I have a 98 chevy s10, I am buying a 86 gn, I plan on rebuilding the engine stock, putting the gn rear end in my truck, and the automatic tranny as well for now. here is my question, who makes a good rebuild kit for decent performance but not all out race?
What year gns came with posi, is there a way to tell by a vin code?
Will the gn motor mounts bolt up to my 4.3 motormounts?
will the tranny fit?
Will a starion intercooler be to small for a gn motor?
I was told that my five speed I have in my truck now wont be able to handle the performance of a gn motor, is this true? if it is wbat manual tranny will be strong enough and what will bolt up?
help please, this is a major project of mine that I am serously doing this summer.
SLaminjamin2000@yahoo.com
email me if you want
All 1984 up turbo regals have the 8.5 rear end and the posi was available as an option in all of them.
VIN won't tell you anything, but look at the RPO sticker in the trunk ... it'll have a G80 if it's posi.
Motormounts won't bolt up.
Tranny will fit with the proper crossmember. Depends on how you situate the motor.
Starion intercooler is pretty small.
5 speed will be toast inside of a week.
That all said, it's been done before (very nicely, I might add) by Mike Christenson in St. Louis. Pretty neat little truck ...
Do us a favor? Don't take apart a nice turbo regal? Find a shelled out or wrecked one?
http://home.swbell.net/ras001/s10/s10.htm
First thing you want to do is check out the webpage above. Russell Selkirk did the transplant on a 96S10 and details all th pitfalls of such a swap. I am very familiar with Mike Christensen's GN/88S10 and will tell you that this swap is no walk in the park. Believe it or not a SBC fits in a S10 a lot easier than a 231 does. Although I am an avid fan of engine transplants, a 3.8 Turbo in a S10 is not one of my recommended swaps. The final product is a neat street combo, that will toast the tires at any speed, but would be a real challenge to get a decent 60' out of at the track. And will be a real "biatch" to work on.
One final caveat is the smog test. Although your area may not smog test at this time, when they do eventually, you will probably have a hard time complying to 98 S10 standards with a 86 turbo setup. Not to say it would be impossible, but it wont be easy.
I dont mean to whizz in your wheaties here but just want to let you know what you are in for before you undertake this project.
FWIW, I would consider doing the turbo motor swap into an older vehicle that is "smog exempt" due to age, or at least has a lower emissions requirement that the donor engine. Possible combo's might be the older Nova/Apollo, or early Camaro/Firebirds. That's been done already with good sucess and a bit more room to work with.
If you still want to do the swap, good luck with it, and hope it turns out the way you want it.
Dwight Hayden