HHmmmm.....guess I will have to be on the lookout for a 4.3L S10 pickup or Blazer with a manual trans. I looked yesterday and found nothing, much less near me. Have to call around to the salvage yards.

 

yup they are getting hard to find. XP performance has rebuilt NV 3500’s on sale for $850 or something like that. Then you know it is a ‘good to go’ transmission. Just make sure to get the S10 one and not full size truck or the shifter will be in the firewall.
I got mine from salvage but then got it rebuilt due to mileage. Salvage yards around here don’t keep track of mileage anymore. Man I don’t get that!

 

There's nothing wrong with using full-size truck parts, but you might need to use the transfer case out of the full-size, too. You're probably thinking of the old-school SM465 4-speed, which will still work but require a little more creativity. The newer 1/2-ton 5-speeds are no problem. It would still be best to get a donor with a 4.3, though, so you can use the flywheel and hydraulic parts.

This is what the shifter looks like with an SM465 (after slight modification).

 

Good info....I will begin looking into this more.....I need a project to work on.
And Tom A....hey nice radio....I have the same exact one in my Blazer.

 

Thanks. It's a lot smarter than I am, so I don't really use it for even half of what it can do, but it sure beats the old CB for trail communication. BTW, I wasn't quite finished installing it yet when I took that picture. It looks nicer now.

 

HEY!
Wanted to revive this old thread as the oil leak returned (actually over a year ago) and I am in the process of doing this all over AGAIN!
I have oil seeping from between the timing cover and oil pan...has been several months since I looked here with the engine running and saw the leak. I tried applying RTV to the face of the joint, did not work.
I did try to just remove the old gasket and RTV from the timing cover to oil pan joint, but was likely to result in damaging the timing cover.
Just does not make sense how oil found its way out of this joint? Sure seems like I had RTV coverage on top, bottom, sides of the oil pan gasket.....but oil found a way.

Front diff is out, oil pan is off. Fan clutch is out, alternator and bracket are out.
Today I will remove the crank pulley, harmonic balancer, coolant pump, and timing cover.

 

Just to update this old thread again:
Removed everything...again.....cleaned-up the oil pan and the block, new oil pan gasket, new timing cover (GM one this time), cleaned all surfaces where the RTV goes, new tube of RTV.
Installed the new GM timing cover.
Applied RTV at the top of the half circles between the oil pan and gasket, pushed gasket into place.
Applied RTV to the engine block per the illustration in the engine manual. Also applied RTV on the inside of the timing cover to oil pan gasket joint.
Raised oil pan to block using a floor jack. Checked gap between bell housing and oil pan....right at 0.3mm per engine manual. Then torqued down all the bolts and the two nuts in sequence to 18 lb ft in multiple passes.
Then applied RTV to the area between the timing cover and oil pan, on top of the oil pan gasket. Could not get under the crankshaft position sensor much.
Let all of this dry for over 24 hrs.
Installed the remote oil filter adapter with new O ring and gasket.
Installed the harmonic balancer and crank pulley. Installed the spark plugs as I had removed them so I could turn the engine over easily.
I had to order the coolant pump gaskets, so waiting for them to arrive. And decided to not put the front diff, axles, etc back in at this time. I want to run the engine, see if I fixed the oil leak before I put that front diff back in......just in case I (once again) did not apply enough RTV to the timing cover - oil pan joint.....hopefully not!!!

 

Ran the engine for a few minutes with the front diff still out. So far no leaks....not oil or coolant.
Will begin putting the front drive components back in today.....