1986 GMC S-15

[chilliwak]

I heard you guys had a lot of snow melt causing problems Andrew. It looks like you found a good example of damaged road. Still awesome to see your truck out there having fun with you and the misses. Summer is on the way and you have a great rig to enjoy it in. Cheers, Chilli...

 

[autism family travels]

Awesome rig. I have a soft spot for s10/s15s, because my first rig I drove was an S10 blazer. was 13 years old and used to take it up in the woods at the cabin by myself all the time. As for the wheels on the van, could be worse, He could have put Rockstars on.

 

[onemanarmy]

Great read. I love bringing (and using) old stuff up from years of neglect and wear.

About the wheels you chose...I like them, but you said you had to have a certain wheel to keep the antique plates. Did the wheels have to be made by GM? I figured you could have gotten a 16" wagon wheel in some white or black and would look the 1980's part.

and yes, those trucks should have never had the 2.8. The 4.3 is the only one I'd consider.

 

[NORDFORD]

I love the updates and what a cool little rig. Please though, do some research on Fram oil filters. I think you’ll find they are not the best. I had one where the filter media came apart on a work vehicle ~500 miles after an oil change.

 

[Andrew_S]

I just love your truck. It's so not 2018 it makes my knees week. Truly old school cool. I bet it's never transported a participation trophy and doesn't feel intitled to anything.

Congratulations on graduation and getting her back on the road.

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I have to admit your comment had me laughing quite a bit. Thanks I really appreciate that.

I heard you guys had a lot of snow melt causing problems Andrew. It looks like you found a good example of damaged road. Still awesome to see your truck out there having fun with you and the misses. Summer is on the way and you have a great rig to enjoy it in. Cheers, Chilli...

Grand forks got hit really hard with the flooding but it was very minor in the okanagan this year.

Awesome rig. I have a soft spot for s10/s15s, because my first rig I drove was an S10 blazer. was 13 years old and used to take it up in the woods at the cabin by myself all the time. As for the wheels on the van, could be worse, He could have put Rockstars on.

That mercedes is going to be amazing when it's done. He's fully camperizing it and rigging it up for long term adventures.

Great read. I love bringing (and using) old stuff up from years of neglect and wear.

About the wheels you chose...I like them, but you said you had to have a certain wheel to keep the antique plates. Did the wheels have to be made by GM? I figured you could have gotten a 16" wagon wheel in some white or black and would look the 1980's part.

and yes, those trucks should have never had the 2.8. The 4.3 is the only one I'd consider.

I really had a hard time finding any offerings in a 16" rim for the 5x4.75 bolt pattern. I was kind of set on this style of rim as well. I'm kind of torn between doing a solid axle swap and just leaving it stock as is. I may in the future redrill the hubs and axles for a 5 x 4.5 pattern and then there are a ton of era correct rims in that bolt pattern in a 16" barrel. Would love to fit some tall skinnies under it after these bfg's are done.
The 2.8 is a great little motor for flats but as soon as you hit a hill it just doesn't have the torque for a 5000lb truck. I honestly can't stand the 4.3's, if I were to go bigger I would just have a 4.8 or 5.3 ls and all the benefits that come with it.

I love the updates and what a cool little rig. Please though, do some research on Fram oil filters. I think you’ll find they are not the best. I had one where the filter media came apart on a work vehicle ~500 miles after an oil change.

Thanks for the suggestion. I've read a number of horror stories about guys building motors and having the fram filters coming apart right away. I usually grab a motomaster or ac delco but this time forgot to ask and didn't have the heart to make the parts guy go back and grab something else.



I was helping out my foreman on a saturday morning and one the guys at work brought his van over that morning. Talk about a great rig.

one can dream

I've been playing with the idea of building a truck camper and he was showing me how his pop top set up works.

I finally got some time and managed to get both trucks washed up,

It's funny how you fix one thing and then another pops up as result of that fix. When I changed the fluids in the T-case it seemed a little low. I quickly realized the front output seal was failing and weeping, why it was low to begin with. Friggin seals are expensive at like $26... All fixed now.

Canopy back on and getting set up for our first major outting. The engel fits perfect without the thick bedliner. I've been wanting to get the bed linex'd but have been putting it off. The bedliners weigh 125 lbs that came with the truck. That's a lot of dead weight....

So we set out on our first adventure with the new upgrades. This is our hidden gem of a meeting spot in the "middle".
Beauty of a spot right on the kicking horse river. We've been here a couple times now and it's perfect.

First beer on the First night of camping for the season.

Friggin perfect,

Can't beat laying in bed listening to the river and the fire crackle with this kind of scenery.
It's almost like I forget how great getting out and doing this and fall in love with it all over again every season.

The next morning we woke up to rain and I still haven't figured out any kind of awning yet so we took shelter for breakfast.

On our way back into Golden. I love seeing this cut for the hwy.

Stopped at this great rec site outside of Invermere for lunch.

We have a collection of rocks from all over. Anytime we stop one of us is usually digging around to find unique rocks.

It's usually pretty tough to get an idea of scale in photos but this one does it justice I think.

We were trying to get to the lake of the hanging glacier hike but were a little to early...

It's between 65-70km's into the bush so we tried skirting around. This is black diamond (?) glacier in the background.

 

[Andrew_S]

We made it about 5 km's further this way and then had turn around again. Maybe next time.

Nicole found some mushrooms which we picked and then later threw away when maggots started crawling out of them.

We saw a lot of bear poop on the drive and then a mature black bear shortly later. When we turned around the first time we ran into these guys who scored this young bear, likely last years cub. Bet it's going to taste great.

Ran across some old iron abandoned in the bush.

Sitting in my Volvo excavator at work is a century away from what this would have been like.

Some parts of the road were getting really torn up by the logging trucks so they had sections laid out with rig matts.

Spotted this rig when I was picking up my fishing license. Pretty unique!

We stayed here once before and decided it would be a good spot for the night.

This was our improvised rain solution. Luckily we didn't need it this night.

2 spots down from us this dream machine was set up. Didn't get a chance to talk to them though.

The next morning we took a drive up to munroe lake. We decided to forgo fishing on it though as it was starting to snow.

Incredible spot, we'll definitely be heading back there,

 

[Andrew_S]

At one point we just hit a wall of black. This was my first time seeing fire damage to this extent.
I had forgotten but there was a massive fire in whiteswan provincial park last year. I read about it later and it was 10,000+ hectares.

As far as you could see from one end to other and up both sides of the mountains completely gone.

There was a small village of mushroom pickers setting up just waiting for it warm up.

Beauty rivers everywhere.

Neat avalanche zone that was being melted away by the river.

Driving through whiteswan is just "wow" moments at every turn.

Spotted these guys in golden on our last night.

We did over 500 km's of bush roads this trip. The new 3.4 got a really good break in.

The only issue I had was a really irritating rattling coming from the exhaust and as soon as it started I immediately knew what the problem was being caused by. When I installed the manifold gaskets I had a dropped couple of the bolts and found them all except one. I looked and looked and looked, but couldn't find it. I suspected I had dropped it down the y pipe but wasn't able to retrieve it with a magnet on a stick so I wasn't sure.

Well I pulled the entire exhaust from the y-pipe back and found the bolt sitting in the cat just rattling around. 3 hours later and some cursing and yelling it's all fixed now and sounds great...


The really great news is the truck is so much better on fuel now! Especially on the hwy. Driving from Kelowna to Golden I averaged 9.5 L/100km or 30 mpg. Considering that is driving through rogers pass and I was doing 110-120km/h most of the way I'm stoked on that. For the entire trip (1300km) I averaged 10ish L/100 km, which is about 27-28 mpg. That is almost twice as good as I used to get with the old 2.8 and now I can actually drive the speed limit! So pleased that it's working out so well. With gas being almost 1.50/L or $4.50 / Gallon, it'll be nice to save some money at the pumps this summer.

 

[Bojak]

Awesome trip, and awesome truck. Thanks for sharing. You got me cruising meth'slist looking for a extended cab one with a manual and 4.3. the wife thinks I have lost my mind.

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[chilliwak]

Hey Andrew, thanks for posting those pics and giving us a detailed report on what you have going on. Seeing those pics of B.C. just makes me want to get back asap. Good thing I will be there in late July. Your truck seems to be preforming well. Good to see you have taken her on a good run and you dont have any serious problems. Once again tanks for the update and I am looking forward to seeing what else you get up to. Cheers, Chilli...

 

[1stDeuce]

Yup, thanks for continuing to not only post updates on the S-15, but also pics and descriptions from your trips! Wife and I had to cancel our planned BC trip this year as we're just too busy trying to build a home, but this is my go-to thread for inspiration if we're able to make it work next year!!

Also nice to hear that the 3.4l is working out well. My next project is converting the Comanche 3.4 over to S-10 based TBI. I think it'll run so much better, and fit so much better too, plus it'll look a little more authentic. I'll have to look back, but did you end up using the 4.3L injectors? I assume the setup is otherwise the stock '86 S-15 hardware... ??
Chris

 

[Jeffer949]

This is the second time reading through your thread. I Love that you documented your build on this old girl. All you see on here mainly is new stuff and I honestly can make you think you have to have a newer vehicle to have adventures. I find myself saying the same thing to myself about my 2003 frontier. Makes me come back to the realization that you just need to use what yo have and get out and have fun. I have been toying with the idea that I need a bigger truck.... I think Ill rethink that. Thank you.

 

[Andrew_S]

Awesome trip, and awesome truck. Thanks for sharing. You got me cruising meth'slist looking for a extended cab one with a manual and 4.3. the wife thinks I have lost my mind.

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That's funny. I still check craiglist occasionally to see what's out there. I honestly just like looking at older vehicles and fantasizing, the wife says I have a problem to haha.

Hey Andrew, thanks for posting those pics and giving us a detailed report on what you have going on. Seeing those pics of B.C. just makes me want to get back asap. Good thing I will be there in late July. Your truck seems to be preforming well. Good to see you have taken her on a good run and you dont have any serious problems. Once again tanks for the update and I am looking forward to seeing what else you get up to. Cheers, Chilli...

Thanks chilli, Hope that it doesn't get to dry out here and you can get out before the fireban is on.

Yup, thanks for continuing to not only post updates on the S-15, but also pics and descriptions from your trips! Wife and I had to cancel our planned BC trip this year as we're just too busy trying to build a home, but this is my go-to thread for inspiration if we're able to make it work next year!!

Also nice to hear that the 3.4l is working out well. My next project is converting the Comanche 3.4 over to S-10 based TBI. I think it'll run so much better, and fit so much better too, plus it'll look a little more authentic. I'll have to look back, but did you end up using the 4.3L injectors? I assume the setup is otherwise the stock '86 S-15 hardware... ??
Chris

Building a home definitely takes priority. Yes I just swapped the 4.3 injectors in and that was all. I've read about some guys using an adjustable fuel regulator but I just checked my plugs and they look great, so I'm hesitant to touch it. Everything else is 100% stock. I know some guys even stick with the stock 2.8 injectors, but at higher rpm's they can't supply enough fuel. As long as you aren't revving it past 4000ish, they are fine.

This is the second time reading through your thread. I Love that you documented your build on this old girl. All you see on here mainly is new stuff and I honestly can make you think you have to have a newer vehicle to have adventures. I find myself saying the same thing to myself about my 2003 frontier. Makes me come back to the realization that you just need to use what yo have and get out and have fun. I have been toying with the idea that I need a bigger truck.... I think Ill rethink that. Thank you.

Couldn't have said it better myself. The biggest thing is just getting out there, everything else is secondary. Right on, glad I could inspire a little bit.



We got out this weekend for a two day quick adventure. The goal was to get out past mica dam north of Revelstoke. It was about 400 km's from a service station in and out, so we brought some extra fuel just in case.

This was a really cool old road that is being consumed by nature.

It's just wide enough for one vehicle now.

I found it fascinating how the lake had just consumed sections of it.

We drove by this old steel bridge and I had to turn around to check it out.

Walking on this bridge really brought out my fear of heights. It doesn't really show in photos but each one of those squares is about the size of an iphone.

The entire drive out to mica dam there are endless streams and waterfalls. This was one was right before mica dam.

I couldn't get a good shot of the dam from downstream but this gives some idea. It's fairly large at 240 meters high.

There were some really neat rock formations on kinbasket lake.

Found this old motor grader abandoned in the bush.

Would have been fun to jump on the controls of this when it was still running.

We checked out a few rec sites on the way out. This was spraque bay. Really nice spot, but there were a few other guys set up and we aren't really keen on driving that far out to listen to gen sets running next to us.

The lake is down roughly 20m from being drained all winter and it's really neat to see the landscape revealed in these shallow bays.

I love seeing this older logging equipment still in use. I couldn't help but get a close look at this yarding tug, the old 4 cylinder detroit diesel still looked great.

After driving a few more km's down the road we found it, the "spot". Couldn't help but get a few casts in while Nicole was sorting out something to eat.

Pretty tough to make out the truck in this photo but we were camped on the left point.

Found a huge stash of driftwood a little ways down the bay.

It's going to be really tough to top this one.

 

[Andrew_S]

After some food and few beers it was time to get down to business.

15 mins in and the first fish was on,

Then it was almost non stop after that.

These bull trout are so much fun to catch.

The entire shoreline is covered in these exposed root balls. Nicole was taking a closer look while we stretched out our legs.

These two loons came over to check us out. I couldn't get them to call back to me but nicole had the right tone and got into a 5 min conversation with them.

All in all we hooked up with about 15 bull trout and landed about 12 in the boat. Every single one was a perfect release. We had more then enough food so there was no need to keep any.

On our way out we were checking out some backroads and came across this beast.

Really cool old cable loader.

I was really surprised to see it had joystick controls. Must have been retrofitted or really cutting edge at the time. Pretty neat too that the leather was worn right through to the hardwood seat. That takes a few hours to accomplish.

Ran across this old cable ferry.

Would have doubled as a wicked swimming platform.

On the ferry deck there was a cluster of swallow tail butterflies.

We found this wicked little gem of a spot on our way back home. Right on a point with a super nice beach all the way around. It was a super steep little goat trail down that would keep almost everyone else away.

Could walk out a fair ways and the sand was so nice.

We were only out for two days but it felt like we were out there for a week. If you're ever around Revelstoke definitely make the trip up above Mica dam.

 

[Bojak]

Just awesome. Thanks for sharing.

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[Kingsize24]

Looks like y'all had a spectacular time! I can't believe all that equipment is just lying around. Almost like there was a fast exodus for one reason or another.

Never had any bull trout, but I assume it would be good eating from those clear waters. Very jealous of that trip. Looks like tons of fun. Thank you for sharing your adventures.

By the way... What canoe is that?