Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Chevy S10 thoughts?

The 4.3 is an awesome engine. I've had a few trucks with it and all did great on MPG and had plenty of power. The ZR2'S are nice little trucks. Should be great as a daily driver, or hunting rig. You should probably get about 23 mpg too...

I have a 2001 Ford Explorer Sport Trac, 4.0-V6, A/T, 4x4; big enough to be comfortable, but still small enough to get around reasonably well.

I have friends who have had Chevy 4.3s . No real problem with them but I have to agree with the posters who recommend Toyota. I have an 09 that has had 1 rear leaf spring break (later recall) 1 headlight bulb , and just this week replaced the U joints in the driveshaft. Not bad at all for almost 190k . Nothing else has been done to the truck.

Hyster puts 4.3 v6 Chevy motors in many forklifts. We get between twenty and thirty thousand hours on that motor! When oil is changed at regular intervals, and basic maintenance is done. As far as the s10 body and drive train I have no other input outside of the motor.

I had a 91 5sp and the little 2.8 v6.

Ran about 60-70k on it before I totaled it. Mechanically it was solid. No issues.

I have owned two S10's a two wheel drive pick-up with a stick and a Blazer with AT, both had the 4.3L engine. The PU was trouble free, the Blazer had problems with the intake manifold gasket leaking. This lit the check engine light, a couple trips back to the dealer and they had issued a service buletin and fixed it for good and it was no further problem.

Look for a used Ford Ranger, I see at least a 10:1 ratio of Rangers still running around then I do S10's. I don't think the S10's were bad at all actually but Ford must have done something right with the Rangers. I hope they re-introduce them

Have had 4 S-10 Blazers and 1 S-10 pickup. The first Blazer, a 1985, had the 2.8 and went 285,000 and was still running when I sold it. The rest had the 4.3 and ran trouble free for at least 190,000, wife's current one has 187,000 on it and still going strong, BTW all have been 4x4's.

i put 240,000 miles on a 4.3 in a van and i now have a colorado inline 5 with 168,000 miles . motors have been great.

Isn't the 4.3 basically a 350 less two cylinders?

Any Taco prior to 2003 you meant.

My son has a 2006 I cannot even begin to tell you how many things have failed on that POS.

Rust Recall
Leaf spring recall
seatbelt recall

Front engine seal(problematic ) 1200 to fix
Both Front Wheel Bearings 650 per wheel
Clutch and my son knows how to drive a Clutch correctly
Truck has 106k on it and I have spent probably 5k on it since he bought it

Truck is maintained immaculately and I use oem filters and synthetic in it, beyond all Factory scheduled maintenance.

I bought a 2009 Double CAb

constantly out of alignment
rear wheel bearing
leaking valve cover gaskets

sold it with 75k


I bought a 2014 Double CAb NEW

Constantly out of alignment


See a pattern here?




My brother had a 2003 and he replaced the front axles and both front wheel bearings , he retired it at 225k . THat was the only issue he had with his.

They are not the quality they once were, not even close.

All but 1 GM product I've owned seemed to fall apart around the motor and trans. Brakes, alts, and tons of rattles, stripped fasteners and loose door panels.

The 2.8 was referred to as the "disposable" engine and for good reasons. Definitely no 4.3 litre...

If they did, they need to put the duratec in them like what the Edge and escape has...... My 09 escape puts out 240 hp and the edge somewhere around 265.... A ranger with that engine would be pretty bad azzed...

The ZR2 with the 4.3 is a pretty good truck. Given what you are going to use it to do and if the price is right just buy it.

My S10 was a good truck. It had its problems from time to time but nothing so expensive or so terrible that we were broke or stranded. The door handles were crap though.

The ones from the 80s were real POSs.....

couple family members owned them... real disposable jalopies... 2.8 was junk from day one..the 85 my brother had, had a 5 speed manual... first two gears were made of plastic evidently.. trans went under warranty and the dealership asked if he wanted the first two gear replaced under warranty with the same plastic ones, or he could get steel ones for another $50.. I advised him to spend the $50!

+1 ! ... Toyota sells diesel passenger vehicles in almost every country that they do business, except, the U.S. No idea why. IMO, a diesel Hilux would sell like hot cakes in the U.S. But, they seem to have no interest...

I've heard folks bitch them before but my little truck did pretty well. Not much power, but no issues either. But then 70k ain't much in the way of miles.

I also had a 93 Ranger with the little 4 banger. Between the two, I wish I still had the Ranger.

Those 2.8 motors had bad rear main seals. It was part of routine maintenance on my S10 Blazer.

Do not start them at 30 below if one is blocking in your wife's car unless plugged in for 2 hours prior. Oh, it will start. And 10 seconds later you will owe it a new motor.

Don't ask... Just the neighbor's POS , so it was only money.