LS1 Brent

Does anybody know the gas mileage of the ZR2's? And also, where is a good place to look at parts for them? Any pro's and con's? Thanks.

goshawk23

i know there are several S10 forums. http://www.s10forum.com/ and http://www.s10forums.com

i would check these guys out. the second one looks pretty good.

chevymec

iTrader: (19)

Well as for S-10's in general
Frt hubs go bad
Idler and pitman arm go bad
Recliners break
3rd door handle breaks.
All this is normail wear items that Ive seen except for the recliners and 3rd door handle.
For Gas milage, Ive had a few friends with them and they never complained abou tit except when pulling a boat. They pulled 18ft center console boats and I think it dropped to 8 or 9 a gallon.

chevymec

iTrader: (19)

Oh and the pro's, the ZR2 will carry the mail in the mud. Throw a set of 32's on and turn up the torsion bars and your set!

FryZ71

Check out www.ZR2.com for all the info you need.

FWIW, my '98 ZR2 ext. cab pickup with a 5" BDS and 33s on the stock 3.73s got about 13MPG around town. Stock susp. about 17MPG.

marc_w

I had a 00 ZR2 Blazer. For the most part, I liked the truck a lot. S10's are notorious for a few things - chevymec got most of them. Mine also had the fuel sender go out (gauge gets erratic and eventually may stop working alltogether)... then the hazard button which is actually a $300 multifunction switch can crap out - which will cause the main brake lights to not function. I believe there was a reacall on these, but it came out about a year after mine failed, and a few days after I traded in the truck.

I put a BDS 5" lift on mine too...... to be honest, I don't recommend lifting the Zr2's with autotrac unless you plan on getting a true double-cardan custom front driveshaft made. My stock one let go shortly after lifting it - I had a custom one built but they didn't use doublt cardans at one end and the thing buzzed like CRAZY over 55mph. (d-shafts turn full time on autotrac vehicles). The buzz was enough to put your feet to sleep.

But anyay, I had the BDS lift, stock sized 31" wheels (Interco Truxus), and I got about 200 miles a tank, which I think was about 12.5mpg. The motor was very adequate when things were stock, but it was quite lazy later on in it's life. It couldn't even hold 70mph on the freeway without downshifting a lot.

I had bad luck with my vehicle it's whole life. At 1,500 miles I found the engine had a full **TWICE** as much oil as it was supposed to have. I drained GALLONS out of the motor. The dealer didn't want to do anything about it, and the engine was running fine - so I let it go. (the oil never appeared to be foamy, even though I knew the crank was egg-beating it the whole time)

The motor ended up acting very worn out up around 98K miles. It had a very-very loud rap one cold winter night which prompted me to get rid of it. I've never heard a motor rap that hard and not grenade.

FryZ71

Marc W., were you a member a long time ago on ZR2.com? I think I remember a similiar SN on there. Didn't you have trans problems, too, because of the HPP3 or B&M Shift Plus or something like that?

marc_w

Yeah, that was me!

I totally forgot about the tranny issues... It was "shift solentoid B" or "2" or something like that. I always thought it was because I had one of those little B&M shift improver switches that you hotwire in line with things... It used to mess up the way the tranny shifted after a few days worth of driving - then I had solenoid problems shortly after that.

I had the solenoid replaced and it was awesome for a few days, but it came back after that. It only seemed to act up in hot weather, which was weird.

zippy

i like them, they are good money to me. intake gaskets, oil cooler hoses, ball joints, idler arms, pitman arms, pinion seals, hub bearings, recliner handles, etc. some already mentioned. overall they are pretty solid trucks, these are just things to check over when you are looking. none of the above are major problems though. at work we just call them high maintenance.