Just an update...
figured I'd show and tell... Well I have replaced just about every gasket and seal in this 4.3. I'm waiting for my heads to come back from the machine shop, having them worked and all. I'm paying 225$ to have this done . Is that a normal cost now? Last time I had this done it would only cost about $150 but anyway.
Have replaced the oil pan gasket because I dropped it down and it had about an inch of sludge in it from sitting up for three years and it definitely needed to be replaced you'll see in the pictures. I replaced the timing chain and sprockets, timing chain cover, head gaskets, intake manifold gaskets, I went and got a newer spider injection from a U-Pull-It off of a 2002 S10. I wish I could have afforded the upgrade to the new spider injection but I'll have to wait on that. Changed all the gaskets in the plenum. New oil sending unit. New front seal of the transmission. New EGR valve and gasket. New crankshaft position sensor. Basically I think I'm going to have damn near a new motor basically replacing everything but the the cams and the Pistons seems like. Also I replaced both motor mounts they were both broken that probably caused me some issues in itself..It's been a lot of work me and my buddy are doing it. We put the harmonic balancer on and Bam lined up perfectly. Number one in four Pistons is to the top harmonic balancer lines up with the cover so I'm hoping we're on the right road to recovery. Makes me nervous to see my baby in this condition. But hope to be back on the road soon if you guys know of a little quirk or something that I may be missing please enlighten me cuz I definitely don't want to do anything wrong to mess up my motor appreciate y'all and all the help you've given me I'll keep you updated...

If you guys have a fix for this also on my block I believe it's where the starter connects should I just clamp it closed JB weld it and move on or actually try to weld it




That's from setting up for over 3 years..




Right on the money.

 

For the upgraded injector, I believe that they came in all of them from 2003 and up.

 

I don't know what you can do about the block. I had the very same thing happen on my block. It was grinding and when I started looking that's what I found. I retired it and started a V8 swap.

 

You'd probably have better luck brazing the block than welding it, but there isn't really a good fix.

 

Difficult to braze cast iron. New lightweight starter and JB-Weld. WD40 the stud and screw in when JB is fresh. Welding might work but would need somebody who knows his ways around cast iron. If I properly remember would require nickel electrodes. Then re-doing the thread will be a nightmare because of the hard welding seam.

Might work by grinding off the broken edge, tapping the vertical part and horizontal part of the block above and left of the first bolt (looking from the rear to the front) and make a "L" shape bracket with thick vertical part with the thread for the starter bolt/stud. I would go with some aluminium. Check if it can be fitted once in the truck and with the starter motor.

 

Actually just did the jb weld thing to it...
clamped it jb welded it and after dry put starter on and it bolted and tightened nice and snug. It's was wrecked b4 I got it which was prob the cause of that crack and 2 broken motor mounts....

 

Good you got that fixed. JB-Weld is a good option.