Replacing 2.8 with 4.3 what do i need?

[sleeper king]

I have just bought a gen 1 s 10 that has a good motor, tranny rear end ECM and under hood wireing harness. My truck has a 2.8 and 5speed in it right now. I want to know if any one has done this swap befor and if there was any problems? I also need to know if i cuold ues a th 350 or the tranny off the 4.3. I want to use the tranny off the 4.3 but can I get a shift kit and b&m shifter for that tranny? Please help with any information.
THanks,

[dougie fresh]

so what i get is that your putting a 4.3 and the auto tranny in place of your 2.8 and 5 speed.
not sure what youll need but as far as the shift kit and b&m shiter goes for the th350 that is a yes.
and when you do get a v8(if thats what your gona do later) the th350 will work fromthe 4.3. but you may want to beef the tranny up if the v8 has mods done to it.

[sleeper king]

So they sell a tranny kit for a tranny out of an s10 that has a 4.3? what knid of trans is that? also I forgot to ask dose the fule pump for the 2.8 work on the 4.3?

[dougie fresh]

your truck is a 91? if so it sould be tbi stock. so the fuel pump will be in the tank. you sould do so checking on what fuel pressures both the engines run on. the 4.3 might have bigger injecters or tbi or something like that. if they are the same fuel pressure then you sould have no problem. but.. I'm not for sure as this is all a learning process for me to. if you are useing a 4.3 and tranny out of an s10 of the same year then it should be a 700r4. but your truck is a manual. and the 700 has to have a lockup for the overdrive from what iv read. and i think you have to wire that up some how.

[Rickracer]

You can get a shift kit, shifter, and all kinds of better parts for a 700R4. They aren't cheap, but what is these days?

[baktrak]

The 4.3 uses the same fuel pump as a 2.8, and even a 350. You will need to change the engine mounts and wiring harness, a radiator for the 4.3 IMHO it would be just as much work to swap a tbi 4.3 as it would be to swap a tbi v8 in it.

[midnight86]

Ive done a swap like this. I put a 89 4.3 int a 86 that had a 2.8. You will have to change your motor mounts, use the computer from the 4.3 and i was able to use the 2.8 harness, you will have to lengthen a few wires. The fuel pumps are the same but you will have to modify the fuel line becouse there ran diffrently. And you will need the rad. out of the 4.3.

[sleeper king]

Ok thanks for the help guys! I think I'm going with the s10 tranny but I'm going to rebuild it or if I can find a good deal on a rebuilt th 350 I will get that. I want to put headers, intake,and injectors out of LMC TRUCK on it. I would just go with a 350 but I cant afford that kind of gas. Anything else worth buying? I don't want any one to be able to tell I have any kind of power till its to late.

[baktrak]

depending on the condition of the 4.3 you are going to use just as much gas if not more than a v8, my friends 4.3s10 averages 2mpg less than my brothers work truck with a 350 tbi in a full size long bed, and both of em drive like bats outa hell. I would just concider the pros and cons of both swaps.

[Rickracer]

My black truck averaged 20 mpg driven conservatively (which was seldom, ), it was a 325~340 hp 350 with a 700 double pumper, Strip Dominator intake, 3.70 gears and a 2800 stall 700R4, my '93 4.3 gets about 16.5~17 mpg average, best I've gotten is about 18, all highway, with 3.42 gears and a stock 4L60E.

[sleeper king]

There is no way that i can get any where close to as much mpg with a 350 compared to a 4.3 if I use a 350 with a carb on it which i will have to cuz its the cheapest and easest. I have almost every thing I need for a 4.3 swap and don't need to spend very much more money. If I was going to do a 350 i would have to get all that stuff over again so its cheaper for me to do a 4.3. also I do all city driving so I get crap for mpg.

[va4cqd]

setting up TBI isn't too difficult

[sleeper king]

yes it may not be hard but it is more money to spend

[va4cqd]

if you buy a 350 with TBI, there shouldn't be much extra to spend. you should be able to find one for the same price or very slightly higher then a regular carb 350. you will make up the difference in no time in fuel savings

[neo71665]

If your just wanting a bigger V6 with more power a 3.4 out of a 93-95 camaro will bolt right in where your 2.8 is and require less changing and mods.

http://members.shaw.ca/betterthanyoutoo ... 20swap.htm

[sleeper king]

I see what ur sayin idk I have beat alot of cars with my old stock 4.3 sonoma and I just miss it alot. I want a 4.3 so thats what I got. also idk but wouldnt a 4.3 have more power than a 3.4?????

[neo71665]

4.3 does but not much, just depends on how much trouble you want to go through putting a motor in it (funny thing to say on this site).

We had the 2.8 out of dads and the 3.4 in running all in hours.

Like they said with all the trouble of things you have to change out you just as well go to a v8 over a 4.3. I was just giving you another maybe easier option if you didn't know about it. If you did just ignore me.

[Grappler]

power to weight ratio. stock 3.4 WITH the sfi on it i think had 160 hp. 4.3 tbi for those years would have been the same. fig the 4.3 weights atleast 100# or so more. even a 3.4 with tbi would prob make 140ish... with the save in weight the loss in power wouldnt be noticed. i had a built 2.8 with mpi on it and it would have easily run circles around my stock 4.3 tbi noma. i missed that motor SO bad.. one of the reasons i went and started to resurrect that project. but i have better things set for that project.

G

[baktrak]

really the only different things you may need for a v8 is the motor itself and the chip for the computer, mounts, and maybe a different cooling system setup. You can get a tbi motor these days for pretty much the same price as a carbed one. If you are going to be going with a tbi 4.3 than everything you will be doing to put that motor in is pretty much everything you are going to do for a tbi v8 conversion.

The 3.4 isnt a bad idea either, you can do that swap in a matter of hours. and wont need anything but the motor.

Not trying to be persistant on this......k maybe a little bit, but imho you are really going to gain nothing by going with a 4.3 over a v8.

[sleeper king]

ok so do I use the tbi off the 4.3 and put injectors off a 350 on it or buy the holly tbi unit out of LMC Truck and what intake do I use with it????