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SW Iowa | Can't speak specifically to the pickups but I've owned a couple of Astro vans and an S10 Blazer from that era (and worked on a few others) that would all be pretty similar driveline/proportions. All mine were 4.3 V6; as noted spark plugs aren't the most fun but not impossible. Especially on a 2wd, if you needed to pull the engine I'd yank it with the trans attached.
Be aware '95 was right around the transition to OBD2... I think '95 would officially be OBD2 on an S10 but maybe look into that as I know some stuff on 94 Astros is oddball / one year only and NLA. 4.3 are real picky about adequate fuel pressure and I think most common problems are the spider injectors and fuel pump. For a beater your best bet changing the fuel pump would probably be to cut a hole in the floor but you don't want to cheap out on parts or you'll be doing again and they used to run $2-300 each for Delco/Delphi. You also want to replace engine oil cooler lines before the rubber sections degrade enough to push out of the crimps and pump all your oil onto the road. Unless it's a manual, 4L60e trans are not known for durability and have plenty of weak points, but if you're used to half ton GM trans maybe nothing you're not familiar with. Otherwise most stuff I dealt with was relatively minor--ball joints, intake manifold gasket (leaking coolant externally), wheel bearings, emission codes for fuel cap or leaky purge valves.
I'm far from a Chrysler fanboy in general, but for what you're wanting/from that era I might look into a 1500 2wd Ram... seems like quite a few of them out there for sale (or if you need junkyard parts), easier wrenching access than an S10, and I think overall reliability maybe better than GM especially if you're looking at 2wd / smaller engines. | |
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90's S10 pickups - somewhat easy to work on?
