4.3 swap

[lon elliott]

A buddy of mine at work has 2 4.3 engines in his garage, one has 20K miles and can be dropped in and key turned the other has like 90K miles and needs a rebuild. He said i could have both of them if i came and got them. How hard would it be to swap a 4.3 into the firebird, and is it worth it.

[3.8 nate]

if the one 4.3 has everything it needs to run and comes w/it, then it should be (very very simply put) just a matter of ploping the old engine tranny oout, dropping in mew engine & NEW tranny that will bolt up (v8 tranny or 4.3 tranny, same thing really) and connect some wires.

[lon elliott]

cool, im really thinking of doing it. Should the 4.3 yield more power than the 3.8?

[BLLDOGG]

it should

[Big Bad James]

Depends on the year of 4.3L.

Remember that the Vortec 4300 is a TBI engine. Good for trucks, but for performance it's a little lacking. Plus, they're only 190 HP (albeit 260 ft-lbs torque).

Is it worth it? Feh, depends on what you intend on doing. You'd want a performance-oriented cam, conversion to a more advanced form of fuel injection (TBI is early/mid Third Gen style, man). I'd honestly just stick with the 3800.

[CamaroRob97]

Don't waste your time, effort, and money. Your not going to yield anything from it.

[navyblue2000]

It's not worth the time or effort needed. You'd need an aftermarket cowl hood to fit the TBI crap. Not to mention you'd have to go aftermarket on heads/cam to bring it up to any respectable power levels.
For instance, my dad has a 1998 S-10 with no options besides the V6. It weighs about 100 lbs LESS than my V6 camaro did. The camaro walked it EVERY TIME.
power numbers (bhp)
3.8 200hp @ 5200 rpm, ~225 @ 4000
4.3 190hp @ 4400 rpm, ~250 @ 2800
The stock cam is modeled off of planters peanuts. It can't spin up to make that kind of power...

[RedFrk13]

Take my advise and keep the 3800. I went through hell to put a 3800 into my S10 so I didnt have to use a 4.3 liter. There good engines, but I dont think they compare to the 3800. Plus there fuel injection systems are just stupid.

I ran a 14.5 with just bolt ons parts and an auto. I have not yet seen a 4.3 break 15.0 with either transmission under the same circumstance.

[lon elliott]

thanks for the advice guys, looks like ill stick with the 3.8 and sell the 4.3's on ebay or something. Thanks guys

[Die Ford V8]

i think it would be kinda kewl if you could take a z28 6 spd and mate it with a beefed up 4.3 in a 4th gen camaro. just a thought

[3.8 nate]

The Vortec 4.3 in my Blazer IS NOT tbi, it's cpi.

However the tbi engines do have an AFTERMARKET , which the cpi doesn't [img]graemlins/rant.gif[/img] :mad: [img]graemlins/bs.gif[/img]

[lon elliott]

i would love to be able to hook a 6 speed up to our 3.8. But i hear there are too many issues getting it to mate. I could be wrong

[Fredless]

Why couldn't you just bolt on the 3800 manifolds on the 4.3 Longblock? The TBI sucks for sure, and the lower end torque, a simple cam change would help that. Or will the 3800 intake setup not bolt onto the 4.3 longblock? It should, both are 90 degree V6's.

You'd have to get a V8 or S10 4L60e tranny

[KBeezy]

3800 manifolds going on to a 4.3? not going to happen. A 4.3 V6 is a standard Small-Block Chevy w/ 2 cylinders chopped off the end.

[vanbibber]

why not just go find a lt1 and put it in? if its more power that you want.