Hey guys and gals, I had posted before about my street truck build, and unfortunately money is tight, so im going to have to keep the 4.3 and just beef it up. I have run into a couple small issues. 1, i cant find many things to do to a 95 4.3. ive only found the typical exhaust and air intake, i want more than that. Im looking for pistons connecting rods, cams, a possible supercharger. 2, I want to convert it to a floor shift truck, so where can i get a console for my truck as well as upgraded seats, nothing to fancy.

 

I know the 4.3 is basically the same as a 5.7 (350) with 2 less pistons obvoiusly. You may want to do a little research and see what 5.7 internals may work with your engine.

 

I recently was doing some research on this myself. There's really not much available for these motors. The 4.3's have smaller crank journals so the rods do not interchange with the 5.7's. The information I've read suggests the cranks with the offset journals in the newer motors are only capable of around 400hp. You can change to the older cranks/blocks with common journals and no balance shaft but it also requires a different distributor and isn't compatible with tpi.

Performance heads/blocks are outrageous expensive and there are only a handful of performance intakes but again nothing compatible with TPI. Cams are limited to only .5" lift because of the lifter keepers.

You can't realistically get even 300whp without nitrous or forced air unless you have some really deep pockets.

After crunching some numbers and some shopping, I found out I could buy a truck with a 350 vortec pull the engine and wiring rebuild the motor as a 383 with al heads new intake and still come out cheaper in the long run.

My daily just happens to be 350 vortec full size so I may just part it out and get a newer daily lol.

 

Damn I feared that I would hear this lol. I was leaning towards a supercharger anyways for a cheaper route than a ls1 or lt1. So will the pistons work though from a lt1?

 

there is always options like getting the blocked milled or using a thinner head gasket, stiffer valve springs (I don't know if they are available), porting and polishing, gasket matching, etc...

 

If you have a decent long block you can put in the L31 with a cam and some tuning for a couple grand with 300whp and still be street legal. (That's of course assuming you can build the motor yourself) Intakes are either really expensive or really heavy (marine-cast iron) but they're not necessary in that power range. More than that its really the factory 19lb injectors that hurt you. Same kind of money on a 4.3l doesn't do that much. You'll spend more than that on a *good* super/turbocharger setup, and even then, you're still limited to 400hp at the flywheel without dropping another few grand on a steel crank.

Around here you can find a donor truck for <$1000 and get most of it back selling your old motor and parting/scraping the chassis. Not to mention if you get lucky you can find a truck with the "big bro" 4l80e trans/transfer case and all wiring/ecu etc.

I guess it's pretty obvious I'm against using the 4.3 as your platform but, it's your money, if you wanna do it go for it.

 

SO what your saying is get a donor truck like a 1500 right with a 5.3 or bigger and use that for all my parts, engine harness ecu and such?

 

As I've been musing about the same problem for a while and been digging a bit into the information available you may want to have a look at what I found:

Chevy 4.3L 262ci V-6 - Engine Build - Overview - Tech - Hot Rod Magazine

 

Pretty much, although I personally wouldn't do a 5.3l mostly for maintainence expenses etc. The 5.3l "L33" is a totally different motor (basically a destroked LS1 tuned for grunt work.) and its much more expensive and uses a different transmission etc. Before 2001 the full size trucks with the "L31" 5.7 have an almost identical fuel system etc so it would be a lot easier to get legal and probably 1/3 as expensive. In fact I think the 4.3l and 5.7l might even use the same computer.

The best I've seen a driveable truck with a 5.3l go for locally was in the $3k range with lots of miles. Even wrecked ones pull more than $1k.

But if you can find a good donor truck it's just a matter of swapping parts and some exhaust work to fit it under the blazer. The l31's also have a stock 3" dual exhaust.

 

So im stuck with the 4.3 and had both of my stock exhaust manifolds crack so i ordered a set of JBA shorty headers for my truck. Im also trying to figure out if 17" C4 ZR1 rims will fit the blazer or not and also if i can swap my rotors in front or not and or do a rear brake conversion.