The Chevy S10, introduced in 1982, has remained Chevy's base compact truck. Sold with a four-cylinder and V-6 engine, short bed and long bed, standard cab and extended cap, the S10 meets the needs of many different people, and Chevy continues to manufacture the S10 as of 2011. If you own an S10 and you want to increase performance you can do so by bolting on several different upgrades.
Although many of the four-cylinder S10s come with a 4.10 gear to compensate for lower horsepower output, installing a higher gear ratio will help you increase the performance of the truck when hauling heavy loads or towing a trailer. The S10 rear gear ratio runs from a 2.72 gear ratio to the 4.10 gear ratio. Although increasing the gear ratio increases performance, it requires your engine to work harder. This decreases gas mileage. However, a decrease in gas mileage is often the trade off for increased performance.
All S10 engines come with restrictive exhaust manifolds that limit the ability of the engine to remove waste exhaust gas from the engine so new fuel can enter the engine. Installing exhaust headers reduces the restriction of airflow in the engine. When the exhaust gases escape the engine, it increases the flow of new air into the engine. If you have a V-6 engine, you can also convert your single tube exhaust to a dual exhaust. This also increases the flow of gas from your engine.
Installing a supercharger on your S10 which forces cold air into the engine at a high rate of speed might be considered the ultimate in performance gains. This gives you massive horsepower gains. The task of installing a supercharger on a Chevy engine is considered a difficult task and it is not a cheap modification. You can expect to spend several thousand dollars but there is no other modification you can make to increase the horsepower in the engine as much as you get with installing a supercharger.
Whenever you make a change to the engine like installing headers, rear end gears or even a super charger, you should have your computer tuned. The computer in your S10 is set at the factory settings for the components installed. Sometimes, when you improve performance, the computer does not know what to do for it. To get optimum performance, take your S10 to a service center that offers computer tuning.
