donalson
New member
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2003
- Location
- Webster, TX (outside houston)
well WAY back in '07 I tried to get ahold of an s10... specifically my memas (grandmother-in-law)... this was a "farm truck" used on their 20 acres... would run into town on occasion... at that point it had been parked and replaced with a newer model S10... needed an exhaust manifold and some eaten wires replaced... she wouldn't let it go as it was papas (her husband) who'd passed a few years prior... prior to them owning it it was owned by the local water company... it still has bits of the service company sticker on the door lol.
now a few years latter she's down sizing, shes giving me the truck in trade for some work (that i'd do for free but she'd insist on paying me for)
it's an '88 2.5L duke/tech 4 with a slushy box trans.
interior was full of crap.
the anemic 2.5L iron duke/tech4 with it's all iron OHV pushrod awesomeness.... 92hp 130tq
I knew it had some running problems and hoped to get it sorted before I did anything else with it... a few mice had nests up in the engine bay, found another one in the cowl vent, some of the wire harness had been eaten and i was told the exhaust manifold was cracked and the fuel pump needed replaced...
some of the mouse eaten harness... not to bad honestly.
fuel pump was OK but the hose connecting to the sender had melted... replaced with some EFI hose and that took care of the fuel issues
replaced the cap, plugs, wires, rotor and got her running... but she was rought... compression test told the story 110-0-0-110 so pulled the head to verify the inevitable blown HG
I found this while pulling stuff...
and this tells the story
at this point I had a decision to make...
put the $35 into a headgasket set (yes a SET) or while it's this far apart pull the entire dang thing and test fit the volvo drivetrain... so out it all came....
the same day I picked up the truck I also picked up an '89 745ti... it had been mine but I sold it to a friend some years back with no turbo attached (stock turbo was blowing smoke so i pulled but never got it back together)... but it's been sitting at memas land waiting for him to come and get it... that was back in '07... the mice where far less kind to the volvo
a pic of it when I got the engine in back in '04... the engine came from an '86 765 with a nasty body... engine has about 145k miles on it now.
a quick drop in verified that we have plenty of room... sans the head mount dizzy... I was lucky enough to find that i have the teeth on the shaft for a block mount dizzy so
...
not much room back there.
my biggest concern for clearance was the TB and steering shaft... plenty of room... and thats with the pan sitting on the cross rail... when I put a 2x4 under clearance got even better everywhere
haven't removed the stock motor mounts from the frame (had to cut into the frame to get to the bottom nut... other option is to drop the lower control arm... but obviously plenty of room once the mounts are gone
space for a down pipe is a little tight but nothing a BFH can't fix... accessories fitment may be tight... no a/c to worry about so If needed I could run the alternator high on a hacked a/c / alternator mount... will do another test fit with the power steering installed before I go any further though.
plans for a 3" exhaust... which will basically be a down pipe into a cherry bomb or something and a turn down under the bed of the truck.
will be running an aw71 for now... I have 2 and will do the accumulator mod, I would like to do a t5 at some point but budget restraints prevent that for now... for turbo I have a tdo4h 13g... also have a chinabay 50 trim t3t4... will need a '90+ manifold... the stock IC and 3 core volvo radiator fit like it was made for the truck... I have a chinabay FMIC also but it's only a 20x7x3 core so not sure if i should try it out or just sell it and step up to a real big boy IC... for engine control i'm debating on running stock lh2.2 or going stright to Megasquirt... MS would simplify the wiring portion of the install but obviously increase initial cost and require tunning... but it's prob the best way to go if i'm honest with myself.
as of now the next step is to get mounts fabbed up... which means I need to pick up the proper dryer cord to adapt to my MIG lol... one day i'll have 220v running into my own garage... untill then...
*edit* I didn't mention... I hope to bring this truck to the GRM $2011 challenge... won't be super fast or competitive but just want something that is fun to drive around...
and from my findings i've got 4.10 rear end and it's about 500lbs less than the volvo wagon... the iron duke/trans combo should weigh within about 30lbs of the volvo setup... so should be pretty fun.
now a few years latter she's down sizing, shes giving me the truck in trade for some work (that i'd do for free but she'd insist on paying me for)
it's an '88 2.5L duke/tech 4 with a slushy box trans.
interior was full of crap.
the anemic 2.5L iron duke/tech4 with it's all iron OHV pushrod awesomeness.... 92hp 130tq
I knew it had some running problems and hoped to get it sorted before I did anything else with it... a few mice had nests up in the engine bay, found another one in the cowl vent, some of the wire harness had been eaten and i was told the exhaust manifold was cracked and the fuel pump needed replaced...
some of the mouse eaten harness... not to bad honestly.
fuel pump was OK but the hose connecting to the sender had melted... replaced with some EFI hose and that took care of the fuel issues
replaced the cap, plugs, wires, rotor and got her running... but she was rought... compression test told the story 110-0-0-110 so pulled the head to verify the inevitable blown HG
I found this while pulling stuff...
and this tells the story
at this point I had a decision to make...
put the $35 into a headgasket set (yes a SET) or while it's this far apart pull the entire dang thing and test fit the volvo drivetrain... so out it all came....
the same day I picked up the truck I also picked up an '89 745ti... it had been mine but I sold it to a friend some years back with no turbo attached (stock turbo was blowing smoke so i pulled but never got it back together)... but it's been sitting at memas land waiting for him to come and get it... that was back in '07... the mice where far less kind to the volvo
a pic of it when I got the engine in back in '04... the engine came from an '86 765 with a nasty body... engine has about 145k miles on it now.
a quick drop in verified that we have plenty of room... sans the head mount dizzy... I was lucky enough to find that i have the teeth on the shaft for a block mount dizzy so
...
not much room back there.
my biggest concern for clearance was the TB and steering shaft... plenty of room... and thats with the pan sitting on the cross rail... when I put a 2x4 under clearance got even better everywhere
haven't removed the stock motor mounts from the frame (had to cut into the frame to get to the bottom nut... other option is to drop the lower control arm... but obviously plenty of room once the mounts are gone
space for a down pipe is a little tight but nothing a BFH can't fix... accessories fitment may be tight... no a/c to worry about so If needed I could run the alternator high on a hacked a/c / alternator mount... will do another test fit with the power steering installed before I go any further though.
plans for a 3" exhaust... which will basically be a down pipe into a cherry bomb or something and a turn down under the bed of the truck.
will be running an aw71 for now... I have 2 and will do the accumulator mod, I would like to do a t5 at some point but budget restraints prevent that for now... for turbo I have a tdo4h 13g... also have a chinabay 50 trim t3t4... will need a '90+ manifold... the stock IC and 3 core volvo radiator fit like it was made for the truck... I have a chinabay FMIC also but it's only a 20x7x3 core so not sure if i should try it out or just sell it and step up to a real big boy IC... for engine control i'm debating on running stock lh2.2 or going stright to Megasquirt... MS would simplify the wiring portion of the install but obviously increase initial cost and require tunning... but it's prob the best way to go if i'm honest with myself.
as of now the next step is to get mounts fabbed up... which means I need to pick up the proper dryer cord to adapt to my MIG lol... one day i'll have 220v running into my own garage... untill then...
*edit* I didn't mention... I hope to bring this truck to the GRM $2011 challenge... won't be super fast or competitive but just want something that is fun to drive around...
and from my findings i've got 4.10 rear end and it's about 500lbs less than the volvo wagon... the iron duke/trans combo should weigh within about 30lbs of the volvo setup... so should be pretty fun.
