Skid-Tech Sonoma

I bought this truck, a 1996 GMC Sonoma SLS with a 4.3/5spd in summer 2025.  It was a very nice bone stock truck with around 125k miles.  I bought with the intention of building this into my daily drifter.  I have had drift beaters, and I really wanted something that was nice enough to daily but capable enough to drift.

People often ask why I didn't start with a rougher truck to ruin.  I wanted to choose a truck that was nice enough to be shown off as a business asset, without needing major body and mechanical work.  I want to focus on chassis and suspension for this truck.  I also plan that anything I do to this truck will just be bolt in, so it has the ability to be turned back to stock.  I appreciate the Old Man who loved this truck before me, and want to respect the hard work he took to keep it nice.

After some baselines on a local road (Tail of the Dragon), a few things became apparent.  While I primarily want to focus on drift oriented mods, many will crossover into the handling/autocross world, and I would like to support that where needed.

-Brakes are a weak point - quickly get faded

-Body roll not as bad as expected

-Predictable plow in front end, no oversteer

-Open diff doesn't allow power to get down

-4.3 enough power on the tight turns

This truck has a 3.08 ratio rear end in it.  Next step is dropping this welded 3.42 in (welded using the Skid-Tech 7.5 weld plate).  This will allow it to predictably skid, get the power down, and the better gear will help with acceleration.  I really want this truck to primarily drift in 2nd, which I hope the mid range torque of the 4.3 will allow.

At this same time it will get a cheap 4/3 drop (blocks in rear and springs in back), as well as wheels with low profile tires.  At this point I will reevaluate the handling and plan out the next mods (rear end anti-hop bars, angle mods, hydro-e brake).

In October 2025, the Sonoma made it to its first drift event, and it did not go well.  I got a test hydro installed, but it couldn't lock the rear drums, so it wasn't useful.  Several laps into the event, the engine started knocking. This was certainly due to oil starvation.  It had plenty of oil, but it was not overfilled and had the stock unbaffled oil pan.  Later analysis found spun rod bearings on cylinders 2 and 6.  The Sonoma is currently in process of getting a different 4.3 put in or a crank/rod swap on the current motor.

The actual drifting experience (before the engine knock) was about what you would expect.  Very little grip in back end and very easy to spin around.  The transitions were very rough with a lot of body roll and unloading in the transition.  Some axle hop but not a huge issue.  Next steps will be a traction bar on the rear, as well as figuring out a way to make the hydro work.  Front lock angle was not yet an issue, as getting consistent initiations and transitions was the limiting factor.  Rear sway bar possibly.

https://fb.watch/E8328r4DfT/