Local Legend Don't Call It An S10

Got the motor mostly back together. Pretty stoked with how it's turning out! Still have to torque the flexplate bolts, clean up and install the accessories, new plugs, clean up the intake and exhaust manifolds, purchase the harness, connect it back to the transmission, and then I can move trucks around and pull the 4.3L and 4L60e out. The oil pan is still off for now because I'll possibly need to trim it up a bit to clear the crossmember.

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Holy shit
Alright boys, here is my 2002 Crew Cab GMC Sonoma. Working on getting rid of all the crappy Sonoma parts and making it a comfortable, capable rig to take my fiance and dog out to explore our lovely state (and beyond).

A lot of this will be copied over from DR, but I'll save the pictures to my comp and upload them here for when that site inevitable implodes.

2002 GMC Sonoma, 4 door, short bed, 4x4.
4.3L, 4l60e, 152,000 miles. Purchased 5/7/2021 for $4500

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The plan is to chop the front off and replace with an explorer front end and do d35 TTBeams with d44 outers, cage, links with panhard, keep stock gas tank, single coilover all around, 35s, and take it to the desert as much as I can. Overall, it should be a fairly inexpensive to build, fun, and different.


Drove in 3.5 hours of LA traffic on Friday afternoon with my mom to pick up the truck in Santa Fe Springs. Got the truck decided to eat at a nice sit-down mexican restaurant to wait for traffic to die down. Before we left to go back home, I walked around the truck and admired how straight the body is. Really no noticeable dents or dings. Hopped in and proceeded to shoot up the 605. Everything was going great. Truck drives pretty nice (aside from a bit of alignment issues), but has good power, no weird noises, quiet inside the cab, fairly comfortable... I started zoning out on the 210 when the tread ripped off the rear driver tire, proceeding to jack up the bedside in the process. Dope. Not too bummed as I'll be replacing it with fiberglass, but I still wanted it to look nice for the time being haha. Oh well. Threw the spare on and continued on home.

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I'm beginning to gather parts for it so I'll be able to hit it hard when I get it all together. Got all my shocks (new kings, thanks to @orbot ) 2.5x12s for the front and 2.5x14s for the back. I should be getting the front coilover springs today from a friend (dual rate, I think they're 350/450 or in that ballpark), and will be buying rear coils off a different friend once I figure out what I need, since he has a solid stash of them. Picking up 35s this afternoon, too.

I need to get bedsides and figure out if I can modify 6ft bedsides to fit the mini bed, or if I'll have to cut and extend the frame and swap to a regular bed. Kinda like what Tommy did with the Long Weenie, but I want to keep the bed and factory smog junk.

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I never put the rear bumps on the tundra that came with the truck. I’ll be putting them on the front of this for the time being. Some crappy 2.5x4” FOAs

For the rear, I had a buddy pick these up for me from Long Beach. Pictures on Craigslist were horrible and didn’t show how weird or ugly they were, or say that they were 2.0s. Oh well. Got them cheap enough, so on the back they’ll go. Someone modified them to be a shock top. The kid tried saying they came from King like this lol.

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Picked up these methods, thanks to @PSDirtracer for bringing them over to me. Great meeting you!

All new in the box. Only one box was even opened, so I’m stoked. Gonna order one more for the spare and then I can get them mounted.

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🫣 holy shit on those bumps lol
 
I’m late to the forum… but you did a nice job on everything! Lol

Thanks, I really appreciate it! One cool aspect of the forum is being able to go back and see where it started. I love going back and seeing the progression.

Looks killer! It was hard to tell on my phone If it was in fact the orange. one of my favorite colors of all time.

Haha yup! Duplicolor's Chevrolet Orange Engine Enamel. I did the best I could to clean all the parts before painting, but didn't strip and acid wash the block, so we'll see how well everything sticks lol
 
Thanks, I really appreciate it! One cool aspect of the forum is being able to go back and see where it started. I love going back and seeing the progression.



Haha yup! Duplicolor's Chevrolet Orange Engine Enamel. I did the best I could to clean all the parts before painting, but didn't strip and acid wash the block, so we'll see how well everything sticks lol
When I had my single wide out in Parker I painted my golf cart Chevy orange and I got so many compliments
 
Accidentally got the wrong flex plate, so picked up another one from Napa and got the engine and trans mated and the accessories bolted on9706A86E-73DB-4D52-9CC5-E181422C6817.jpeg

And got the front of the Sonoma torn down. I’ll get the motor and trans pulled in the morning, pressure wash and paint the engine bay, and try dropping the new power plant in for the first time.
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Well, after crawling under the truck and getting up close and personal, I see that my passenger upper link mount is ripping off the frame, but not the way I'd expect it to. I think the spool is putting weird loads on that upper link when I turn, causing it to pull backwards. I'll try to set it back in place, weld it up, and add the bracing I originally intended to add (tubes going from the front of the mounts to the tranny mount).

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Anyways, old motor is out, It was an adventure doing it on my own. I think I'm going to cut the frame side motor mounts out to make it easier installing the new drivetrain. With everything out I'm better able to see how I'll need to clearance the frame to make room for the manifolds, or headers if I choose to pick some up. It's challenging trying to figure everything out before putting the motor in, since I have to reference pictures for both s10 and ranger LS swaps

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Looks like normal loads to me. Remember you have a medium duty car frame, so you really need to do overlays to distribute the forces.

I just would have thought it would rip firm the back side from the upper pushing on it, not pulling. Just interesting. I’m not surprised it ripped, though. I had been meaning to add bracing from the mounts to the tranny mount but procrastinated.
 
I just would have thought it would rip firm the back side from the upper pushing on it, not pulling. Just interesting. I’m not surprised it ripped, though. I had been meaning to add bracing from the mounts to the tranny mount but procrastinated.
I think your specific failure mode is a reaction from side loading. Too much sicky drifting through the gnar.
 
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