Hey!

I have given up on my '91 4.3 blazer... biggest POS I have ever owned. So, I sold it.

I found myself looking at a 91 Trooper. I really liked it.

The problem is, it has the same 2.8l v6 as what came with the Blazer.

Im willing to give it a shot.

my question is: Are there any issues inherant to the 2.8l? Are certain failures more common in this engine than others?


I am nervous because my Blazer literally fell apart, one problem after another. Never was it a simple replacement of a part... always an entire weekend long ordeal to fix something that had taken me barely an afternoon on other rigs.

What can you tell me about the 2.8? I tried to do a search, but it said that nothing matched "2.8"...

 

Well, first off the 2.8 is nothing like the 4.3 that you had. I think the 2.8 is a 90 degree (tighter) V6 with a balance shaft where as our 4.3 is a 60 degree V6 without a balancer... I think... correct me if Im wrong.

2.8's are alot like the 3.1 and 3.4 that cavaliers and minivans had, and IMO they are bulletproof. Ive owned 3.1 engines that I have abused hardcore as a younger person, and alot of friends have had them too. One friend had the oil pressure drop to 0psi and he drove that thing for 3 months everyday as the lifters started to get noisier and noisier... It finally locked up, but it took a long time. His car was a "Wynns product" demo car though, so maybe that additive is to blame for the hundreds of hours running with no oil pressure... Who knows.

Older cars and trucks are going to have problems sometimes, alot of us owners like that cause we get to fix things. At least the parts are cheap for the GM trucks. If you dont want to have the hassle of fixing anything, go to your Mitsubish dealer and buy new - they offer a 10 year or 160,000km warranty which is unheard of from auto manufacturers... My friend has a Turbo Lancer that hes abused the living crap out of for years and its still a great car! And hes even had warranty recalls done for free even though its got an aftermarket turbo system on it... Thats also unreal to me, usually the dealers wont touch stuff for warranty if its been modified.

 

Yeah, I have yet to have any problems with my engine and my friend has a cavalier like mentioned above are close to the same engine and he abuses the **** out of it. racing all over town, slap shifting etc.

 

ok you have been corrected. Not all 4.3s had balance shafts.


Personally I've never cared for the 4.3 halfassed design, horsepower of a v6 with the gas mileage of a v8. The only problems 2.8s had was they were put in s-series that are too big for them. The best bet is to swap out to a 3.4 and you get real close to the same HP as a 4.3 but with the gas mileage of a v6.

The 60 degrees that everybody had problems with was the 82-85 ones with smaller mains. After that date gm increased the size and the crank problems pretty much went away. The trooper doesn't have the same engine as a blazer. Its engine is based on the FWD GM with the starter on the drivers side.

The troopers are an ok platform to start with. Might get some ideas from here:
http://members.shaw.ca/betterthanyou/
just scroll down to his trooper info.