Alrighty here we go…
I am about 4 weeks into this project. As a few of you know the vehicles are located in the southern tier about 2 hours away from Batavia where I currently live, so I can only work on weekends. This is more if a mock up rather than a build up. I dont have the tools/time/money to do it ‘right’ the first time. I want to get it together and running, then I can re-do things slowly as different variables allow. For example, I traded the brakes/suspension from the 240 to my buddy and he is going to help me paint it next spring. I also tentatively plan on getting an EMS with my tax returns. I should probably paint the frame now, but there is nothing saying I cant do it some other time. MY last project (240) I did all at once and it didnt turn out how I liked it.
Here is what I have:
98 s10 - used for interior, front end, wiring harness to make stock gauges work
94 s10 - used because its a 94, no emissions or inspection worries. plus its less rusty than the 98
89 sr20 - I owned this car 3 years ago and got the chance to buy it back for ‘cheap’. Originally I put the body kit, painted it up, and swapped the motor while at Alfred State for autobody. As soon as I graduated I realized I hated the body kit and sold it. But I did buy it back for less than what I sold it for with more parts, nice. I am not sure the turbo size. the compressor housing says Garrett 50 trim, but its a poor casting so it might be fake. oh well
Best I got it to run when I originally owned it was 13.8 with probably 200 pounds of bondo/fiberall/fiberglass. lol. at that time it was all stock except a megan racing manifold, exhaust, and a fuel pump. I think I had it at 15psi for those runs
The plan is/was to get it running before school starts back up on the 24th of August, but we shall see how that goes. I found this wiring diagram that will help lots:
6/27/09 - my birthday.
I got the sr20 pulled:
6/28/09 - It kinda fits!
7/4-5/09 - I get distracted easy
With so much going on I like to mess around on different parts of the truck. This weekend the plan was to get the motor mounts welded up and figure out the shifter problem
The stock shifter in the 98 is further back than in the 94. Plus the 98+ seats have an extra bolt to secure the seats. So I figured I would cut the floor out:
More test fitting showed me that I would have to cut out some of the fire wall to clear the down pipe. I think I made the hole too big, but thats ok, I have a welder.
I originally planned on using the sr20 cross member, but after I cut the cross member off of the car I realized its just going to be easier to not use it:
I set the motor in there, got it where I wanted, and tacked these plates on. They bolt right to the motor mounts that came on the sr20.
And I boxed them in:
As you can see I left the bottom open. I can still get a ratchet wrench in there to unbolt the motor mounts if need be.
Everything fits pretty good:
(I need a waste gate flange!)
7/11-12/09 Drive shaft and Tranny mount
I never messed with making drive shafts before, but after reading and some not so careful measurements I went for it. The first time I did it I didn’t encorporate enough slip into the yoke to allow the rear u joint to go onto the rear end, so I had to re-do it. This time there is about 1.5” of slip, out of 6-7” available. I think that’s good. Ill eventually get the drive shaft made by a real place once I get a decent rear end (I have a ford 8.8 lined up, but it will prob be sold by the time I get to buying it)
Since the 240 has a 2 piece drive shaft and a rear end that is attached to the car, there isn’t a u joint right after the slip yoke. So I welded the one from the s10 onto it.
My second attempt, lol
For the tranny cross member I contemplated combining the s10 and sr20 cross members, but again, after lining everything up it was easier to make one. I used two pieces of angle iron for the support. I am going to have a small piece triangulate from the inner bolt down onto the frame. Its not done yet, but it will only take a few minutes.
Eventually Ill add a piece like this, lol
7/18-19/09 Interior/Brakes
With the fire wall stock there was no way the stock booster would be usable. It would probably melt the diaphragm inside along with cook the master cylinder. A hydraulic booster from an early 90s Astro van bolts right up and works mint from what I have heard.
Since its time to start messing with the fire wall I decided to see what its going to take to put the 98 dash into the 94…
Well they are very different, but its all metal so I can make it work.
The main difference is how the steering column bolts to the firewall. In the 94 its all metal welded to the cab. In the 98 they use this big piece of aluminum bolted to the firewall. The actual cab is basically the same. So I drill out the brackets from each truck:
And test fit the 98 piece into the 94. A few screws to hold it together and voila!
No pictures of me messing with the HVAC stuff, its just about the same though, only a few small things had to be changed.
BUT I did get the AC heater box out of the 98 to work, I am so pumped because I didn’t think it would fit. Hopefully I can find an AC compressor and make it fit 
In order to get the wiring harness to fit from the 98 I had to cut out the piece where it goes through the fire wall, also the hole for the steering column is different so I grabbed that too.
I used a piece of the column bracket from the 94 to make a recessed pocket for the booster, I shifted it over, away from the turbo, too
This made the linkage on the booster obviously short and off set, so with a little TV magic its all done:
98 steering column bolted in!
The booster is slightly angled up, hopefully it doesn’t hit the hood. Its only tacked/screwed in there so I can adjust it if necessary.
The only “problem” I see so far is the alignment of the column through the fire wall. Shouldn’t be too much of an issue, I haven’t messed with it yet.
REMEMBER, NOTHING IS DONE YET, dont flip out if there are bad gaps on the fire wall or its all rotted still or if the welds arent cleaned up or whatever.
More to come next Sunday!
