Have a hole above mine. Went to a junkyard and cut a plate out of a blazer way bigger than needed. Cut the floor of mine, done the work, trimmed panel to size I needed. Used stick on foam to edge to seal panel and screwed it down. Once the carpet is over it you can't tell. I know 4x4 guys that even cut their bed floors so its easier to get to on the trail.

If done correctly there is nothing wrong with it. I also take a rubber mallet and fold the flange back where the trans tunnel meets the firewall on s-series I take the engine out of. Makes getting to the bell housing bolts a bit easier.

 

this technique does not work so well on pick up trucks though. when it went out on my 1990 pick up it crossed my mind, was gonna lift the bed up but the bolts are all rotted, and thought a huge hole in the bed when i actually haul stuff back there would be a bad idea, dropping a 38 gallon long tank isnt fun.

we've even done it on customers cars at work, when everything under there is so rotted, gas tank bolts, lines to the tank, etc where its gonna destroy the beater of the car or cut a hole in the trunk they usually dont care

 

I'm about to cut a hole in my now, I really don't want to drop a full tank of gas...

 

I need to change mine too. there's a little more than 3/4 tank of gas, and I don't have access to a lift. i'm leaning towards cutting the hole. just trying to find if a good how to has been written, with pics to see where and how big the hole needs to be.

 

If anyone locates the exact location to cut via pictures, post them - I'll so do this.

 

How often do you people expect to be changing your pumps?

 

when i did mine, i kinda measured and guestimated where one of the corners was going to be and drilled through the floor, then looked underneath to see where the bit is sitting and then just measure the corners from there. ive never done this on a s10 but on a few 80s fullsize blazers so there was a bit more room to see between the frame and the body.

in my opinion its so much easier and safer just to have a access panel. dropping a full fuel tank by yourself with a floor jack is not fun, or even worse having a gas tank strap twist around and break or clip break.

when i tried to drop my tank on my 95 s10 the clip holding one of the straps on just spun around... no idea how you would get that off, definitely dont want to torch it

 

Good info, thanks!

I'm about to cut a hole in a 4 door 2001 Jimmy. The only how-to video I've found is this one (for a 2 door model):

 

I could change the pump faster by dropping it than you`ll do cutting a hole in the floor

 

The first time cutting the hole will take longer than dropping the tank, every time after that its 100x faster.