2002 S-10 Performance Upgrade

[Hi-Tek Redneck]

Hi, guys and girls. I will be completely honest, I know nada about cars. Well not completely, but when things get explained to me, its gotta be real simple. Anyways, I have a 2002 S-10 with a 2.2L 4 cyl. No joke, it sux, I can hear the laughter before this is posted. So what I want to know is this, I don't have a lot of money to start with, but if I could do one or two things to it, rather inexpensively, and see a definate difference, then I would be prompted to do more. I ain't looking to make a dragster or even a street rod. Rather I would like to know what I can do to squeak out some extra horses, and just get a little more power. Should I go the route of saving some dough and dropping in a different engine, or can I get away with keeping the 4 cyl, and most of the good mileage, and just do some upgrades for less? I mainly am looking for more umph when I take off at a red light, on a hill, with some dick stuck to my tailgate, and I have to turn the AC off to get the boost I need to keep from stalling. *Whew* And let me tell ya, I don't like killing the AC here in good ol' South Carolina in the middle of summer.

Thanks for any help

[OverBoardProject]

Your best performance bang for the buck is remove any extra weight. Just keep your truck clean and only carry what you really need.

Other than that an aftermarket exhaust, and intake system are the only reasonable performance gains.
You can start adding turbo's, and what not but you'd quickly surpass the cost of droping in a V6 or V8

[Hi-Tek Redneck]

What would the exhaust and intake recommendation be that I should purchase? Cost?
Any idea what the cost of putting in a v6 would be? Would that require anything else being replaced, like transmission? Currently 5 speed stick. I know also that I would have to replace the exhaust with the v6 right?

[rlith]

To be honest, with a 2.2 I wouldn't bother spending the money for perfomance upgrades. By the time you got done spending money to gain even 20-30 hp, you could have swapped in a v6 or v8 for the same cost... Save your money for a new engine...Do it right

[Hi-Tek Redneck]

Originally Posted by rlith

To be honest, with a 2.2 I wouldn't bother spending the money for perfomance upgrades. By the time you got done spending money to gain even 20-30 hp, you could have swapped in a v6 or v8 for the same cost... Save your money for a new engine...Do it right

How much would that cost?

[dmbrisket 51]

Originally Posted by Hi-Tek Redneck

How much would that cost?

with you being machanicly challanged, the cost of a moter swap would be expencive, im going to guess somewhere from 5 to 7k after labor, you would be best off selling the little 2.2 and buying an s 10 with a 4.3l in it, compaired to the 2.2 your in a high end sports car...for a swap to a 6 you would need computer, moter, and transmission, to do an 8 you would need a whole page worth of parts

[rlith]

Actually for the v8 he would need

Engine
tranny
harness
ecm
cross member
mounts
conversion oil pan
conversion lt1 shortie headers

All told about 1500 in parts (if you go with a used block) about anbother 1500-2k for labor if you don't know how..

[dmbrisket 51]

if you pick up every thing for 1500 your lucky, all blocks around here needed machine work done, which that alone was going to run a grand at napa

[rlith]

I picked up my 5.7 vortec from a 99 escalade with 44k on it with all accessories included for $800.00

[OverBoardProject]

There is a machine shop close by me that just turned down 2 complete 400 sbc motors for 100.00 bux each. That would have been quite the bargin

We are trying to locate the owner and see if he still has them.

[dmbrisket 51]

Originally Posted by rlith

I picked up my 5.7 vortec from a 99 escalade with 44k on it with all accessories included for $800.00

im going to have to come visit pa, the cheepest i could get a vortec here for was as you about 800, but that was just intake heads and block, nothing extra

[rlith]

Originally Posted by dmbrisket 51

im going to have to come visit pa, the cheepest i could get a vortec here for was as you about 800, but that was just intake heads and block, nothing extra

Yeah, the bone yards I use know me pretty well, I got my engine from new castle, and they even threw in the 96/97 k1500 ecm and harness I wanted for free.

[dmbrisket 51]

Originally Posted by rlith

Yeah, the bone yards I use know me pretty well, I got my engine from new castle, and they even threw in the 96/97 k1500 ecm and harness I wanted for free.

there are two j yards here i like dealing with, one of them knows me like im one of them, they dont have one 350 in right now, all the rednecks scooped them up for the races, and the other one, the one my g pa deals with, they are all dicks ot me, and they knew the moter was for my s 10 and not for clarence so they wont cut me any slack.

[Hi-Tek Redneck]

Guys, I am loving all the input. Your giving me a lot to think about. I talked to my neighbor the other day, and he and his brother do this kinda stuff all the time, he liked the idea of the v6 or the small block v8 he liked better. I am hoping he can give some insite on local junk yards and such that won't rape me. He told me to go look at edelbrock.com and lmctruck.com. What do ya'll think. Good or bad?

[OverBoardProject]

edelbrock makes good stuff.
I've never looked into lmctruck, but I've heard that they are good.

Also look into Summit Racing. They have complete motors, and also nice engine kits.

Although since you say that you don't have the money to start with you will probably just want to look for a good running, wrecked full sized truck with the motor and transmission that you want. Try getting one arond the same year as yours to make the job easiest.
Leave the motor stock until you have the money for aftermarket bolt ons.