The Escalade is gonna stay stock drivetrain wise just for longevity and reliability. At least for now lol.

so one thing that’s been driving me absolutely nuts is I haven’t been able to get a tachometer working in my S10. I tried 5 oem tach clusters and just now an aftermarket tach. Still doesn’t work. Tried the pull up resistor and nothing. One thing I did notice is c2-10 the wire for the tach signal output puts out 14.7 volts while the truck is running. Idk if there is something bad in the pcm or what but it was throwing code p0654 for tach signal output before I disabled the code. Really just wish I could get a tachometer to work in this thing. Is there anything I should be looking for or is this just some super weird issue I’m having?


also I put the 03 tahoe wheel on the S10, I read somewhere they were the same spline but they are definitely not the tahoe has a smaller splined steering column then the s10 does. I bored it out and used a file to open up the splines as much as I could and it feels solid on the truck now. I really didn’t like the stock s10 steering wheel at all.

 

That picture had me confused until I read the whole post because I saw the tahoe wheel and the stick shifter but you were talking about the Escalade lol. The Tahoe wheel looks really natural and good in there The interior looks well kept too.

 

Same ^^^

Wheel looks like it should have come factory that way. I assume the buttons have no functionality currently? Any plans to make the functional?

 

Yeah buttons don’t work. I don’t have any interest in them to be honest. I mean the stereo is just right there lol. The new wheel definitely feels much better then the ugly dinky S10 wheel did.

 

So I’ve decided to start another build, this time it’s gonna be a square body s10 with a turbo 5.3 and th400 trans unless I stumble across a 4l80e for a good deal. Already have the motor and tranny, most the turbo parts needed. Gonna gradually order odds and ends needed. It will be very much a budget build but I’m excited for it. Might just build it to sell it after it’s finished. I have learned over the years I really enjoy the build process and learning along the way.

 

dang... i wish i could be that bored!
put in almost 15hrs today, and most of the next 2 weeks will be the same. just finished supper as i type & will probably have to go back in tomorrow.

 

Being self employed has its perks lol. Been tuning for a living now for 10 years, bought a triplex three years ago and hoping I can buy another duplex this year. If I can get 2-3 more of them I’ll be able to retire before 35. I almost called it quits a few years back but after getting a real job working for the state of Oregon I wanted to blow my brains out and the paychecks were a joke. Summer time I usually work sun up to sun down but I enjoy it for the most part.

 

Just a small update. Got a couple thousand miles on the truck since doing the swap. Took it up to Tigard today and out to Hillsboro yesterday without any issues. Last tank was mostly 75mph on the freeway and I averaged 24mpg, best tank I got with the 4 cylinder was 23mpg so I have no complaints. Only issue I’ve had since the swap is the mounts shifted more toward the drivers side and one takeoffs depending on how I let the clutch out I can hear the header hit the steering shaft. Not really an issue just a minor annoyance. I need to figure out a way to slide the motor towards the passenger side and fill in some of the space in the adjustable mounts so it can’t slide over to the drivers side again. Pretty low on my priority list. I’m very happy with how the truck came out and I did a little bit of cold start tune adjustments and got it running allot better when it’s cold now.

 

The truck has been running awesome and is usually my go to to daily drive because it sounds awesome, handles good and is just fun to drive in general. I have been feeling like I need to put a little more love into it recently because all I’ve been doing to it lately is driving it after dialing in the tune a bit better. Got it to idle really nice when cold and it chops pretty good too now. I also picked up a set of 18x9 Bmw 550i wheels for it I wanna throw some 275/40/18’s on the back and paint the wheels some rediculous color that stands out like a candy blue or candy purple.


My plans for upgrades are most likely putting some leather seats in it preferably with some oem seat heaters, I would also like to swap the interior over to the dark charcoal color. These s10’s and blazers are soo cheap now I may buy a parts car to do the interior swap and part out the rest to end up with free parts.

another big thing on my to do list is definitely a posi in the rear end. Not sure what I wanna go with yet but I think I’m gonna keep the little 7.5 10 bolt rear end in the back because it’s holding up great so far and it just keeps things simple since this is a lower power truck. I still need to research the different styles of limited slip differentials to determine what would be best for my truck. I know allot of guys have gone with the zexel lsd from camaros but if there’s something better out there for a little more I wouldn’t mind spending the money on it. I would like to install it myself also to learn how to do a rear diff. I’ve don’t trans axle front differentials and shimmed them for proper clearance but never a rear diff.

 

Oh upgrading the 7.5 might not be the best choice ever. Sure its surviving for now but throw a good posi in it and start dump clutches like prom dates that won't put out and it might be a different story. I bet an 8.8 would be easy to swap in and some came with a factory LSD.

Been waiting to see some updates on this thing!
The interior swap should be really nice when done.