There are plenty of 4.3 s-series with the leaking lines removed and the owners race them. Everything from hard core autocross to drag racing. This and removing the balance shaft is a common mod on people building race engines.

Only on 4x4s you have to keep the oil lines due to the frontend in the way of getting to a block mounted filter.

We done this on my buddy's truck and he regularly pulls a horse trailer, his boat, and a 10foot trailer with 2 four wheelers on it. The auto trans overheating is a bigger worry than engine oil. For some reason the remote oil filter was added where it wasn't needed but gm left the trans cooling badly lacking.

 

Being a 2WD drive guy (2002 2WD auto Blazer and 1998 2WD 5-speed S10) I was just dragged into the 4WD world due to the engine we we just got finished installing and got on the road today.

The engine came from a 1998 4WD auto Blazer with W eighth digit VIN and was in all ways the same as our 1998 X VIN 4.3 engine except the one from the Automatic had a temp sensor mounted on the front of the intake manifold and it was plugged on the 2WD 5-speed S10 from the factory.

The oil pan, oil filter set up, the exhaust mainifolds, etc where identical. The 1998 owners manual stated in the S series the W has 5 more HP than the X engine but phyically AND electrically we found in 1998 the eighth digit VIN of the X and W engines to be idential.

My friend that let me and my son help mentioned he did see one 4WD with the remotely mounted oil filters but do not know the year. We discussed this thread this afternoon and he said he remembers when this set of oil cooler lines was like $160. Now that they are $44 retail it makes less financial sense to dump them.

Not sure what they add to the life of an engine but I do know the 1998 X that we bent a valve on #5 hole at 524K miles and when on to trash the engine by throwing a rod on #5 due to piston and valve crashing (never knocked a hole in the piston) was still a power house at 1/2 million miles and I think it had the OEM spider injectors.

For a shop task my son had to tear down the engine and remove the crank. To my surprise after 524K miles there was NO ring grove and it only leaked oil but did not 'burn' oil.

I physically removed one of the pistons myself by just pushing it out of the top of the cylinder.

There was NOT even a hint of a ring grove when I pushed it out or felt with my fingure nail. This was after letting it idle for 5 minutes with only diesel in the crank case then running it hard with only ATF in the crankcase for about 15 miles which cut the bearings out of the engine.

This was only done after after I had the 119K donor engine setting ready to replace the 524K engine due to the valve not closing. It was a shop learning project for my son as well as myself.

In light of this experience I would keep the oil cooling lines because of my wreching/tool and die experience but WHO needs a S10 Blazer engine to last one million miles? I say go for pulling the oil cooler feature on your friend's truck.

The killer of the 4.3L GM engine seems to be oil and water seal failure. In the case of these two 1998 4.3 engines we have gained experience from it seems AGE may be more critical than MILES to the longevity of the GM 4.3 engine. Both the 119K and 524K mile 4.3's always had the oil cooler in place yet their gaskets failed. The 119K engine we just installed was stripped down to a long block so we could regasket it.

The OEM intake gasket was NEAR failure when we proactively replaced it while the engine was on the engine stand. It really looked like a piece of wet cardboard.

Based on this 1998 and owning the 2002 since 2006 I would say ANY 4.3 owner who is running on the OEM intake manifold gasket set SHOULD proactively replace the intake manifold IF one plans to drive the vehicle past 100K miles.

Water and oil gasket failure seems to be the only major cause of the death of a 4.3 GM engine in most cases.

 

The 99 Jimmy has 200,000 miles and probably has not had the best of care. The oil supposedly was changed a month ago but was black. After removing the cooling lines and the filter adapter at about 50 degrees it had 60 pis oil pressure at start up. After a 10 mile drive oil pressure was 35 psi at idle.
One thing that I found is what appears to be a bypass valve in the filter adapter right above the fittinng that the filter screws onto. I found it after removing the fitting to move it to the block. I am thinking that the clean oil comes up the center of the filter. If this is correct I don't know what this bypass is for. Because a bypass for a clogged filter has to be on the inlet side of the filter not the outlet side. I could pust against the spring on the bypass and it took very little pressure to open it.
Maybe the filter has a bypass built into it.

 

yeah as swartkk said you basically just need the threaded piece so you can install a oil filter like you would usually do in a car. i did it like 3 years in 93. cause it had that oil filter relocation deal, and of course the lines were leaking. someone else on this forums tried it and the filter wouldnt fit due to there not being enough room. it worked for me cause i tore out all the factory suspension

 

i have yet to do mine...the threaded piece your talking about...does that come out of the relocated oil filter mount or are you talking about the part i need to order from gm?

i looked at that threaded stem last oil change...couldnt figure out how to get it out??? unless i was looking at the wrong thing.

 

Check the link I posted earlier it shows you what to do. The fitting that the filter screws onto can be unscrewed from the aluminum adapter and screwed into the block. It takes a 10 mm allen werench. The 2 bolts holding the aluminum adapter to the block are torx so you will need a torx socket anf long extension for that.

 

If you buy the adapter that excludes the oil cooler lines mentioned already make sure you get a new O-ring that goes between the block and adapter.

 

My 2.8 in my blazer had over a million miles when it died, cause was the pickup tube in the pump falling out. They didn't have the oil cooler. I've never seen a factory s-series with a proper working rad have any heating issues, 4, 6, or 8 cyls.

For the nipple I know some of them could be removed with an allen wrench and just put in the engine block. I think this was the earlier ones and gm prolly figured out they couldn't make the $140+ (at the time before the aftermarket started producing them) for cooler lines. Seems I remember some people haveing to buy the nipple off a fullsize with a 350 to do this cause the one on the remote didn't come out.

 

A - new oil lines
B - if you're not comfortable with the radiator oil cooler, route it to a passive oil cooler or a B&M Super Cooler. They have a bypass so they don't cool oils untill the temp of the oils reach a temp that's appropriate.
Lines are what's mentioned above & the B&M is about $60 - the 3/4" thick (look them up, they're great! no Tony the Tiger pls lol), so around $100.
I'd kill people for a security assuredness for $100!!!

90 mins worth of work & a few "im thanking you with a few beer" sort of thing = done deal and they have the security the engine is protected no matter what.

Personally I wouldn't mess around with the oil temp & I would try to keep it as cool as I could- it's the life blood of an engine!

 

Did not know that there is an adapter without oil lines. I just screwed the oil filter to the block after removing the adapter and transfering the threaded fitting from the adapter to the block.