Buying an s-10 which is better for me

ok well i have found two 1989 s-10...both 4 wheel drive..now i was wondering...one is a 4 cylinder and the other is a 4.3...now for me i need to drive to school everyday and its pretty far and i drive around al ot and i need a vehicale that does pretty good on gas...i looked and saw that the 4.3 doens't do good on gas but is pretty powerful...not the 4 cylinder looks pretty weak...if i gave it some power and everything else would it be a nice vehicale to go off road and play around it or what

My dads 4.3 get 20 mpg. Its 10 years old..156k miles.

ok 20 mpg on what highway or city...if its city then thats good for me but if its highway then no way...a 5.0 gets better gas milage

Get the 4.3. If they are both in good shape, the 4.3 will actually get better gas milage. In the smaller ones, you have to keep the pedal near the floor at all times. I got 22 mpg on my 91 4.3 going over 110 MPH on a 150 mile drive. That was the only all highway tank of gas I've used, but I think it gets about 26 going 55-65. My average of city/highway driving is probably 20-22. The 4.3 is also a much better engine, in my opinion.

Even if you don't like the gas milage incredibally, the resale will be higher with the 4.3

I have a 4.3 with an average of 20 mpg, before my BFG All Terrain's. I remember reading a post on here a month ago regaring the 4 cyl gas milage and that it wasn't too much better then the 4.3's. Good luck and make sure to really check the trucks over, what the trucks were used for makes a big difference. Its was nice to know my truck was never used for towing before I got it.

so the 4.3 isn't that bad on gas...well i have to drive 30 miles all highway to school everyday so i do a lot of highway driving...but lets say that i do 40 miles of driving everyday and 4 days out of the week i do city drivng....do you think that one tank of gas would hold me over or what....i know that trucks don't get great gas milage and everthing but i want something around 27...thats well the highest i could expect from a truck...my mustang gets great gas milage because its a 4 cylinder....so the 4.3 is better and has more power and gets pretty good gas milage...anything that would get me some what better gas milage...i have heard of this thing called the tornado and it suppose to get you like 1 to 2 miles per gallon more...wellit can get more i guess

Dagger, i own a 98 s 10 4.3L just as a reference for gas mileage, ill fill it up once, or on a busy week twice, and im changen oil every 3 months because my 3000 miles are rolling around, also, 90% of my driving is short trips, 2 miles or less, idels for a while with the car starter on, so it gets good gas mileage, the 4's imo, have no power, dont have a good way to get power to them, and have lots of problems

hmmm, well as a 4cyl owner, i'll tell you that it DOES seem under-powered on the highways (but thats b/c of driving habits) I like it for city driving, and thats 95% of of the time i spend on the road.. as for fill-ups every 2 weeks. Get the 4.3, it'll cost a little bit more in fuel, but not a whole lot.

If you really are worried about gas milage get a toyota tacoma instead. You won't get the power but man will it sip your tank, not to mention your pocket. If not mistaken their V6 gets decent gas milage. I love my S10 but didn't get it for the fuel economy.

Wish my 4.3 got 20 miles to a gallon.

do a tune up, run cleaner through the gas and get a new ff

ok well thats good...i want a newer s-10 but i could deal with it if it doesn't get the greatest...i mean if it gets anything near what my parents ranger does then thats fine....also plus i want to buy a 350 and make it really nice...then i can drop it in....also if i have a 2.8 instead of the 4.3 can i still drop in a 350 or do i have to change everything out

if your goin to do a sbc swap out, your best bet is to go with a 4.3l, it is literally a 350 missing 2 cylenders... 5.7/8=.7125, take .7125 * 6 = 4.275, the 4.3L

well can i still do the swap with a 2.8 or is it different

yes you can do the swap to a SBC if you have the 2.8L. Is it as easy, from what i understand...Hell No...Do able, yes, as easy .... no

you can do it, lots more work, not 100% but i think you get into mounts and all of that good stuff... rear end should be changed with the 2.8 for sure

ok well thats good...i want a newer s-10 but i could deal with it if it doesn't get the greatest...i mean if it gets anything near what my parents ranger does then thats fine....also plus i want to buy a 350 and make it really nice...then i can drop it in....also if i have a 2.8 instead of the 4.3 can i still drop in a 350 or do i have to change everything out

You're concerned about gas milage, but you want to put a 350 in???

My 96 Jimmy gets about 270-330 miles per 16 gallons of gas.

You're concerned about gas milage, but you want to put a 350 in???

My 96 Jimmy gets about 270-330 miles per 16 gallons of gas.
all highway miles and my 4.3 will get 300 miles on a 20 gal tank then need a fill up (not immediately but its a little under a qtr) and city it will get 250 or so, but i have remote start, and its a michigan winter, so it does idel for 20 min. in the am b4 i go out to it

I bought my 92 Chevy S-10 4x4 new in 92 with a 4.3, it now has about 138,000 and still gets right at 23 mpg plus it has plenty of power.

The first Chevy S-10 4x4 we had was a 85 model with the 3.8, it had no power neither as good of gas mileage.

Go with the 4.3

well i wasn't going to put the 350 in it right away...i wanted to make it really nice and build it up a lot first...then swap it in there...maybe drive it for a while and then sell it or something

you will never ever ever make your money back doing that, no matter what you do or how hard you try once you put money like that into it, its not going to come back out

you will never ever ever make your money back doing that, no matter what you do or how hard you try once you put money like that into it, its not going to come back out

Good point. You do it for your own enjoyment, or don't do it at all.

you will never ever ever make your money back doing that, no matter what you do or how hard you try once you put money like that into it, its not going to come back out

Yeah I think it's funny, people will pay thousands on their own ride, but if you look on ebay you can find fully customized performance v8 blazers fo 3-4k and they usually don't sell and are relisted again and again. People (including myself) must think other people's tastes are tacky (thinking of the ebay forest green v8 blazer with the ugly skull on the hood... I think I've seen that thing on there 3 times!). It's funny how we'd rather make ours nice with every nickle and dime when you can get somebody else's finished investment for less. Of course, I totally understand that doing the project's most of the fun.