Fix and flip: The Saga of the 2000 S10, Part 9 (It’s Alive!)

First up, let’s get a timing chain on this thing.  I’ve pulled the old gears, chain, and tensioner.  The oil cup plug has a hole in it. This is where the oil sprays on the timing chin to lubricate it:

There is a tech service bulletin out on this.  The new ones have a slightly larger hole to supply more oil to the chain to prevent timing chain failure.  So we need to get the old cup out and install the new one.

We start by using a small punch and a hammer to hit one side of the cup and turn it sideways:

You can then pop it the rest of the way out easily with a screwdriver or grab it with pliers.

I gently tapped the new one in using a socket as a driving tool (the back of the socket was on the cup because it has more surface area and we don’t want to bend anything).

Now I’ve put on the new tensioner (note the pin still in it to hold back the contact piece – you take this out after everything is set up), and I have the engine at TDC on cylinder 1.  This is really easy to do when the head is off, of course.  If it weren’t I would have put a wooden dowel into the #1 spark plug hose to confirm this.  I also have spun the cam sprocket to the appropriate place, and you can see the timing marks pointing to tech other, as well as the marks on the tensioner.  I’ve drawn a line through it – this is what it should look like if you got your timing correct:

I then slathered a bunch of assembly lube on the chain and gears, pulled the pin, and re-installed the front cover.  Now it’s time to put the head on.

Since the head didn’t need to be milled, I’m going to use copper gasket spray on all of the surfaces to fill in any imperfections.

And the head is back on (that final valve keeper came in and was installed):

And once again using plenty of assembly lube, we re-install the push rods and rockers in the same positions as when they were removed.  I also turn the motor to TDC of each piston as I use a torque wrench to do the final torquing of each pair of rockers.  This make sure your torque spec isn’t off because of pressure from the springs.

 

I’ve put the rocker cover back on with a new gasket, put on the throttle body, and hooked up a few sensors and vacuum lines.  Just enough to test start:

And it looks like everything went back together properly, because it runs:

The exhaust is loud, which annoys me.  It also has a fart can on it, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that it has a ricer muffler on it as well.  That will be a project for another day.

I need a few more parts to complete the motor work – a couple of studs and a new crank bolt.  In an unfortunate bout of my own stupidity, I managed to cross thread the crank bolt into the crank and need a new one as well as to chase the threads of the crank.  Once that is done I’ll zip the rest of the motor back up, flush the coolant, and change the oil.

In:

2 responses to “Fix and flip: The Saga of the 2000 S10, Part 9 (It’s Alive!)”

  1. Dave Avatar
    Dave

    Nice work so far – are you going to post a final rundown of what you had to spend vs. what you sold the truck for?

    What’s next on the list? Any suspension/brake work to be done?

    1. daryl Avatar
      daryl

      I’ll provide some basics on what I spent and what I get.

      Next on the list after motor and AC work is to get the 3rd door working and do some light bodywork on the cab corners. Both sides are rusted through the paint. I need to stop that rust, smooth out the damage, and get some matching paint on there.

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