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Inexpensive power for my 91 s10 blazer ideas?
- Thread starter Mathwah
- Start date
dbrannon79
I'm getting there!
Welcome to TTS @Mathwah Glad to have you join. tell us a little about your S10. engine size and all the details. any upgrades you've already done and of course pics. we all love a little truck porn LOL 
you might add to your signature your truck details so that it shows up each time you post and we all know what were working on.
you might add to your signature your truck details so that it shows up each time you post and we all know what were working on.
MrMarty51
Well-Known Member
Welcome to the forum Mathwah.
If You aint in a hurry in Your travels, one of those diesel engines from a semi refrigerator trailer could work mighty nice and get some excellent fuel mileage.
4 cylinder cat or cummins would give you some great power but the price might be a bit much.
A nice used reefer engine could be hundreds less.
If You aint in a hurry in Your travels, one of those diesel engines from a semi refrigerator trailer could work mighty nice and get some excellent fuel mileage.
4 cylinder cat or cummins would give you some great power but the price might be a bit much.
A nice used reefer engine could be hundreds less.
DieselAmateur
She ain't revved 'til the rods are thrown...
I mentioned it in another thread but my go-to for a vehicle that size would be a VW ALH TDI with a mechanical injection pump off a Land Rover 300. You could beef up the ALH with BRM rods and pistons. Or go further by boring the ALH out to a 2.0 (81mm bore) and drop in a BEW engine crank, rods and pistons.
Last edited:
Will L.
Well-Known Member
Welcome.
The 4.3 is a good little v6. Yours was same year as the cyclone and the typhoon.
They pushed them hard with a turbo and inner cooler. Adding a small turbo with inner cooler would be my suggestion. But if you aren’t changing pistons, cam, etc. then use around half the boost they did.
There is one fatal flaw in the 4.3- the intake manifold gaskets fail often. To play it safe the rule of thumb is replace it every 50,000 miles. It’s not expensive and a simple weekend job first time you do it. After that you can bang it out in a long afternoon. When you wait too long it fails and coolant ends up in a cylinder. Most of the time it happens after shutting off the engine then next time you start it the engine locks up at low rpm. So replacing the gasket, coolant flush and two oil changes solves it. But if it goes while at 3000 rpm you buy a new engine.
If doing improvements as each payday comes or once a month type improvements:
First do the intake gasket.
Then add an egt gauge to learn where normal safe temperatures are. Write them down because over time you will forget.
Then add the inner cooler but leave the ends covered to keep them clean.
Next add the turbo. Having the inner cooler from day one is a big deal not just for power but keeping the air cool for it helps engine longevity.
If ya want you can plum in the cold air intake to go from the air filter to your throttle body before you ever get the turbo. If you’ve heard of a cold air intake, this is like that, but way better because you’ll be drawn in the air and cooling it way more than just ambient temperature. But the money you spend on the plumbing, most of it will go to waste once you add the turbo. You’ll be able to use some of the parts plumbing to the turbo, but some will go in the trash.
A nice thing about a turbo is, it doesn’t just add power, but when you drive calmly, it will increase MPG.
The 4.3 is a good little v6. Yours was same year as the cyclone and the typhoon.
They pushed them hard with a turbo and inner cooler. Adding a small turbo with inner cooler would be my suggestion. But if you aren’t changing pistons, cam, etc. then use around half the boost they did.
There is one fatal flaw in the 4.3- the intake manifold gaskets fail often. To play it safe the rule of thumb is replace it every 50,000 miles. It’s not expensive and a simple weekend job first time you do it. After that you can bang it out in a long afternoon. When you wait too long it fails and coolant ends up in a cylinder. Most of the time it happens after shutting off the engine then next time you start it the engine locks up at low rpm. So replacing the gasket, coolant flush and two oil changes solves it. But if it goes while at 3000 rpm you buy a new engine.
If doing improvements as each payday comes or once a month type improvements:
First do the intake gasket.
Then add an egt gauge to learn where normal safe temperatures are. Write them down because over time you will forget.
Then add the inner cooler but leave the ends covered to keep them clean.
Next add the turbo. Having the inner cooler from day one is a big deal not just for power but keeping the air cool for it helps engine longevity.
If ya want you can plum in the cold air intake to go from the air filter to your throttle body before you ever get the turbo. If you’ve heard of a cold air intake, this is like that, but way better because you’ll be drawn in the air and cooling it way more than just ambient temperature. But the money you spend on the plumbing, most of it will go to waste once you add the turbo. You’ll be able to use some of the parts plumbing to the turbo, but some will go in the trash.
A nice thing about a turbo is, it doesn’t just add power, but when you drive calmly, it will increase MPG.
MrMarty51
Well-Known Member
Is what we was told in the schooling sessions is the heated turbo air going through CAC will be ten degrees lower than ambient temperature when it comes out the other end.
IDK how that would work with a NA engine.
The 350 V8 that was in my 1993 K1500 GMC, the intake manifold would leak prestone. I took it apart twice to replace the gaskets.
The second time I noticed electrolysis had eaten into the heads around the coolant ports.
Cleaned those portions real well with stainless steel tooth brush and some sanding paper and got the deepest pits shiny clean.
Layered in some steel bond J-B Weld and let it cure for 24 hours.
Used a flat file and planed them portions down.
Used no.2 Permatex around those ports with new gaskets and in 80,000 miles never had another leak around the coolant ports.
IDK how that would work with a NA engine.
The 350 V8 that was in my 1993 K1500 GMC, the intake manifold would leak prestone. I took it apart twice to replace the gaskets.
The second time I noticed electrolysis had eaten into the heads around the coolant ports.
Cleaned those portions real well with stainless steel tooth brush and some sanding paper and got the deepest pits shiny clean.
Layered in some steel bond J-B Weld and let it cure for 24 hours.
Used a flat file and planed them portions down.
Used no.2 Permatex around those ports with new gaskets and in 80,000 miles never had another leak around the coolant ports.
jrsavoie
Recruit
Older lawn mowers can be had fairly reasonable sometimes