i'm rebuilding a 4.3 out of my 91 blazer out of neccessity nothing more. i only have 5 pistons with one being damaged beyond use, so i looked to find a replacement. got ahold of a vortec 4.3 with a blown head gasket for parts. now, i'm not comfortable putting 1 vortec piston in with 5 standard pistons so my thought is to just replace all the pistons on the standard engine with the vortec pistons. from research i've found that they have the same stroke,(3.48), and i allready knew that they're the same bore and valve relief. slight difference in the bevel on the top OD of the pistons.and of course the vortec skirts are considerably shorter than the standard pistons. i'm gonna mount one of the vortec pistons in the engine and measure the stroke just to be sure all is good. just looken for some input from those who are more educated and experienced on this than i am.
thanks,

-james

 

I went to autozones website and looked up a piston for a 91 non vortec vs and 92 vortec and the part numbers were the same. Looks like it'll work.

 

you can also get aftermarket ones for fairly cheap to. I just bought some for a v8 im building and paid $100 for a set

 

thanks for the input guys. bolted in and measured, all is good. with one minor oversight that i should've factored in when i decided to go with the vortec pistons. the ring size. the oil ring on the vortec pistons are shallow therefore the new ring set i bought for the standard (non-vortec) pistons will not fit. other than that hurdle i believe we are a go for the rest of the engine build.