1993 Chevy S-10 Fuel Pump

JMBUSCHO

MEMBER
1993 CHEVROLET S-10
6 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
127,000 MILES

Hi, I've got an s-10 4.3 V6 TBI (vin. Z). I recently acquired this truck and in all the reference material I have read it says it should have a 21 gallon fuel tank. When the fuel gauge reaches empty and I fill it up, I can only put about 16 1/2 gallons in. I drove it once, on empty, for about 15 miles and she died on me. So is there 5 gallons of (in a way) unusable gas in that tank or could I have some other problem? I'm using the original fuel sending equipment (except in-line fuel filter of course) and I have no idea when the injection system has been last tuned-up. Could my books be wrong and possibly only the 4x4s of this series have the larger fuel tank holding 21 gal. Since that number seems high to me for this size truck on a 4x2. I know Hayes and Chilton sometimes get the wrong info, especially when a vehicle series has many different engine sizes and specs. Thanks a lot for your help!

2 Replies

MASTERTECHTIM

MECHANIC
4,749 POSTS

I only see one listing for a fuel tank in this truck part number 15961070. I would imagine the only reason for runnig out of fuel would be a fuel pump that is not sitting close enough to the bottom of tank. Remember the pick up screen has to be off the bottom of tank so fuel can get into it. Also fuel is what is used to cool the elctric fuel pumps so in theory you would always want to keep the pump in fuel, maybe thats why there is fuel left in tank when it reads empty. This is only a opinion, I dont have any facts to back this up, just a theory.

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Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 AT 6:25 AM

WMPBROWN

MEMBER
17 POSTS

If your fuel gauge goes quite a bit above full, and is out of gas at about an 1/8th of tank, you need to replace the pump. The internal sensor on the pump is sending the wrong ohm value to your gauge.
If you have to replace the pump, you may need to replace the retaining straps and nuts because these might break or otherwise get damaged when changing it out. You have to drop the tank or pull the bed to replace the pump, . Dropping the tank is a 1 person job, lifting the bed is a three/four person job.
If the pump you have is not the origanal, it might be a pump for the 13 gal tank. That was used on the 83 - 93 4 cil and the 2.8L engines

All S10/S15's with the 4.3L have 20 gal tanks as stock.

Consider getting both of the 83 - 93 S10/S15 specific Haynes and the Chilton manuals.

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Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 AT 10:20 PM