4.3l or 3.8l???

[supersean]

Would you gain more by using a 4.3 engine or a 3.8 engine? I have a 4.3 that i could possibly rebuild if it would make more power.And if i was to do that would the 3.8 intke fit on a 4.3? I know its a weird question but please help me out, thanks

[RallyRed 98]

it wouldn't be worth it.

the motor would fit, technically, but with all of the other crap you'd have to go through to make it work, you'd have a 4.3 liter boat anchor.

the intake won't fit at all.

[3.4 slow to go]

I heard the same thing when I went to put the 3800 in. If you just have the 4.3, don't do it. If you also have the harness & pcm/bcm(?) for it, then do the swap/. Mounts will need to be done up, along w/new trany. and then there's the little stuff.
I'm almost finished my swap, but then the car isn't my daily driver yet either.

[38fury]

The 4.3 is a 350 minus two cylinders, they have the same mounts as an LT1(i think . . . ) but really it's not worth it unless you go with a typhoon engine or something, you will make more power with the 3.8

[T-Punk]

a typhoon engine is the same as the other 4.3's it just has a turbo system. Also a turbo 3.8 will outperform the turbo 4.3, the 3.8 is just a better engine. my friends blazers have had all kinds of engine problems. just spend the money for heads, cam, turbo whatever on the 3.8 and you will be happy with the results.

[silvachris1]

Your friend's Blazer is junk then. Every 4.3 I've ever been around has been EXTREMELY strong. We have a 97 S10, 4.3, 4x4, 5 Speed, and the truck has 120,000 miles on it. Still pulls hard. The truck hasn't been babbied either. It's towed waaay more than the reccomended payload (up and down steep hills too). It's seen alot of hard shifts and clutch dumps from a stupid teen (me a few years ago). Even embarrased a 96 Dodge Ram V8 one day. The motors are extremely stron and extremely capable. The first thing that tore up on this truck was a ball joint. The next was the clutch (at 100,000 miles even with all the towing).

That said, it still would prolly be easier to work with a 3.8 in the FBody. The guys over on S10Forum.com are gettin about 250RWHP with 7psi. Our little 3.8 does have more potential than what I've seen, but who knows. If I was willing to go through the hassle of a swap, I'd go with a V8, doesn't have to be an LS1, some people have done a SBC V8 swap.

Good luck man.

[Die Ford V8]

same with my dads 95 4x4 he didnt take care of it and beat the crap out of it. we hauled oysters that im sure quadruopled the payload. we towed a 7000lbs 27 foot aluminum boat and that little truck still pulled hard. 260,000 miles and only the clutch and soft plugs(water passage ones on the block are soft plugs right). that this is still putting around with lots of power and DOESNT SMOKE A BIT.

i have alot of respect for the 4.3s,


im just not sure why they didnt put it in the camaro instead of the 3.8s, just bump upi the injection a little and maybe the cam and we would still get good mileage. also chevrolet could have used the same motor mounts trannys(6spd woohoo) and things like that. it would be easier to work on and im sure it wouldnt have the same ignition problems the 3.8 had. but thats in the past so whatever.

[FireFighter]

The 4.3L is a very strong engine but I wouldn't do the swap. It was said before, if you go thru the trouble of an engine swap, go with a v8.

BTW their is a guy here from pa(I don't remember his S/N) That swaped a 3.8l into his s10 thats running 14's. I'm not sure if he had the 2.2l or the 4.3l, maybe he will see the post.

[WickEdSix9838]

The vortec 4.3 can be a really strong motor. The heads ported will flow about 30-40 CFM more than the ported 3.8's. We've got a customer that had one in a dirt track car that made over 400hp at the flywheel and he's in the process of building a new one with all the super-light aluminum rods/pistons and a roller cam. It should be really stout. I wouldnt mess with swapping to one though, just do the heads/cam setup on the 3.8, it'll run really good.

[RedFrk13]

4.3s are truck engines, leave them there. [img]smile.gif[/img] They are strong, reliable engines, with lots of torque for towing. For performance, I prefer the 3800. Which is why I went through the trouble of putting one in my S10 which had a 2.5 iron duke. I have yet to see any NA 4.3 times compare to mine with comparable mods, or lack of mods, let alone the fact that I also have an auto.

They obviously have great potential if you did put some money into it. It shares lots of parts from a 350, which can be had cheap.

[supersean]

ok forget the 4.3. How hard would it be to put a stock carbed 350cid im my car? because i know its not as hard as everyone makes it out to be