, pardon how disgustlingly dirty it is from sitting. Will be giving this a proper detail soon



Springs need to settle but



Still need to connect the master cylinder to the clutch, get a battery and tray, do a transmission flush, and get some spring clips to properly hold the clutch pedal in. I skipped over a lot of stuff but this basically touches about everything I've done the past month or so. Hopefully I get to take it for a shakedown run next week

Also I need to invest in a real camera

[The Shit Box S10]

Link to the nrg hub?
super clean btw and sad your selling

[fackinsteve]

Link to the nrg hub?
super clean btw and sad your selling

The part # is SRK-170H, I think I got mine on eBay. And I'm probably not selling it at this point lol

[fackinsteve]

Installed the clutch master cylinder and got the line hooked up. It came as a pre bled unit and so far the pedal feels great, it was just a bit difficult to feed in the line through the truck.





Once I got that connected I began to reinstall my interior but ran into a snag with my original carpet, I miscut the hole and it was showing past the center console so I made a quick run to the junkyard and grabbed the only reasonable shape carpet I could. Took it to the carwash and pressure washed it and brought it home. On the way back I grabbed a battery and some GM Syncromesh for the transmission and went home. Unfortunately the carpet I grabbed was tan so I had some black interior dye kicking around and decided to give it a shot.







It came decent, a little crunchy but I sort of expected it coming anyway. I threw it in and kind of facepalmed because it doesn't match any of my interior so I think the next step is to dye the interior to match the carpet.





Threw in 90% of the rest of the interior at that point







Still have to wire in my radio and reinstall the kick panel beneath the dash. Just been too lazy to attempt any wiring so far. Gave it a quick bath though





Honestly I'm still torn on the 17s and the color of the faces but I really don't have the money right now to build these into 18s or anything fancy like that so I'm probably just going to rock them as they are for now. I also installed LED bulbs into my cluster to try and liven my completely stock interior a little bit. I really dig them



At this point I was really waiting on a few parts to show up before I could take it for a quick shakedown. Once they showed up I drove it down the street for this first time since October which felt really nice. What didn't feel nice was my brake pedal. So I went to the parts store down the street and tossed in a brake line and was back in business. Now I was pretty much just waiting to register it again and I would be set to take this on an actual test drive. In the mean time I decided to do a few cosmetic things. Probably not everyones cup of tea but I installed some smoked lamin-x film and LED headlight bulbs to the truck





Once I was able to register my truck I took it to my work to get some brake fluid, it made it the whole way without a single issue



So far now I have 300 miles on the swap and have been dailying it for the past week. Everythings been pretty good thus far but I still have a few things I'd like to take care of but for now I'm happy.







I'd like to get the rear about a half an inch lower and have the truck sit level on either side because this truck is plagued with Chevy lean. The truck sits about 3/4" higher on the passenger side front than the drivers side and about a half an inch in the back. I have a few tricks up my sleeve to remedy this in the future because I really want to dial in that perfect ride height. But for now I'm pretty happy with it. Hopefully I'lll have more updates soon

[FunfGang]

Looking really good, love low trucks and the wheels are definitely unique for an s10.

What is the cause of the lean? Gas tank placement or something?

[Earl]

For future reference, spray the dye on in very thin coats and brush the carpet fibers between each coat. It helps the dye get deep into the fibers instead of sitting on the top.

[fackinsteve]

Looking really good, love low trucks and the wheels are definitely unique for an s10.

What is the cause of the lean? Gas tank placement or something?

Thanks! And yes the gas tank sits on the driver's side and I believe that's the cause of it

For future reference, spray the dye on in very thin coats and brush the carpet fibers between each coat. It helps the dye get deep into the fibers instead of sitting on the top.

I brushed it in but I did heavy coats so I'm assuming that's what caused it. I've never painted fabric before so I wasn't really sure what to expect but thanks for the tip

[fackinsteve]

So I know its been awhile since I last popped my head in here but a few things have happened since my last update! I was able to fix my radio issue very easily I simply had to swap one green wire for another and bam it worked. So per usual it took me 5 seconds to actually figure out what was wrong after thinking of different things for about 2 months lol. Mechanically I didn't really do much I took it for an alignment thats about it. I've mainly been enjoying it going different places and hanging out with different people. Here are a few shots from my friend Mike









Found this rad tow truck out in Western MA



Unrelated I did a timing belt, water pump and full tune up on my daily. So far its been treating me well, I picked up a set of wheels for it and some coilovers as well. Just need to get new rear shocks for them so I can put them in and fix the height issue it currently has. After I bring the truck to H2oi I'll be doing a valve cover gasket and cam adjuster seal to keep it from pissing oil on the cat. Once thats all taken care of I'm going to install the TT injectors I have for it and get it reflashed for Stage 1 as well as build a budget catback for it.



So with Wolfsgart coming up I got an alignment and checked everything before the 4 hour venture up North. Once that was all squared away I met up with a few buddies and cruised up.





Yes I bring my Chevy to VW events.



Ran into Tommy (Slowlowandbangin)



Couple of pictures through limbo





Such an awesome weekend, fun fact I was completely dragging the entire time through the limbo, it definitely left my ears ringing and people around me confused as to how I was making that noise



Once I head home from VT the next weekend I went down to NJ the following weekend to meet up with my friend Brian just to hang out for a few hours then catch another show on the way back!

Brian and I's cars



Once on my way home I noticed the truck felt a little sketchy on the highway, maybe after hitting two raised manhole covers and catching air several times on the way too and from took its toll. I knew I had to take care of this sooner than later but I stopped back in Western MA on the way back from NJ to catch Fieldwerks and hang out with a bunch of good friends of mine. Again I got suckered into limbo and ended up doing the same thing I did at Wolfsgart, static dragging around the grounds.



Then someone asked jokingly if my truck did burnouts......................



Yes this truck has a 2.2.



Once I got home there it sat for like two weeks before I decided to change a few things out



I hopped on RockAuto and snagged a reman ZQ8 box, AcDelco center link and idler arm.



I began to jack up my truck by the front crossmember like I normally do, took the wheels off and continued to jack it up as normal and then it slipped off the jack and landed on my harmonic balancer and serpentine belt.



Very lucky to even be here right now, I've never had anything like that happen to me before and am glad all I did was bend the balancer and shear the belt. So I ordered a new unit and began trying to get the front linkage taken apart which ended up proving to be a nightmare. After fighting with the pitman arm puller the first go with no impact and no heat I ended up snapping the head off the bolt from the puller. So yesterday after giving up last weekend I pulled everything out as one.



I jammed a 12 point socket and backed it off the puller to remove it. I also picked up another steering wheel for the truck from a friend, not the biggest fan but honestly I don't plan on keeping this truck for much longer and I like it better than the Grip Royal



Also got the new balancer in and tossed that in as well as put in a Continental belt



At this point I began to install the new gear in the truck while I waited on my friend to come by and see if we could use the air compressor from his bagged Jetta to hit the pitman arm with my impact. So I got the new gear in, installed the idler arm and center link and just as I finished doing that my friend arrived. So I brought the gear to the back of his car to attempt getting the pitman arm off again, in the middle of my street....this was to no avail but he offered to let me use the torch at his place to get it off. And just like that, it was off. I didn't take any pictures of this adventure however but I'll tell you that it was a major pain in the ass. So once we got done hanging out at his place I went home and decided to finish putting it back together. It was about 11 at this point so I grabbed a beer and started cranking. After dealing with getting the tie rods to stop spinning while tightening them I finished everything else up and called it a night at about 2 in the morning. (Yes I work slow)

This morning I bled the power steering and took it for a drive for the first time in two weeks, stopped by the lake and enjoyed the view



And that brings me up to speed with this thing! I still need to find a solution for my sloppy steering rag joint but other than that it drives much better, the ZQ8 box doesn't seem to make a difference but mine needed replacement anyway. So now thats left is getting another alignment, replacing my one bald rear tire, and changing out my flex pipe and she'll be good to go for H2oi, providing I don't blow another transmission on the way down again lol.

[EricT93]

Dime is looking great as always!

[fackinsteve]

Thank you man!

[fortbrick]

Small world. I think your friend and I go to the same tech school in Ohio.

Truck is looking good. I've always been a fan of the late model s10's.