In the parking garage of the apartment building
I had gotten a work term position in our provincial capital, Halifax, and was in need of a decent car, quick. My Horizon had gotten a bad bill of health, and it just so happened that my wheeler-dealer uncle had something, cheap. It was to turn out to be the shortest I ever kept a vehicle.
It was a 1985 Chevy S-10. 2 wheel drive, 2.8 and 4 speed overdrive, regular cab longbed. No real options to speak of, but low mileage – only 140, 000 KM if I recall correctly. Money was exchanged, it was test driven and all seemed well. I loaded all of my stuff into it, and set off on the 400 KM trip to move away from home.
Two major problems showed up on the first drive. First was an inability to keep a speed of 100 KM/H on the highway. It could only do about 90 on the flat, and dropped to around 60 on the hills. It was pathetic. It also seemed to be able to only travel 300 kilometers on a tank of fuel. I used it for a few weeks around Halifax, and limped it home. The family mechanic checked it over – it had already had a new carburetor, fuel pump, and filter by the time I had gotten it from my uncle, and it seemed I bought someone else’s problems. This is where my memory gets a little sketchy.
Your author and his “Pride and Joy”…
I cannot honestly remember what happened to the truck. I think we figured it was a camshaft, or something else major. My father’s business partner had a friend that had bought a new car and was looking to get rid of the old one. Being another GM product, Dad approved, and leant me the money to get it. I believe he sold the truck, and took what I owed him out of it. The next car hung around a while, and was an altogether better experience with a 2.8.
My aunt had an 83 S-10 blazer with the 2.8 and a 4 speed manual for years. Hers was a great little truck. She got rid of it in 98 when she started having hip problems and got an Astro with an automatic. Sorry you didn’t have the same luck.
I remember driving one of these when the S-10 was still fairly new to Chevy dealerships. The one I drove was a 2 or 3 year old 82-83. What struck me way back then was how it felt like an El Camino….very car like, while the Ranger that my father owned drove like a slightly scaled down truck. You felt low(er) in the Chevy than you did the Ford, maybe that was a big part of it?
My other experience with an S-10 would be a few years later. The small Navy base where I was stationed had 2 different duty vehicles for making the required rounds for security purposes. One truck was a late 80s S-10 and the other a Dodge/Mitsubishi D-50. The “facelifted” Chevy had the very odd, pretend digital gauges with the funky “piano key” switches for turning on the lights and wipers. I could never remember whether I was supposed to press or pull the switches to activate the lights. And the instrument cluster looked cheap, like a child’s toy designed and assembled in a 3rd world country.
The Dodge? I remembered it squeaked as all the parts of it’s completely plastic interior rubbed against each other when the smallest bumps were encountered.
As far as your experience with poor gas mileage and the inability to maintain 60 mph, my 1st guess would have been a camshaft that had gotten worn down. 2nd guess would have been a stretched timing chain. And 3rd? Possibly a slipping clutch.
If I remember well, it did drive nicely. They are very similar to the A/G bodies underneath. The interior was nice enough, it had the round gauges. I suspect it was probably the cam that failed.
I had an 86 s10 Blazer 4×4 w/ the 2.8 tbi motor. I bought it and I thought that it was sluggish too. It had the bigger tires but the taller gears, sticker on door said 205s instead of 235s. The right size tires didn’t help, did the tune up and found no codes, Funny thing is once in awhile the engine would just come alive and actually feel like it added 30hp. It did smell rich most of the time, still no codes, I added an o2 sensor, same thing.
One day I was idling it and a friend said “that smells rich, did you check the timing?” I said “yeah, I unhooked the timing connector and it was right at 8*”. I did some more checking, I hooked up a vacuum gage to it, only 9″ at idle, should be 18-21″, WTH? I checked the timing again, right at 8*, hooked up the connector and it was still at 8*, revved it, the same thing. Driving it around on 8* sucks, I bumped to 18* and it drove so much better, poor mpg were gone , made starting when hot a challenge. I ended up putting a computer in it and that fixed it.
Once broke a timing belt when I was 18’ish, pushed the car to a shop nearby and had them install a new belt.
Picked up the car, everything seemed fine, idled smoother than ever, but then – no power!
I instantly turned back, told them they must have made a mistake, went to the payphone, called Volvo’s hotline, and got the specs for setting the timing.
Yeah, they had forgotten to disconnect the vacuum when setting the degrees.
That fixed it, shaky idling again as before, but good power, as it used to be.
It did learn me a lesson thats valid to this day though; just because they charge you to work on your vehicle, does not mean that they know what they are doing.
Ive had cars that randomly stopped running after a battery change, becayse mechanic didnt fasten clamps properly. A car that could almost not steer anything to the left, after a steering rack change. Or a mechanic who would fail my cars inspection for sketchy wiring, that he himself had installed after a breakin and installing a new car alarm.
I could go on, but I have learned that I probably are a better mechanic myself than most average mechanics.
A friend of mine had one of the quickie oil change places leave the oil filler cap off after servicing. Somehow the engine survived barfing all its lubricant onto the road shortly after leaving the shop. My friend wasn’t happy.
Had an 84. Solved the power issue by swapping in a Small Block 383.
Zoom.
Flat cam sounds like the most likely possibility.
How do one diagnose a flat cam exactly?
Dial indicator at the rocker tip. Most likely it would have really loose rocker arms
Last week’s COAL and this week’s makes the lesson clear: it was a good thing you ditched the horrible little chrysler product and got one of these great Chevys. I kid. But did your father ever make it out of the “Chrysler=bad GM=Great” mindset?
I had actually understood that these were pretty decent little trucks. Too bad this one bit you.
It would take a few vehicles for me to get out of the Great GM mindset. Dad finally did too after a horrible experience with two Equinoxes…two years ago. He replaced it with a Veracruz.
The 2.8 wasn’t too impressive with one exception: I really think GM should have installed it into the Chevette. They actually built a couple of them but the combination never made it into production. I wonder how close it even got.
It would have made a world of difference in the little shitbox. I guess the rabid emphasis on fuel mileage due to high oil prices at the time pretty much killed the idea. Too bad because, from what I understand, the DIY 2.8 Chevette transplants work out well.
Next week’s car has a 2.8 Multiport. It’s hard to believe the two engines were related…night and day. And the 2.8 MPFI in my experience has been good on gas.
You never want an S-10 of any kind with one of the 2.8’s, that engine was too weak for the truck, even with a 4 speed and the shell on the back didn’t help. I had an ’88 Blazer with the chopped 350 V8 4.3 V6, and it was fine. Even better was my friend’s 91? with another 25 HP out of the 4.3 My Blazer and his S-10 were almost bulletproof. My only problems in the 5 years I had it were a trim piece fell off, a hose clamp broke, and the tiny micro sized starter died. All were covered under warranty. My friend’s S-10 was perfect for almost 5 years, when it needed a battery, and then at 100K, the trans went right after his oldest kid started driving it. Both my Blazer and the S-10 went on and on, finally just rusting to the point at about 20 years of age that rain was pouring in around the windshield.
Mom had a ’90 with a 4.3. It was a great truck.
I had several S10s/S10 Blazers and liked them all.
But mine were all V6s – the largest you could get at the time, which meant the 2.8 in my 1982 and ’85 S-10s, both 4-speeds and a 1984 automatic. All were 2wd longbeds. Also I owned an ’84 Jimmy which I converted to a Blazer. 2.8/5-speed.
There was also an ’89 extended cab 4wd with the 4.3/TH700. That one had been abused extensively, I only owned it a few months and in retrospect should never have been brought it home.
Other Blazers included two ’97 LS models, bought in 2004 – his and hers. My wife traded hers in 2007 for a 2000 Jimmy that had turned out to have so many issues we made the dealer buy it back for 100% of the purchase price.
And then there was the ’95 2-door I bought for $800 in 2010. Ran great but was rusty and always having fuel issues. My youngest son took it and got a couple years’ use out of it.
Three Januaries ago I bought a 2002 Tahoe LT Autoride.
Despite being 13 years old with 134,000 miles, the smoothness, LS power and refinement – compared to my ’97 Blazer, which I’d owned for eleven years at that point – I couldn’t go back to an S/T-body. It went to a guy who already owned a 2000 LT, and he’s parting it out.
But back in the day, I enjoyed my S10s and S10 Blazers. I see them as having kind of a ’55 hot rod quality to them today. Easy to modify and have fun, like a more practical G-body (which shared many components underneath with the 2wd S10s).
And although I never did it…Jags That Run in Livermore, CA is a great resource to V8 these things.
It’s funny how the right or wrong engines make all the difference.
Anyone else picture that scene in Terminator 2 where the semi truck catches up with the little S-10 with the white cap, the one driven by our protagonist Austrian-American cyborg?
I always questioned how that semi could manage to have a higher top speed than a zippy little truck but you just confirmed the plausibility of the scene.