S10 Xtreme LS3/T56 Build

[Lonnies Performance]

Thanks...
Progress has been slow as I work on finishing details.



Finding a shifter setup that fits was not going well. I ended up with a Billet Specialties stick & welded another piece to the shifter stub with additional mounting holes to get the angle where I wanted it.

Mounted a battery box under the rear of the truck & routed new cables.

Ordered a radiator & after waiting a week for it to arrive, ended up being the wrong one. Now repeating the process hoping for better luck the second time.

Ran all new stainless braided teflon Fuel lines underneath & will start under the hood soon with the final connections.

Drive shaft loop still needs installed... just in case.

E-brake cables are in route... ordered a set of Blazer Disc brake cables, hoping it will not be too big of an ordeal to adapt them to the Vette brakes.

[BK2LIFE]

I sourced a full set of C6 Z06 brakes which are reasonably priced & got the brackets from Core3
.

i need a set for my alice... who is this Core3? i'm going to hit the google box.

here is a pic of alice..

[BK2LIFE]

Found them. the google box is king somedays..

http://www.kore3.com

[Lonnies Performance]

i need a set for my alice... who is this Core3? i'm going to hit the google box.

here is a pic of alice..

I saw your build on the S10 forum.... nice work.


Kore3 has a really nice set of brackets for the front & also the rear e-brake backing plates, while not cheap, are very nice & work exceptionally well.
I cringed when I bought them, but the install went flawlessly & they offer a great set of brake hoses to fit the stock hangers.

Also the C6 Z06 brakes stop the truck incredibly well.

[Austin97C1500]

I have been following your build. Love It!! My first new vehicle was a 2002 Chevy s10 Extreme. Had to order it because V6 5 spd. trucks were impossible to find. I just picked up a pretty clean truck and I'm in the planning phases of the build. I was curious to know what you used for rear Suspension, and your wheel specs with the Blazer spindle, z06 brake combo. I was looking at running Little Shop w/ Wilwood caliper upgrade for brakes w/ a 17" wheel. This has piqued my interest though.

[Lonnies Performance]

Thanks, It's been a time consuming project.

For rear suspension I used a stock width Strange 60 with Cal Tracs & split-mono springs.
FYI... the 2" drop springs were 1.5" lower than the Xtreme springs, which are already a factory lowering spring.
Their 0 height is approx 1/2" higher than stock... had to buy some things twice.

As for the front. Do not do what I did. I had to machine everything, wheels, calipers, spacers, spindles etc.
Tons of grief to fit that tire & I'm still not done tweaking stuff. Everything is below minimum recommended clearances.

The Blazer unit bearing eliminates the hub stick out, opening up more modern wheel selections.

Limit yourself to a 275 or 285 max tire, which will still need substantial trimming in the front.

If you are using 17's you will be more limited since the smaller dia wheel will hit the upper control arm if you run too much backspace.
The Xtreme flares also restrict your wheel size as they take up about 1" of the wheel opening.

A 17x9 with approx 5.5BS will be about max, but you need the drop spindle & upper control arms to give wheel clearance. An 18" wheel with 5.7BS will not even fit the stock suspension.

I would review some threads on the S10 forum to see what 17" wheels will clear.

[Dynamic]

I'm following this thread closely. One of the nicest I've seen! I ran across it while debating whether to swap a T56 or keep the 4L60E (and build it accordingly) on my new build. I'm mainly debating about what do do with the shifter/interior. I am pretty OCD about things looking sharp and not cobbled together. If it doesn't looks like it belongs, I don't want it in my build. I'm looking forward to what you come up with.

Anyway, very, very nice build. A man after my own heart here!

[Lonnies Performance]

Thanks for the kind words...
It has been a trying project at times but is now basically finished, other than some tuning/tweaking as I drive it more.


Still cleaning it up under the hood by relocating some wires etc.

I got to drive it for 1 day in late November, just before the weather turned bad.
It rides, handles & stops excellent. Traction with the NT05's were better than I expected & actually stick in 1st gear if you are careful.

It goes over 100 in 3rd gear, so I just finished this modified cluster in order to have usable speedometer & a tach with enough range.




Working on fine tuning the alignment & bump steer now.


Now anxiously awaiting for nice weather.

[Lonnies Performance]

As far as the T-56 swap, you will run into some issues with shifter location..

The shifter is too far rearward to align with the factory 5 speed console with a T-56, but the T-56 Magnum allows the forward shifter location which aligns nearly perfectly.
Using an F-body trans puts the shifter in the cup holders.

I mocked up a Camaro Trans & then bought a Magnum for this reason, even though the rear mounted shifter seems more ergonomically pleasing to me, I could not tolerate the modified console. I did have to fab up a shifter handle bracket to get a correct angle that looked appropriate.

[Dynamic]

Man, that looks amazing! Very nice job! My truck is clean, but not THAT clean. Awesome!

I know... I keep going back and forth between swapping to the T-56, or just building a nice 4L60E for it with a good converter and calling it a day. It is really a wash for me as far as cost. I own a custom transmission shop, and build automatic transmissions for a living, so the 60E would definitely be the easy way to go. It would cost me just about the same to build a 60 that will handle the 600(ish) hp that this engine will make as it would to buy a T-56 Magnum (I agree with you...the Magnum is the only way to go), bellhousing, flywheel, clutch, hydraulics, etc. Since this is already an automatic 4.3 truck, I'll probably just build a 60 for it and take the easy route.

I have to ask, though. Where did you get that instrument cluster built? This engine is built to turn some R's, and the 6K tach is just not going to cut it. And the 100 MPH speedo is silly as well. Did you send it out?

Did you have any trouble running the 58X Gen 4 engine with the 0411 ECM? That is one question that I still have unanswered. The truck already has the 0411, and a nice place to mount it. It would be nice to be able to use it.

[Lonnies Performance]

An auto for you would be an easy route....

I used a Lingenfelter box to convert the 58x to the 24x. It worked well & allowed me to keep a cable throttle.
I hate drive by wire, the lag & the unnecessary complexity.

I'm using the stock 411 computer with a V8 segment swap.


As for the custom cluster, I built it. I've been working on perfecting this for a while.
I ran into an issue using a factory 4 cyl 7K tach as the tune would not allow me to get the scaling correct.

I'm trying to source more of the air core motors with the correct specs to build more.
I could not find a speedometer place that was willing to work with me so I figured it out on my own.

I invested a lot of time & money in this, not sure I could afford to sell one for $600.
The cluster electronics vary with the year of the truck. What year is yours?

[Dynamic]

The cluster looks amazing. In an ideal world, I would love an 8K tach, and anywhere from a 160-200 mph speedo, but I'll take what I can get. LOL

My truck is a 2003 Xtreme, standard cab, sportside, 4.3, automatic. I bought it with a spun rod bearing, but the rest of the truck is really clean, extremely straight, and most importantly to me...original. The front spoiler is kind of beat up thanks to a parking curb, I would imagine, but that can be replaced with minimal hassle...just a little money is all. I'm still building the engine right now (and transmission now, I suppose), but as soon as that is done and ready, and the weather warms up a bit (we're in Spokane, WA), I'll begin the transplant. I don't think I've been excited like this for a project in a long time!

[Lonnies Performance]

I'll look into the 8K tach & see if I can do it.

The only issue is that a very fast revving engine may be able to out accelerate the tach movement, making it lag behind... this I cannot predict.
I can't drive it for a while so I'll keep you posted. I'm running a shift light also so a slight error does not concern me...

[Lonnies Performance]

Here are some updates after a few hundred miles....

The tach & speedometer function flawlessly.
I hid an LED shift light in the AC vent, which matches the 6500 rpm tach reading.

Front suspension has worked out very well. I was concerned that such a wide front tire (305 mm) may tram on uneven roads, but it tracks straight & there is no pulling or darting. I believe that keeping the back space as tight as possible, along with running a lot of caster worked.

During my testing on a sharp 270 deg. off-ramp, I had a significant amount of body roll without the rear sway bar. Unfortunately the factory rear bar would not clear the center of the S60 axle. Since there is not an aftermarket rear bar made for an S10, I was forced to build my own adjustable rear bar setup. It also helped my launches from a dead stop.

Now with the rear under control, I could feel the weight transfer to the front outside corner, which was unloading the inside rear tire, limiting how hard I could accelerate out of a turn. I'm running a Torsen differential so it is pretty forgiving in turns, but the inside tire would squeal while trying to accelerate, then with a little more throttle, I could slide the rear.

I decided to try a solid 1-1/4" UMI front bar in place of the factory hollow 32mm ZQ8 bar. This helps keep the inner rear tire planted & made a ton of difference. I gained another 10 mph (now 60 mph) on my favorite 25 mph off-ramp. I can kick the rear out at will, but it is very predictable & neutral on corner entry.

I experimented with dropping the tire pressure a few increments (from 30 down to 24) & while it helped, it did not make a huge difference.

Now I'm questioning if I should have went with the 850 lb front springs, but currently it rides pretty nice.

[Gump]

I gained another 10 mph (now 60 mph) on my favorite 25 mph off-ramp.

There one of those on the interstate near me... inevitably, when I approach it, the guy in front of me wants to go 25 LOL. it’s 15 minutes of driving to turn around to go try it again.

[Lonnies Performance]

Fortunately this one is a full 4 way cloverleaf interchange on a rural highway, so I can do it repeatedly until I'm dizzy. I just wish they had them in the opposite direction so I could wear the right side tires equally.

[Dynamic]

Awesome report on the suspension. Thank you!

I'm particularly interested in the front suspension. I'm building a 3 link on a Ford 9" in back, so that's obviously different than yours, but I'm particularly interested in the front spring rate. I will be running QA1 coil overs and their control arms up front, but have been debating the front spring rate.

[Lonnies Performance]

I was having some trouble applying power coming out of a turn. I attributed this to weight transferring off of the inner rear to the outer front tire.
As the front suspension compressed, the diagonal opposite rear tire lifts.

To combat this, I just switched to an 850# front spring.
Yesterday I did some testing, but it was trying to rain all day, so I did not quite get finished.

Early results look promising... I actually used the 10HT850 QA1 spring, which was the highest rate QA1 listed.
Ride is still OK. It is definitely firm, but not harsh, even with the shocks set rather aggressively.

I'm hoping you are looking at a true coil over & not a hybrid setup.
If you are getting serious with handling, you may want to look into the UMI complete front suspension package.
It went together well & all parts are designed to work together. You can also drop the entire spring/shock out the bottom without disconnecting the ball joint.

The only issue I found is the sway bar started pulling the threads out of the frame.
I ended up putting 3/8" riv-nuts in the frame for more strength, over the shallow 4 threads in there from the factory.

[Dynamic]

Thanks for the info. Yes, I'll be doing a true coil over. I saw the hybrid setups, and I'm sure they're just fine, but I prefer the true coil overs.

I'll look at the UMI stuff again. You raise a good point in that I do like having the ability to pull the shock out the bottom, without disconnecting the ball joint. You can't do that with the QA1 setup. To be honest, I was a little concerned with the straps that the lower shock mounts attach to on the lower control arms. They looked a little light to me, but then again I haven't actually seen a set up close. I'm sure it's a non-issue.

The riv-nuts sound like a good fix for the rear sway bar . I'm not sure yet if I'll be able to use the factory sway bar setup with the 9" or not. I haven't tackled that part of the project yet.

[2ABodies1FBody]

Fortunately this one is a full 4 way cloverleaf interchange on a rural highway, so I can do it repeatedly until I'm dizzy. I just wish they had them in the opposite direction so I could wear the right side tires equally.

Sent you a PM