Buying a V8 s10?

[Blue250X]

Has anyone ever bought an s10 with a 350 sbc in it? What are some things to look for when buying one? Stuff like rigging the engine mounts and things? How long do the stock s10 rear ends last with the 350? Also, is a TH350 tranny the same as a turbo 350? Thanks

[Creech52]

Basically your going to look for the same things as with any used car, look everything over, start it, listen for noises and look for leaks. Really the main concern with a V-8 s10 is clearance issues with the back of the motor and the exhaust manifolds/headers. If you can try to get it to overheat, that seems to be another issue with them if they dont have a better radiator. As for the rear end its the same one used in camaros, I believe its a 10 bolt 8.5 or 7.5. Now thats for 82-93 S-10s and camaros. Im not sure about late model s10s. But they are a decent rear end and take quite a bit of abuse, just dont be stupid, dropping it down into a lower gear, and putting alot of side load on them is usually where they fail. For the last question yes a TH350 is the same as a turbo 350, its just two ways of shortening the real name. TH simply stands for Turbo Hydramtic and turbo 350 is that for short and TH350 is just a model number much like RS and SS they stand for something but as a code its simply RS or SS not Ralley Sport or Super Sport.

[Blue250X]

Thanks^^ That was alot of help. Where should I be looking for the manifolds / headers to be touching? The actual engine itself or the body?

[Blue250X]

Bump...anyone else have anything?

[clutch22]

Talk to "Which450" .... he seems to know a thing or two about them.

[Scott-300ex]

Make sure its a 350, my buddy had one, sold it, bought more cars, then bought another V8 S10 with a 350, he was STOKED.

Turns out it was a 305, Ha, so he had his friend build him a 350 with around 500hp, But he is dead broke now!

And there are websites, like v8s10.com v8s10.org

[TheFontMaster]

You buddy should have built up that 305 that was in there. they can make some beastly lil motors. I got a 305, and I'm building it up into a 500 horsepower 334 stroker.

[Project300EX]

Take a look at s10forum.com. I'm a member there and it's the best one online. They can be a little harsh, so search if you go there.

[88blaster]

It all depends how its done, look closely for african engineering. Just the other day my buddy and I went to look at a chevy truck with a 3" body lift and new paint. We got there and although they hid it well, some close scrutiny revealed alot of bondo and a bunch of hockey pucks for a lift! :ermm: Honestly, it looked nice at first glance. kinda sad, if it would have been done right it would have been really cool. Kinda irritating.

Whoa, anyway, if you get it, get pics.

Good luck

[Creech52]

The clearance issues with the exhaust is going to mainly be around the steering shaft coming off the firewall, 90% of the time people do it the right way either using cast manifolds from certain trucks and cars or getting conversion headers that reqire you to disconnect the steering shaft and slip it through a loop in one of the primary tubes. Also theres different ways of mounting the motor, theres several companies that offer mounts and not all are the same, the position of the motor can vary. Also you can build your own mounts. So pay attention for that kind of stuff, hack jobed things, motor sitting wrong, trans up against the floor, exhaust rubbing, and take a look at the drive shaft (I forgot to mention this) but usually when you do this conversion the driveshaft becomes too long, either from the transmission or the fact the motor sits back a little closer. Bascially when its on the ground you want like an inch of the slip yoke sticking out of the tailshaft housing. I may be wrong on that spec. But either way you want some of the slip yoke out. otherwise its going to bind and crack your tailshaft housing or break something else. It also makes it a real PIA to remove the driveshaft.