97 Sonoma RCSB Budget Drift Truck

Hello strangers, been a while since i've posted or worked on anything s10 related. A good friend of mine just picked up this 97 Sonoma for $400 with a 2.2/NV1500.







I blew the motor the first 5 seconds it was at my shop, and got the tranny out tonight. I also pulled the carpet and seat to assess the rot.






Here's the twist: the final drift event of the season is October 3rd and 4th. That leaves us under 2 weeks to complete the swap and tune the truck. Here goes nothing!

Plans are as follows:

Suspension:
-Belltech front and rear swaybars (possible dual rear bars)
-3" drop coils (already installed
-Front drop shocks
-Rear pulled leaf (prev owner)
-3" block (prev owner)
-Homemade cal-tracs
-new rear shocks

Interior:
-momo race wheel from my 91
-Ford SuperCoupe leather seats with bolsters (have laying around)
-gutted trim/insulation/door panels
-gauges mounted in radio location
-5" tach with shift light from my 91

Driveline:
-stock 70's 305
-some sort of alum intake
-holley 650 single inlet
-hedman swap headers
-stock s10 NV3500 from 97 s10 w/ 4.3
-stock replacement 11" 10 spline clutch and pressure plate
-welded spider gears in stock diff

I am in need of many smallblock parts such as water pump and HEI distributor, but am hoping to find those on the cheap from my many friends with smallblocks.

This is a very low budget, fun oriented drift truck that will see improvements over the winter. Will get into that more in the future, but stay tuned for steady progress over the next 2 weeks followed by footage!

Gonna be a fun build!

Get R done !!

Spent most of my spare time this evening driving 2.5 hours round trip, picked up some dehumped lowers with new balljoint as well as good condition uppers (also new balljoints) for $60, couldn't say no after I found a NFG balljoint on the truck.

I got the motor out thismorning and started cleaning up some wiring, not a lot of progress.




I'm not a fan of ABS, especially s10 ABS, so I stopped by a local wrecker and picked up this prop valve from a 95ish s10, it had ABS still but still used prop valve? Didn't find any first gens but this should work. can't go wrong for $10 with lines and bracket.


Tomorrow I will be tackling front brake lines, control arms and hopefully get the 305 out of my truck and on to a stand to clean it up. Time is ticking!

Early rear wheel only ABS used a standard prop valve, then a ABS system mounted under the MC, feeding from the prop valve to the valve body. Prop valve should be fine for a rear drum, front disk truck. If you are going to rear disks, you'll need a proportioning valve so your rears don't lock way before the front due to the extra fluid drums need.

Here are the arms I picked up last night for $60. Not terrible, not great. De-hump job is meh, porous welds and such.


I slapped a new centre link in the truck as well, the old one was TOAST and the truck happened to come with a replacement inside the cab.


Apparently I didn't get pictures, but you all know what a torn down front clip looks like. I removed the upper arms and spindles, as well as coils and shocks. I will fight with the lower arm bolts tomorrow on a fresh mind.


A friend of mine is in posession of the new lower control arms, he will be adding 3/4" to them in length to bring the camber into the negatives without maxing out the upper shims. This is a trial and error thing, instead of shortening the uppers. We'll see how it goes.

The truck will also be getting drop spindles, as the previous owner left a lower balljoint nut loose and drove it.... not only is this terrifying, but the balljoing wore the spindle far into oversized. I am not comfortable driving it with an odd seat for LBJ taper.

I have a situation. The 305 I am using is currently bolted into my 91, which is in the back room of my shop without suspension. It is seperate from main shop and has gravel floors. My boss had this "pickup truck crane" sitting in a shed collecting dust, so I borrowed it and made a hitch receiver stand for it. This will become very handy for a multitude of things, and is rated for 1000lbs apparently. Harbor Freight special.


Experimented with some upright, wasnt terribly happy with the results. Tips?




More tomorrow, engine will be on a stand and cleaned up. May test fit as well.

Experimented with some upright, wasnt terribly happy with the results. Tips?

That's a bad way to do gussets. gusset the "walls" of the square. the gusset you have will just "can opener" the faces.

Makes sense, will keep that in mind. I bent the 1/4" plate up top before the pictured joint even moved, but I hear ya for sure.


was a very sketchy setup, but it worked... haha.

got the 305 on a stand, turns over okay still. phew.


surprisingly got 3 of 4 LCA bolts out with mediocre struggle, the 4th I cut the head off and beat it through backwards. Pile of junk.






My buddy chopped up some arms thismorning at work, and got them lengthened/plated/welded today for me.


tomorrow will be a very busy night. The truck will be on all 4 again with the 3" coils and 2" spindles, as well as belltech swaybar and drop shocks I had laying around. Negative feedback on the arms unnecessary, I'm very aware they aren't the best but time crunch is a factor. Will not see the street, will not break.

i can't find any pics of the arms i cut up and did the same thing to before i quit on the S10, but the concept is sound.
arms are cheap you can try multiple times.
I was hoping to experiment with moving the bj forwards for more castor too

Those arms might be sitting under the frame table out at the barn haha

I'd say for what they are those arms look well done.  Any minor misalignment can be made up for in the shims.

Another 305 too, what are you plans for it?

A friend of mine did the arms but he wishes to remain un-named due to the nature of this hack up. He did a swell job, and has been doing minitruck fabrication for years. I trust him 100%. Moving forward would be neat, I have another set of arms to try with.

Another 305? No sir, this is the one mentioned. I had to pull it out of my 91.

I slapped the new balljoints that were included with the arms back in, and sprayed em with rocker guard real quick to pretend I care.


I chopped .75" off the sleeve for the link to make up for belltech bar thickness and the plate on the arm, but I believe I chopped too much as it now interferes with the spindle. I also had to chop the lip off the upper control arm due to spindle interference, which I've heard about, but never encountered.


On a side note, I usually order links for a 90's chev fullsize, as they are moderately shorter and work well to help with link angle on a lowered truck. I've never had issues with those. These were cut from stock length.

I tossed on the brand new pads/rotors/calipers/bearings that I had laying around from a disaster of a truck I was trying to safety, and then mounted my 17x8 American Racing TorqLite's off my 91. They're wrapped in 235/45r17 BF G-Force. Should be good fronts, and I love the look.


hard to tell in the picture, but with the lengthened arms and zero shims in the UCA, I have approximately 2* of camber. This can be multiplied and given caster due to all the room I have with shims, unless I stand corrected. I will be sending it out for an alignment hopefully on the friday of this coming week. I am aiming for about 4-4.5* camber, 1/8" toe in and 5.5 degrees caster. This is going off of the recommended specs here, plus the added camber. More caster the merrier?

truck is on the ground, motor is on a stand and ready to be cleaned up. I have assembled most of the parts I will need, minus a fuel regulator and a few little things.

Degreased the motor, re-gasketed it, and painted it up.


Notice something missing? i was on the fence about doing the oil pan gasket, and after discovering the oil pickup was missing, am VERY glad I chose to. Tossed a new pickup on it and sealed it up.


I cut the lower layer out of the rad support and this aftermarket rad I have fit perfect, may have to smash the hood to clear rad cap but that's last minute stuff.


This rad came out of a friend's second gen v8 truck when he parted it, as you can see it was VERY close without flush mounting. I should have room to mount my 16" electric fan now.




Plopped the motor in to test-fit, plenty of room on the HEI and header fit perfect. Tall covers will hit booster when trans is in, but no worries I have shorter ones. Everything going smoothly but still falling behind.


I picked up some 1.25" wheel spacers, and am VERY happy with how the truck sits. It doesn't rub at all and i have lots of steering angle. It needs an alignment still, but I am very content. Perfect ride height up front.




1.5" spacer would fit better but I got a hell of a deal on these.

I have 1 full day and 3 evenings left... haven't touched the rear of the truck. A good buddy of mine is helping me most of the day tomorrow.

I almost did the same thing on my 305 build, set the pan on to keep the bottom end clean and almost forgot to put the pick-up in.

Its late, don't feel like explaining a whole lot. Lots done the past 2 days.

NV3500 in, minimal clearance for installing belly bolts but got it. 11" flywheel JUST fits inside bellhousing. Crossmember fits perfect but need to round out the hole about 1/2" to move motor back to clear fan


Here's with mounts all the way back, driveshaft a tad too long to leave it here.


miles of room even with HEI




huge list of stuff to do still, and it has to be ready Saturday very early morning...

tugged her to the track with the daily driver dmax

Sweet!

How did it do ?

Not bad! I tossed the v-belt 30 ft in the air on the front straight, luckily we found it haha. Water pump pulley nuts were rubbing electric fan and loosened off.

Truck needs more steering angle for sure, but with the welded diff it kicked sideways super easy.

pictures working for anyone still? only been linking to Facebook, will upload elsewhere if not. have lots to update...