Zip Drive Before

Computer Support Group and the Davis family

Dead in the desert

In December of 2003, our long time workhorse of an S-10, decided that 300,820 miles was all it was going to give us out of the old (second engine) V6, slightly more than 600,000 total. It was history... We decided to make something special out of the old '83 Tahoe, 2 door extended cab. It had been a nice truck new but time, several student drivers over the years, hauling boats to the Colorado river, Lake Powell, Lake Mohave and to Lake Meade from Palm Springs in 120+ temperature weather, climbing up and down Big Bear Mountain in all kinds of hot and cold weather, and several thousand computers being transported had taken a toll on it. The decision was made to clean it up, fix it up and give it a little more power than it had when it was new. The old V6s were not the most reliable of engines and were certainly not cheap to fix or to drive. Like the Six Million Dollar Man, we have the technology to change all of that... Right!

I looked at several online sites that were specific to S-10s. We quickly tuned in on one named (strangely enough), http://www.jagsthatrun.com, that seemed to have the most useful information and advice. I can say this with my head hung low... I wish I had taken all of the advice that was there... I didn't! I strongly advise that you take it...

We decided to make a small engine swap from the V6 to a small block V8 Chevy 350 with a matched V8 700 R4 transmission to replace the 700R4 V6 transmission from the original truck, though it was the 4th one. The intent was to have a powerful but reliable work truck that was slightly out of the ordinary. It was never intended to be a race truck, a street racer or anything other than a good work truck. (no matter what the intentions, there are always side effects... good and bad.) Small block V8s were relatively cheap, had parts available anywhere, and since we were not venturing into territory that had not already been explored, it looked like a simple task. After all, it is just a Chevy V8 going into a Chevy pickup. Wrong!!!! The fact that we are in California complicated it no end... As time would tell, there was nothing easy about this but the result was well worth the effort. It was worth it to me anyway, but you might want to reconsider it if you are in California...

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