project Rentedmule

im assuming its a water cooled turbo.
im no help, maybe tap into a heater line?

oil drain should be super easy with it mounted so high

The turbo is water cooled - I know you can just block the ports but given the application I think I'd like to plumb it. I downloaded a 'white paper' on turbo cooling from Garrett yesterday and think I have it figured out now. Tapping into the heater lines is supposed to work well as long you pay attention to the height of the supply and drain lines on the turbo. The heat from the turbo will pull the coolant through on its own as long as the drain is slightly higher than the supply.

For oil supply, I'm using the port in the block just above the filter and a 48" supply line (probably just an ebay universal line). I'm going to have a bung welded into the side of the pan near the front, using the old installation instructions for Mach's turbo kit as a guide for locating it (I'm glad I saved that pdf about 7 years ago).

I don't know if I mentioned it but I also picked up a 3 qt Accusump a while back. I'm thinking of using one of those sandwich adapters between the filter and block to run the lines but I'll need to wait until the motor is actually in the truck to sort out details. I suppose I could modify the oil cooler line thing I just took off too. 

Do you plan on adding an oil cooler externally? I wouldn't recommend ditching it  completely, especially when you're adding a turbo to the mix. I don't do autoX, just track days, so it's critical on my truck during 15-20 minute sessions, plus I live in Arizona and sometimes the ambient temp is over 100F. It's my DD, too.

Been following your thread for some time now as I have a similar truck. Thanks for testing all the ideas I have had and sharing them with the world!  I put on 2000 Camaro brakes about 5 years ago. Anything is better than the stock ones. Not planning on going the turbo route though. I have an LS-3 that weighs within 5# of my 4.3, and it's at 480 Dyno hp. Still juggling what manual trans I will use. The Legend 5-speed is ideal but very pricey.

Sounds like you have a fun truck! I put the LS f-body brakes on my '95 firebird and find them great. They're really not much different than the C5 brakes aside from the 13" rotors.

I'm really not worried about ditching the oil cooler. Most full sizes with the 4.3 don't have it (the one I use for work doesn't) and a pile of people have ditched them without any issues on their s-series. I can always add it back if I'm having problems but with the temperatures up here in Canada, it's probably much less of an issue than in Arizona!

I'm still questioning whether I want to use the NV3500... A T56 would be ideal but I don't know if I want to invest that much time/money into the truck at this point. I know the NV3500 will hold the power but I'm not sure how well it'll hold up to hard shifting.

Other forums say the NV3500 has all the wrong gear ratios. I'm even looking into finding a World Class
T-5. I track a '95 Mustang with a friend and we have a D&D Performance T-5 which has hardened gears. The  car runs in NASA TT-C with a front and rear Maximum Motorsports suspension and a stock 302 from a Mountaineer. About 230 RWHP and we baby the trans, but have never had a problem. Chevy ones are much harder to find with the correct gear ratios( I think the best are from 94-95 V8 Camaros and Firebirds, but that's very hard to find in the Phoenix area, and most ebay ones are way overpriced for a 20 year old stock tranny that probably needs rebuilt.

Do you have the ZQ8 frame brace which connects the box mounts at the front of the box? I also have a Jags That Run driveshaft angle alignment kit on mine  that really made a noticeable difference in vibration. It's supposed to give longer life to the Cardon joints in the 2-piece driveshaft( 70,000 miles since installed and now have 135,000. I do grease the joints a lot, too, as it's my daily driver, too( I don't baby it ). It definitely needs better seats for track days! .Good luck with all your projects

I've looked into the T5 a lot but everyone seems to bitch on it for being weak, even the WC versions. Based on similar turbo builds I've seen on the forums, I'm probably going to be making 300+ hp and possibly 400+ ftlbs at the wheels so I'm not sure it'll hold up.

The gear ratios may be an issue for sure but I think I may be in the sweet spot of 2nd gear for most of the auto-X courses I run here so it could work very well.

I don't have the ZQ8 frame brace installed yet but I've had one in the barn for years. I'll get around to that eventually! I haven't had any issues with the driveshaft yet, fingers crossed.

You should post up a build thread or some info on your truck.

I've got a T5WC from an Iron Duke S10 in my Long Bed with the 2.8. I broke this one too, but that ended up only being part of the shift mechanism for 5th gear.

Mostly all I do now is buy parts for the truck and not work on it...

late model Silverado PS pump pulley to replace the ugly 4.3 version

That'll make installing and removing the pump actually possible without removing the pulley, nice. Can you measure the shaft diameter and OD of the pulley so I can check if it fits on early pumps too?

It took me forever to figure out how to embed things from Flickr but I think I have it now...

UMI UCAs by Rented Mule, on Flickr

Replacing my worn out and slightly ghetto UB Machine UCAs with a pair from UMI. S10extremist from the other forum gave me a great deal on them since he sold his truck. They were bolted on but never driven.

How similar is the geometry on the UMI arms vs the UB Machine? Any advantages or disadvantages.

I'm still thinking if I move away from UB it will be to fully adjustable arms, but I'll put some miles on these first.

I don't have them in my hands yet but I'll compare when I do the swap. My UB arms were one of the first 3 S10 tall BJ arms they made and they're the incorrect length (8.5" instead of 8") because the company had/has no idea what they were doing with them back then. The UMI arms have actually been engineered and tested so I'll have an idea what the camber curve should look like:

 http://www.pro-touring.com/threads/84610-UMI-G-Body-Upper-A-Arms-w-1-2-quot-Taller-Ball-Joints-amp-Camber-Curve-Data?highlight=g-body%20tall%20ball%20joints%20camber%20gain

That IS some good info + the droop stop is a nice bonus.

I got tired of the box rot and started cutting...

ps rust by Rented Mule, on Flickr

I took a wire brush to the inner panel to get the loose stuff off and then sprayed it with rust converter. I picked up some sheet metal to weld in new steel rather than bodging in long-strand fiberglass filler, which is my usual go to!

Not as bad as I thought when I first started reading your post, but still... ew...

Glad you're getting it taken care of though. The roof behind the 3rd tail light is really bad on my Blazer. My paint/body friend says he can take care of it, but I have no idea how he'll pull it off.

Not as bad as I thought when I first started reading your post, but still... ew...

Glad you're getting it taken care of though. The roof behind the 3rd tail light is really bad on my Blazer. My paint/body friend says he can take care of it, but I have no idea how he'll pull it off.

rust repair is never fun

Reminds me of the Blazalanche project that was on S10 planet for years!

Patch partly sewn in. My welding is rudimentary at best but I think it's still less hack than stuffing it full of body filler.

rust fix 2 by Rented Mule, on Flickr

The muffler on my Summit-brand 3" cat-back system has been rotting off for at least a year so I swapped it out for a Dynomax ultraflow welded. It still sounds like a 4.3 but at least it doesn't sound broken now and it should sound better with the turbo muffling it further.

Also mostly finished the body work on the passenger box side. I still have some sanding to do but needed to get primer on it before I took it out in the rain. I just used a skim of filler to even things out so I'm pretty happy with it for a first attempt.

box body work 2 by Rented Mule, on Flickr

After the experiment in sheet-metal welding, I came across a good deal on rust-free color-matched southern US box so I bit the bullet. It was ~$600 USD but I should be able to recoup a few hundred of that selling the old box. I may even try to patch the driver's side before I put it up for sale. I'm still going to need one rocker panel and paint job at some point.