I'm looking to get a little more power out of my 98 blazer. I don't have a lot of money to work with and wondered if anyone had experience with canned tunes for these. The only things I have done that might be considered upgrades I'd a cherry bomb m-80 exhaust and a factory fitting k&n filter.

 

Not much "canned" add-ons for the 4.3 V6. In the shadow of the bigger brother SBC V8 the V6 has never been used for serious tuning and racing, except by some racers in full out engine tunes. As for starters:

A good starting place is this thread:
https://blazerforum.com/forum/engine...upgrade-98434/

And then we have this older one where a look at post #33 may give some more insight.
https://blazerforum.com/forum/perfor...s-69167/page4/

The 4.3 V6 is a pathetic engine. Mass produced to be just average and cheap. Easy to maintain and durable. When it comes to the OEM engine. If you want to go the performance road with this engine and truck the advice is: Not for the faint of heart and needs deep pockets.

Some of the reasons why this engine is not tuned more often:

• The heads suck.
• The fuel injection sucks. (Until the real multi port fuel injectors in the variants after 2006 or 2007 but then the electronics do not play along)
• The camshaft sucks.

When it comes to serious tuning aka. real power (add more than 50 hp)

• Heads are terrible for high rpm use

When it comes to real racing tunes (add more than 100 hp)

• Crankshaft sucks (cast steel crank no forged ones available at reasonable price)
• Crank main bearings suck (2 bolts only)
• Cooling system needs additional oil cooler and larger radiator plus electrical fans.
• Stock rods cannot be used anymore
• Fuel injection needs upgrade to multi port fully sequential fuel injection
• Additional transmission oil cooler needed for sure

Have a look at my build page for serious engine building for performance.
https://blazerforum.com/forum/builds...-tuning-92047/

Mind you, when modifying an old engine in an old truck with 150'000 miles or more on it all that lies in the drivetrain has to be modified accordingly, depending on how much more hp you get. Add oil and trans cooler to withstand the added power, and so on.

Hope it does not discourage you but makes things clear when it comes to the 4.3 V6 and power.

 

Thanks for the insight, my engine has 221k miles on it and it's about time for it's first rebuild and I have been thinking about throwing in a mild cam when I do it. I also heard about a restrictor plate on the back of the butterfly valve on the intake that some day you can cut off for more low end response. ( Definitely getting a stock one though in case it doesn't work....)

 

There are a few threads here about doing that. IIRC, some people liked it and some didn't. It doesn't give you any more power, but it makes the delivery off idle a little mire abrupt.