3.1L to 4.3L Swap $150

[DigitalBee]

A guy down the road from me has a Vortec 4300 motor from an 89' Silverado with low miles. He swapped for a V8 and now wants to get rid of the V6. The motor is in good shape and has all the parts including exhaust. He said he would take $150 for the whole thing. ;) [img]graemlins/burnout.gif[/img]

Question is ... Should I? Is the torque / Horsepower alot more than my wittle 3.1L? How much trouble would it be to swap the motors? Is there alot of money involved?

I plan to rebuild the motor (master rebuild kit $400). Put in a better cam, bore the motor..?

Any suggestions / comments would be great.

[Akuma]

If it will work then I say go for it!

[Wicked 3800 V6]

Best of luck trying to get it to fit in ... but it would be killer.
-Rob

[3.4 slow to go]

it will/can fit. Mostly what you need, caint remeber all of it:
(is it tbi or carb? makes a big difference)

motor mounts
engine harness if not included
ecm
new tranny w/sbc bellhousing
new tach
emissions exempt address
new catfront exhaust
new coil springs, maybe
various tubing/electrical routing
new afpr , tbi or carb use a LOT less pressure
relocate motor mounts to appropriate holes in k-mbr

if e-check exempt, & carb, you got it made, use good 650 non-cc carb, & vaccum advanced non-cc hei distributor. easiest set up for it.

[DigitalBee]

Actually it has SFI Fuel Injection, not carbed. I was afraid that I would have to replace the tranny. I hope I can find a decent price. I guess the Vortec 4300 used the same tranny as the 350 V8, so the guy im buying the motor from didnt need to swap it out.

The rest of the swap is cake, pending some cash.

Thanks ...

[MustangEater8251]

you may wnqat ot convert it to Carb.

you can get the parts off of earlier blazers.

I had a 92 GMC Jimmy, was carbed had 190 hp, and like 240 ft. lbd of torque.

Small block, internals fit the motor pretty well.

Wonder if you could look into a rebuild kit, for a cyclone to Typhoon? Maybe even lead to forced induction in the future. Might not even cost all that more.

But for the swap, I would guess it owuld be the same as a small block conversion if oyu were going carb.

[DigitalBee]

Just for the sake of asking a question ...? Why would I want to convert to carb? I thought Fuel Injection was better? I could be wrong.

I would like some more information about those rebuild kits you were talking about. If Im going to spend the money to rebuild the motor, I may as well do it right the first time!

Thanks ...

[toast]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by DigitalBee:
Actually it has SFI Fuel Injection, not carbed. I was afraid that I would have to replace the tranny. I hope I can find a decent price. I guess the Vortec 4300 used the same tranny as the 350 V8, so the guy im buying the motor from didnt need to swap it out.

The rest of the swap is cake, pending some cash.

Thanks ...<hr></blockquote>

I am pretty sure it is TBI (throttle body injection) not SFI. SFI did not come to the chevy trucks untill 96, they did not offer it in 89, unless that is a newer motor.

;)

[3.4 slow to go]

toast ic correct, sfi didn't come into 96. I have a 95 blazer w/cpi. I think 94-95 were the only two yrs made w/it, but could be wrong. carb would be easiest because there is a sheesh load less wiring to done.

[SLOWBRAEATER]

My 91 gmc 4.3 jimmy is efi fuel injected

[3.4 slow to go]

is it TBI?

[Ted]

$150 for the engine seems like a good deal but if you look at it the way I do you have to buy a transmission and while i'm not sure how much money specifically it will be im guessing it can be anywhere from $500 + for a decent one and with all the issues you'll have with getting that thing to sit right or custom mounts it doesn't seem like it would be worth it in the long run. I can see where your going when you want to convert to a different engine over the 3.1L. A friend has a Vortec 4.3L SFI in his 96 S10 SS, I think he has a gutted cat back 3in exhaust with some K&N air filter on it and 3.42s. He went up against john(toast) who has a 3.8L with just the dynomax muffler on it at the time and 3.42s. John must of killed him but 2 and a half car lengths. The engine your looking at is probably TBI and is made more for torque I think it will be a dog and a waste of time trying to put it in. You probably wouldn't see a whole lot of gain man. I see a lot of guys around swapping out there 3.8Ls for lt1s or ls1s. If I were you I might jump on one of the deals on ebay i always see complete 3.8L engines with trannys for like $500. They're great engines and i'm sure you could get it in there some how. Or why not just go all out with a 350???