My 13-year-old son just bought his first project, a rust free '97 s10. We picked it up off of market place with a locked up 2.2 for $400. He paid for the truck and all the parts thus far by buying, fixing, and reselling mountain bikes.
He wasted no time and got straight to work pulling the blown 2.2 and 5 speed out. He then spent a good hour power washing the engine bay, frame, and under side of truck. He was able to sell the rear bumper and use that money to buy a roll pan. He bought a 5.3 from one of the local junk yards for $400. He also bought a set of cheap LS mounts.
For now we are using the truck oil pan, so we had to notch/box in the frame for that (boy that hurt a lot of feelings on the old interwebs.
Anyways, that is about where we are at now. He has decided that he wanted to document the whole build on YouTube. I had a channel that I would randomly post on, so I let him take that one over, so he is trying to build up that channel. If you guys want to support him and the build, please comment some words of encouragement on the videos... and if you want, like and subscribe (thats what you are suppose to say, right?)
Part 1: Removing the 2.2 and 5 speed and power washing the engine bay/frame:
That's great - I love that he bought it all himself! I'll show this to my 13-yo as hopeful encouragement.
I understand the concessions to budget, but the generic hundred dollar engine swap oil pans are sure worth a stretch. The crossmember is lower than the pan on my S10.
I'm going to go yell at my 22 year old.
Subbed. Shall watch.
berkeleying cool a youngun is getting after it!
So it's been a while since I've updated this, but basically, we pulled the 5.3 apart and put in all new seals and gaskets, head studs, Richard Holdener low buck truck cam, BTR springs, etc, etc. We found a nv3500 from a 4.3 s10 for 70 bucks (IIRC), and snagged up a cheap eBay stand alone harness, and cheap eBay shorty headers. He also picked up his first sponsor, LSXSwapBox provided him with a start-up tune, so that was super cool. The engine is in and currently starts, but we don't have the transmission installed yet (he's saving for a flywheel and clutch kit.) It still has a way to go, but he's done like 95% of the work himself, with a bit of guidance from me here and there. It's been super cool working on this project with him, and now I plan on picking up an s10 to build, so when he get's his license we can do car meets together.
He's funded the project thus far all on his own (except for the eBay Harness that I got him for his birthday, he's been buying/fixing/selling bicycles, and has been working on cars/trucks/sxs, and tractors for a buddy of mine that owns a farm... so between that, school, and band he has been a busy boy...
Here's a link to our youtube channel. It'd be super cool if you guys would check it out and toss him some works of encouragement. https://www.youtube.com/@alldabeanzracing/featured
