My S10 Sob Story...

[BiGDiZ94s10]

I bought my S10 from a guy in Niagara falls in august of 04.. its a regular cab, 2.2L LS. Its got a 98 Body on it, and a 2003 front end conversion(chrome bumper and grill). Its been lowered 4" with lowering springs, and the rear tires are 20 mm's larger than the front , so the truck sits pretty wicked. plus I have the common Y shaped fake Dual exhaust. I call her black beauty. I also have RED chevy Symbols and SS on the panels and tail gate

The head Gasket has been slowly leaking ever since i bought the truck off the guy. barely at first, but became worse and worse over the past 7 months or so. at first I actually ran out and my engine started to overheat. So every month I would have to add 4L of coolant to the reservoir. The clutch too was at the end of the range of motion, so I knew it was at the end of its life.

This month my I could hear the springs rubbing on my clutch, so i finally opted to take it in to get the clutch replaced.. 500 dollars later(canadian) my clutch feels great now, shifts amazingly, but my truck started to overheat everytime I'd stop at a redlight. I take it to my uncle who is a mechanic, he tells to first fix my head gasket leak and go from there.

so I took Black Beauty into the shop, and 1000 dollars later I've got a new head gasket (keep in mind thats after all those friggin Canadian taxes) and thermostat, and a serpentine belt thrown in for 50 cash on the side...BUT THERES PROBLEMS...

The guy who owned the truck before me, knowing the head gasket is leaking, decides to put that anti leak stuff into the coolant. well that slows the leak, but the gasket completely washes away in the one corner. so the coolant runs out on me.. and the anti leak stuff he has in it hardens on the walls of the rad because I had ran out of coolant and there was air in my rad. (anti leak shit hardens when it comes in contact with air).

So my rad ends up sealed shut after I flush the coolant out of it.. no flow what so ever... so I had to get a new rad... 250 dollars canadian plus one hours labour, and my heater core is clogged.. extra half hour labour for meuratic acid to be ran through the system and flushed.

so now when I finally think all my troubles are fixed, and I've just dropped 1400 dollars in my truck... in the last 2 weeks... the mechanic does the test run of the truck, and its still overheating..

Turns out the Impellers on the Water pump. COMPLETELY ROTTED AWAY.. so I had to replace that too.... GEEEEEZUS...

BUT I'm still very much in love with black beauty and am the envy of all my friends... Still love chevy and I think This truck is a big step from my 89 Mazda B2200 with 17" chromes...

[kenyonja2007]

Wow, guess I'll think twice about using that antileak stuff (though there may have been other circumstances that can't be blamed on the product).

[rustbucket]

I used anti leak and after a few years, the radiator slowly stopped working and the engine would run too hot (but not hot enough throw a code or light the idiot light). That caused hard starting that was difficult to troubleshoot. If I would use anti leak again, I would take it back out later.

[OverBoardProject]

sure glad that I live in B.C. those parts must cost less down here.

If you live in Niagara falls why not do like I do. Shop on the internet, and if the price is way less in the U.S. I order it and have it delivered to a UPS agent in the states. Then I just run across the border, and deal with customs on my way back.
I often save a small fortune.

Car parts made in the U.S. are duti free (possibly even all car parts) just pay the taxxes at the border

Send me a private message if you want the web address for very affordable engine parts right here in Canada

[ALMB~Nova]

Yea that powdered stuff is a nightmare, it clogs up the water jackets too. If you ever have to use stop leak again. try the liquid stuff and consider it a temporary fix. Then go shop around for the cheaper parts and get it fixed right. The guy that had this truck before you really screwed you! If he maintained this truck better you wouldn't be having these problems. I would be expecting some more suprises in the future. I hope your luck improves!

[J-Ri]

I put some stopleak in my radiator, it fixed the leak temporarily, and caused no problems. It had 3 layers in the bottle, aluminum on the bottom, a thick liquid (glue, maybe?) in the middle, and a thin liquid on top. The radiator's got some scale on it, but if flows fine and I havn't had any problems with overheating. I pulled a 10,000# trailer (no, not in my S-10 ) last summer in 100 degree weather up and down hills and no overheating.

[BiGDiZ94s10]

well 2300 bucks later my truck feels great... and its cooling system is working great, so it should seeing as I pretty replaced the whole thing. I just hope my mechanic flushed or neutralized the meuratic acid he put in my heater core to clean it out...otherwise, a might be looking at a few more troubles in the near future.

I dont actually live in Niagara falls, I just bought the truck there, I live in Mississauga (just west of Toronto). so I'm not very interested in buying parts from across the border, but in a few months I'd be quite interested in buying upgrades for my engine in canada.

Does anyone knows what upgrades can be done to the 2.2L 4 banger, I'd really appreciate anyone sharing a little info...

I'm flat broke now, but atleast my Chevy's reliable again.

[xtrememeasures10]

Yeah id flush it again just to be safe. I never trust a car mechanics work. do everything yourself that way you know its done right.

[Jerry80871852]

Would like to know what brand of stop leak that fellow put it that radiator that caused all that trouble.

I have tried stop leak 2 times on heater cores on my S-10, both times I wind up replacing the heater cores and flushing my whole system out.

If there comes a 3rd time I hope I learned my lesson!

Only stop leak I ever found to do much good was some prestone brand stop leak that I put in a 59 Ford pickup several years ago.