Chevy S10 - $2017 Challenge and beyond

Fantastic news!!!

Oh yeah, about the hood - normally I am very fastidious about bagging up bolts and labeling everything.  Last year when I tore the S10's front end back apart, I may not have been.  Can't find a lot of the hardware.  Turns out body bolts from our $2005 Challenge 1987 Acura Integra parts car fit perfectly.  Still need to find grill and bumper bolts, though.

In between garage cleaning and yardwork, I installed the front bumper, so it is looking more like a complete vehicle again.  Had to shuffle it around to move the 5 into the garage, and had an issue with getting into gear a couple times.  I think the shift linkage still needs to be tweaked a bit more, but I was able to work around it.  Something under the hood is whining when I rev it up.  I suspect it is the power steering pump.  Even though I tried to bleed it this morning, it might need more.  I did forget to check the fluid level after I did that, too.  Next time it's sitting level, I'll check.  It could also be a typical old GM pump, and whine for the next 50,000 miles, but work perfectly well.

Awesome! 

Not a ton of progress.  Did get the grill installed, and the ground wiring for the fuel filler, so it is pretty much looking more complete now.  Spent some more time messing with the shifter linkage, and finally found what I think the problem is.  I neglected to install the clamp for the cable sheath that ends at the shifter.  I think the cable was binding up sometimes, so it was inconsistent on where it stopped.  I could not find the hardware for it, though, and Summit was the only place that listed just the hardware kit, and it would take about a month to ship.  That encouraged me to go look around the garage a bit more - finally found it tonight, and starting messing with it, but realized I was getting tired and prone to making mistakes.  Will see about dealing with it this weekend.  Once I get this figured out, I should have no problem taking it for a test drive around the neighborhood. 

Oh yeah, my oil pressure gauge is now reading maxed out, even with no power.  Not sure what is up with that, may need to get a new one.   Or see if I can figure out the output of the factory sender and hook it to a dummy light.

Saturday, I yanked the shifter assembly, and installed the missing parts into it on the workbench, before running out of time and motivation.  Sunday was a road trip to pick up yet another car, and this morning, I ran out to help work on the challenge car a bit.  This afternoon, I went ahead and reinstalled the shifter in the car (and put the driver's seat back in for the umpteenth time).  Made another attempt at bleeding the power steering pump, then decided to try it out for a short drive. 

Idle was a little bit uneven to start with, but nothing bad.  Power steering (or hydroboost, I don't know) was whining still.  I got it out on the main road, and gave it a bit more gas.  Transmission is shifting fine.  300 fuel-injected horsepower in a 3000 lb S10 is very nice.  However, the brake pedal was starting to get harder.  I couldn't easily tell if I was losing power assist on the brakes, or if it was something else, because I started getting distracted by the burning plastic smell.  Got back home quickly, and shut it off. 

No smoke anywhere, but it smelled bad.  Sniffed around the engine compartment, and unfortunately, it seems centered around the bulkhead connector on the passenger side.  Everything I did to mitigate the heat does not appear to have been enough.  Due to the location of the wheel, and the heater box, there's not much  I can do to get it away from the exhaust over there.  Had to run a box fan in the garage for an hour or so to make the smell dissipate some.  Engine compartment is still too hot, but next work session, I'll unwrap the heat wrap and see if there is any visible damage.  Oh yeah, the speedometer is not working.  That may have been a wiring mistake by me, or it could have been heat damaged, since it runs through that connector.  Now I am wondering if my oil pressure gauge being maxed out is a symptom of this happening earlier.

Other than inspecting for damage, I'm not sure where I am going to go from here.  Since I know how many wires I need now, I could switch to a smaller connector, and try to find a home for it on the driver's side, if I can get it further from the exhaust.  I could try to run it through the fender in near the kick panel, too, but that's pretty tight.  I still need to figure out the braking issue.  This all has me thinking about simplifying, and just switching to manual steering and manual brakes, if I can find a belt routing diagram to skip the power steering on the LQ4. Either way, I'm not likely to have it at the cruise-in next weekend, which was kind of an informal target I gave myself once I had it running.

Pics of the wiring harness?

What's in the power steering pump? I've had pretty good luck with Valvoline max life atf quieting down some unruly gm pumps.

Are you sure it's external heat and not something shorting out?

solfly said:

Pics of the wiring harness?

What's in the power steering pump? I've had pretty good luck with Valvoline max life atf quieting down some unruly gm pumps.

There's a shot of it around halfway down page 26.  It is really close, similar to the location where I ran the TBI wiring harness when it had a small block in it, but moved a smidge farther towards the passenger side.

For some reason, I thought atf was a no go in GM pumps, but I might be willing to give it a shot.  I need to figure the hard pedal out first, though.

wae said:

Are you sure it's external heat and not something shorting out?

I can't be 100% certain, but I'd assume an internal short would have been letting some smoke out.  There was none that I could see.  I'll make sure to post pics when I unwrap the harness.  It's always possible, too, that melting insulation may have caused a short that took out the oil pressure gauge.

I've always used atf interchangeably with power steering fluid in gm pumps

Had a little time before work today to look into the wiring.

Connector looks fine, and unscrewed from the firewall easily:

Pulled the heat wrap, and the wires looked undamaged, sorry for the blurry photo:

Pulled the tubing and electrical tape:

So, it got hot enough to melt the glue on the electrical tape, but I still don't see visible damage to the wiring.  Engine was probably running for at least ten minutes, so if something was shorting on its own, I'd assume it would have cooked the insulation already.  I kind of doubt the smell was just from the electrical tape, due to how strong it was, but maybe it was.  Maybe there is something else in the same part of the engine compartment causing it.  I'll see about getting under the truck to look for anything touching the exhaust in that area.  I'll also take a look in the passenger floorboard area, but the smell was much stronger under the hood than inside the cab.

Looking at the above pictures, though, makes me think the oil pressure gauge and speedometer not working are unrelated to the smell.

In reply to eastsideTim :

Nothing in those pictures looks like it would have been hot enough to make a burning plastic smell.  In my rather extensive experience with vehicle wiring fires (doh!) by the time you smell it, you can see copper strands.

What's with the orange strands on the connector, though?  Is that melted?

Any chance you might have zip-tied to an exhaust pipe or EGR pipe or something.  I've made that mistake before...  Just tie that up to get it out of the way and I'll move it later.

Maybe letting it warm up and look for the smoke is the path to take?  Anything that's going to get damaged is already damaged.

wae said:

In reply to eastsideTim :

Nothing in those pictures looks like it would have been hot enough to make a burning plastic smell.  In my rather extensive experience with vehicle wiring fires (doh!) by the time you smell it, you can see copper strands.

What's with the orange strands on the connector, though?  Is that melted?

Any chance you might have zip-tied to an exhaust pipe or EGR pipe or something.  I've made that mistake before...  Just tie that up to get it out of the way and I'll move it later.

Maybe letting it warm up and look for the smoke is the path to take?  Anything that's going to get damaged is already damaged.

The orange stuff is just RTV used to seal up some up the connector.  The kit did not come with enough plugs to make all the unused connections watertight.

Nothing should be ziptied to the exhaust, but I'll check and see if anything fell out of place. 

I didn't smell any of this in the past, no matter how long it idled, so I'm not sure what is up.  Kind of assuming the exhaust got hotter than in the past once there was a load on it.  Really wish I'd had the presence of mind to grab my infrared thermometer before it all cooled down.  If nothing ends up being obvious, may have to just fire it back up and wait for the smell to return.  And make sure there is room to quickly pull it out of the garage and away from the other cars, just in case.

For the power steering, it looks like there is an extra step in bleeding that I missed, so I'll see if going through that procedure helps.  It appears that atf is not recommended for use in a power boost unit.

Was it the "recently touched by greasy hands repeatedly and just needs to burn off" exhaust smell? New muffler paint cooking?

Patrick said:

Was it the "recently touched by greasy hands repeatedly and just needs to burn off" exhaust smell? New muffler paint cooking?

Had the greasy hands burn off happen a ways back.  However, I am wondering about the fiberglass wrap on the one header pipe.  It's been heat cycled some, but I'd assume the exhaust got hotter than before since I drove it and put some load on it.  I've never done a wrap job before, so I don't know how it should smell.  There is BBQ paint on the welded joints on the exhaust, so it could be one of those, too, but it seems like a much stronger smell than when I've used that in the past.

and, oh crap, I used some JB weld to fix a few leaks down the line when I was having welder issues.  It should be able to take the heat at the point it is at, but I wonder if that could be it.

Did a little googling.  I suspect it is the JB weld.  I used it on both sides, but on the passenger side it is much closer to the engine.  I may give it another drive (after a quick inspection to eliminate anything else), and then have the fun of removing the header, grinding the welds, and doing some rewelding.  At least it shouldn't catch fire or anything.

This and the shifter fiasco are reinforcing the idea that I should not make decisions when I am frustrated and/or tired.

Finished going through a hydroboost bleeding process I found online.  Hoping it helps.  I do wonder also if the noise was coming from the alternator, but since the brakes were getting hard, I am guessing it is a power steering pump whine.  I need to reassemble the bulkhead wiring, bu I can try to do that tonight and take it for another test drive.  May take a longer drive, and see if I can find any visible melting of the JB weld afterwards.  That'd make it a lot easier to figure out where to grind and reweld. 

Still need to take a quick look under the car and make sure it isn't something else causing the burning smell.

Couldn't find anything else that would be causing that smell, so I took the truck back out tonight.  Had a new driveline vibration.  Turns out I hadn't tightened the lugnuts on the left rear wheel enough.  Been way too absentminded lately, I need to work on that.  Took it back out.  Smell is atrocious, but it drives well.  The whine is not gone, but it is better.  Also, since I was no longer concentrating on the smell, I was able to pay more attention to the brakes.  They are firm, but definitely still boosted, and they grip quickly with the upper part of the pedal.  Doesn't feel like I am used to, but I am pretty sure they are not grabbing unless I press the pedal, so they should be good for now.

Might still consider the manual brakes/steering conversion, but that's not a high priority right now.  Need to decide if I want to pull the exhaust this weekend, or clear space and install sway bar bushings on the 5, which is what I should do.

Been working on and off on the S10 for the last couple of weeks, just haven't been in the mood to update the thread.  Pulled the passenger side header, removed the jb weld, ground down the areas with leaks, and rewelded them.  I also re-wrapped the one exhaust pipe that gets close to the wiring, as it had gotten damaged during removal.  Eventually reinstalled it.

Today, I decided to tackle the last remaining issues that would prevent me from hopping in it and at least driving it around near my home.  Started with a little cardboard aided drafting to build a bracket to hold the air intake tube in place so it would not be solely supported by the throttle body.  Also figured out a heat shield.  Used some steel to make the bracket, and found some roof flashing to make the heat shield from.

The bracket just gets tucked into the clamp that holds the air filter in place.

There will still be quite of heat in the engine compartment, but at least now there would be less radiant heat from the header.  I didn't want to put too much effort into this, since the battery may end up getting relocated, the intake can have  a path to some cold air, and I can make a box for it. 

I also finally flushed the cooling system, to get the last traces of dexcool out.  Despite reading the directions multiple times, I did manage to test the backflow valve in the kit by installing it backwards, and letting the hose spray water all over the engine bay.  Once that was sorted, the water came out clear pretty quickly, so now it is time to very slowly refill the system.  I didn't pull the lower hose/thermostat, so there is still a decent amount of tap water in there.  I am hoping it'll be okay with that instead of distilled water, especially now that it'll be mixed with antifreeze.  I did a few cycles of running the engine up to temp, and filling as the thermostat opened, then shutting it off as the temp started to hit boiling point, but I am pretty sure it still needs some more burping.  I am sure GM had a good reason for putting the thermostat down low instead of up high like on a SBC, but getting the air out is a lot harder.  It's sitting with the front wheels on ramps in an effort to get any air bubbles to the front, and I'll try to finish dealing with it in the next few days.

Finally got it out on the road again.  Still making some smells, but nothing as strong as the burning plastic smell before.  I suspect it is form the fiberglass wrap and from the fresh bbq paint curing.  Could be a few other things close to the exhaust, but I did not notice any smoking from anywhere, thankfully.

But there is a new problem - turn signals (and backup lights, since they are on the same circuit) have failed.  They worked before, so I am not sure what went wrong.  The fuse for them blows as soon as the ignition is turned on.  The only thing I can think of that has "hanged has been the disassembly/assembly of the shifter.  I wonder if either I hooked the reverse wires up wrong, or if something got rubbed through.  I can disconnect them relatively easy and see if that does the trick, but I would like to make sure my backup lights work properly, although the turn signals are a bit more important.

My neighbor also stopped over when I was messing with it, and was able to listen under the hood while I revved the engine.  He thinks the noise I have been hearing is the alternator bearings going bad, not the hydroboost pump.  Not great news, but the alternator will be a lot easier to swap out when it fails.

I would really like to drive this thing more than a few miles at a time before it is put away for winter.

Just pulled the wiring from the shifter, and yep, that's the problem.  The 12V wire must have gotten pinched or something.  For now, I guess the truck will not have working back up lights, or I'll reconnect it to the column shifter, and have to remember to use it, too, every time I want to reverse.  At least it was quick to be diagnosed.

Took it out for a slightly longer test drive today.  Since it's the last day of my $2000 Challenge vacation, I figured I'd start clearing scrap from my garage, so needed to make sure the truck held up well enough to go to the scrapyard.  Pulled onto the state highway (until now it'd only been on back roads after the latest swap), and stabbed the throttle about half way.  The tires almost instantaneously broke loose.  Then it downshifted to first.  I got off the loud pedal immediately, as I am not one to show off in traffic, and nor do I want to have any imperial encounters.

So, yeah it has a reasonable amount of power.  Now I just need to be able to put it down.  I may install the slapper bars I made, or I may spring for Caltracs and install them over the winter.

And I need to fix the cigarette lighter.