95 s10 pt setup

[Goatman86]

Its a reg cab 4.3 v6 5 speed truck and its bone stock. Im trading my 96 4x4 dodge for it.

I want a good bit of drop and some decent looking 18s for it. I however want it to be able to handle a few corners when Im in the mood for some spirited driving.



I will be doing some engine modifications, but not alot.

I know where I can some parts. (tubular control arms, ball joints, and drop kits.) Im going to keep it a tasteful daily driver that can turn a corner.

Anyone out here do anything like this or can point me in the right direction for parts?

[rentedmule]

There are a few s-series guys around that are more interested in handling than making low-riders. As you probably know most of the g-body stuff will bolt up on the front end with little/no modifications. SC&C, UMI, Spohn or any of those types of suppliers will have the parts. Hit up the junk yard and grab the front and rear sway bars, front LCA bump-stops, frame brace (between the box mounts near the cab) and quick ratio steering box off of a ZQ8 ('xtreme') option truck. There are aftermarket sway bars but the 33mm ZQ8 bars are actually the largest ones available. You can use the ZQ8 coils/leafs as well but they're soft and won't give you a lot of drop.

You don't need anything exotic on the rear end if you just want a fun truck - mine is competitive in auto-X (ESP or FSP) and all I have done to the rear is stiff leafs, drop blocks and adjustable shocks. You can fit a 275 front and at least a 295 rear tire if you space things correctly so there's lots of room for big rubber.

[Goatman86]

Let me rephrase what I said I want it to look good with the 18s or which ever size wheel I go with. I dont want a 5 inch drop cause thats to much maybe a 3/4 or 2/3 I however dunno 18s still look tiny on them trucks and well lets face it 20s make a hot wheels out of it.

I have access to a few wrecked xtremes in my area as well as having a stock set of 16s from one. Is the disc brake rear end from the blazers with the towing package easy to install? (not sure if it had to be 4wd to have disc brakes)

[rentedmule]

All of the later model (maybe '98+?) 2wd blazers have the 8.5" with discs that should bolt right up. You may need a proportioning valve to go with it to get the brake bias correct. The regular 4wd axles are about 4" wider and the ZR2 axles are around 8" wider IIRC. Both bolt right up and have discs but the ZR2 is too wide to be useful and came with a panhard bar from the factory that would complicate the installation.

You can probably find one with the G80 limited slip too - it's not great but it's better than an open diff. If you go with a 7.5" 28 spline axle you can use the factory Torsen from an LS1 F-body. They're cheap and they work well, they just don't hold up to big power from what I've heard.

[dontlifttoshift]

Would you believe there is a forum for pro touring s10s http://protourings10.com/

Not running you off, but you may find your answers over there.

[Goatman86]

Thank you sir didnt even know that was around. I found a blazer rear end Im going to go pull and setup my braking system might get the truck legal next week and have some fun.

I got a set of 18s off craigslist for 150 bucks.

[Zanie]

The 8.5 rears were in the stick shift blazers 98+. If you found one, grab the spindles off of it. the spindles on the 98+ blazers have dual piston calipers and sealed bearings with the seperate rotors (better braking for cheap!)

[rentedmule]

Conversion brackets and lines are also available to bolt up C5 or C6 brakes to those sealed bearing spindles

[Goatman86]

sweet Ill be looking for sure

[bbcc]

Looks like you're on the right track with these responses. All very good suggestions!

Tall upper and lower ball joints will lower you about 0.75" on the front. The lower BJ's are what lowers the vehicle, the uppers do a good part in correcting the brutal camber curve GM designed into that front end. Front springs from a ZQ8 equipped truck will net you roughly 2" lower and if memory serves correct they are 580 lb/in. If you want a bit stronger, 5.5" OD circle track springs are available in 50 lb/in rates. You shouldn't need much more than 600-650 lb/in if you're keeping the 4.3 and stock sheet metal. As mentioned, find a ZQ8 steering box and sway bars. Toss the box in right away, it's night and day compared to the base box. If you do the springs and BJ's first, try the stock sway bar and see how it handles. Sway bars are a tuning component. If you find the truck oversteers to much, try the fatter sway bar up front. The opposite is true as well. To much understeer can be corrected by a smaller front sway bar or a thicker rear sway bar. I found in my truck that a stock 2wd blazer sway bar was just right for providing just a hair of understeer which i can control with the throttle to bring the truck neutral. Drop spindles I would avoid if possible if you plan on running fairly wide wheels and tires up front. The geometry of the steering arm plants the tie rod right into the wheel lip with the drop spindles and really is a neesance when trying to optimise width and backspacing. You can get creative to avoid this. However, if you can achieve your ideal ride height without them, you're better off not using them.

The rear suspension leaves a few options. A sway bar is pretty much necessary if you roll with ZQ8 leafs, which drop the rear by 2" but are also very soft. The front spring eye can be raised to achieve better anti-squat, something I highly recommend (plus side of lowering the rear as well). Also, work needs to be done to prevent axle wrap. Either clamping the front leaves, or installing traction bars will help greatly. The factory "hop-shock" found on the ZQ8 trucks does a marginal job at controlling axle wrap at stock power levels. The shock tends to wear out very fast though and I'd consider this a less effective tactic compared to the other options. If you go with some stiffer multi-leaf springs from a tow package truck (Z85 I believe, Tyson??) the thicker front half of the spring inherently counteracts axle wrap.

As always, shocks and tires will make or break your efforts. Spend as much as you can afford on tires and shocks!

Anyways, welcome to the site and I hope you have fun with the truck. There's quite a bit of potential in those little parts haulers. I've surprised quite a few people in my own trucks.


Cheers,
Ryer

[MonzaRacer]

http://www.ridetech.com/store/trucks...hash=V286.V328
Honestly, look at the CoilOver set up. Adjustable height, good looks AND some of the best handling for the buck. Even single adjustable front setup is only $700, add in some tubular lower control arms you can add the uppers later on.
Honestly for the rear swapping to some sort of 4 link will make a truck handle better, but then I have also helped one guy with making a bolt on 4 link set up with some minor fab and some parts from Ridetech. We used the lower arms from the Ridetech kit, but used 4 and made our upper mounts our selves. He bought a Fays2 Watts link for better handling and after much fuss replaced another well known brand of coil over for some Ridetech CoilOvers from a guy on Ebay.
He set him self an incremental budget and worked on it till it rides and handles right. Cool thing is him and his wife/GF decided to get a pop up camper and all he had to do was run the adjuster up to carry load of it or if he hauls some wood (yes he hauls wood, Rhino Liner keeps it looking good and a solid bed cover also.
Honestly he had all of the Extreme springs and only kept the front sway bar and ZQ spindles. He is adding in Kore 3 parts for brakes I believe. And since he is now building a unique power plant a V4 Chevy from local spring car guy, and then turboing that,,,, should be interesting. His wife/GF has a Quad4 Turboed S10 and we will do similar things down road, but she may get air ride so as to handle her single horse trailer.
Good luck and have fun and also dont forget to give Marcus over at SC&C a call he can talk your leg off about your project and give good tips AND his G body parts should bolt right on. Only difference might be spring rates and he probably doesnt have much in way of leaf springs,,,,.

[rentedmule]

I run Z85 towing option leafs which are very stiff and I don't have a real problem with wheel hop. From what I've read traction bars of any kind are not good for handling.

I've experimented quite a bit with the rear sway bar and have settled on not running one for auto-x. With the stiff leafs I find it more effective to control the rear end with shock adjustments. The rear sway bar unweights the inside wheel and won't allow me to get on the power as early when exiting a corner. The truck feels faster because it tends to oversteer a bit more but back to back lap times show that it's consistently slower. I have single adjustable QA1's on the rear and if I dial them up 2 or 3 clicks from my street setting they control roll in quick transitions very well and don't unweight the inside rear as much as the sway bar does. It could be a different story if you want to set it up for lapping though. I've done ~75 auto-x events in various incarnations of my truck and I'm convinced that you really don't need an expensive or exotic setup to be quick. If you want it to be quick and have good ride quality though...