for those of us not fortunate enough to have a v8, what is out there for a 4.3 v6? (keep the cut downs to a minimum)

 

Unfortunately not a whole lot. I have had my Sonoma for years and just recently ditched the 4.3L, but believe me, I looked for "performance" parts before making the decision to toss in an 8-pack. Your best bet for power adders will be those found on S10's, Sonoma's, Blazers and Jimmy's. Your limit is the spider fuel injection, only being able to handle about 8psi of boost before really crapping out. There are many camshafts available, unfortunately none really for a truck heavier than an S10. In a 1/2 ton you'll want all the little squirrels can give you for torque and the weakest aftermarket cam available will not be worth the price for the small minuscule gain found in the upper 4000's.

Look to see if Wynjammer is still making their centrifugal supercharger for the 4.3L. I don't recall ever seeing them go out of business, and I know many S-trucks ended up with them instead of their owners doing the tried-and-true V8 swap. It'll put you into the upper 200's for horsepower and probably tie a bone stock 5.3L for torque on the 6psi rated boost limit for the Wynjammer. It's not very expensive when you compare the alternative V8 swap where very little of your drivetrain can be reused. If you were really crazy, you could look to what the Syclone and Typhoon fellas are doing. They are converting their manifold to the Edelbrock 2114 manifold and installing fuel rails to solve the fuel problem, then boosting the hell out of the little V6 making an easy 400hp, 450-500lb-ft of torque on however much boost it'll take, usually about 12-14psi before pistons start to go. There is a stroker kit as well, but it's a 3.500" crank compared to your stock 3.480" crank and it's billet, costing you your first born.

Unfortunately, you're saddled with 1955 technology trying to ask how to make power with it in a heavy truck. Best solution is boost in my opinion.

 

I used to have a 2000 sierra with a 4.3. I put on some gibson shorties with a gibson cat-back, a volant cold air and a hypertech and it ran pretty good..it hung with my buddies 96 mustang gt

 

wow inchup, i really appreciate your response. i learned alot! did you 4.3 guys consider your trucks extremely slow before the mods? it feels like there is a block under my pedal!

 

There is tons of info for the 4.3 over on S-10 forum.com maybe those guys over there would know a thing or two to help you out.

 

By the time you shove all the cash into modding a v6 i think youd spend half the cost in doing a v8 swap

 

I agree, I had a 97 Chevy Blazer and the best I got out of it was a 15.8 on the motor and a 15.0 on the spray. It has just a 50shot, it was fun but a V8 would have been alot more fun.

 

That's excellent info, I just learned a ton about the 4.3 that I didn't know...I was aware of the spider injection being the limiting factor, but that's about it lol!

 

well, s10forums.com is a no show. i registered and looked for hours and didnt find a damn thing. most of the threads haven't been touched in over 100 days. not a bit of info to work with. dang

 

When I was I was in high school, we built up a buddies C1500 that had a 4.3 in it. But those were different (no ls1's yet) times, we went from none vortec to vortec heads, mild cam, but first we installed an aluminum edelbrock intake BBC throttle body injectors, (huge waste of time!) In the end it was the fastest slow truck in town. But we had fun doing it. We really actually got some impressive gains but i think most of it was the switch over to the new ( for the day) Vortec heads. We had a IMCA modified racer in town that ran the local speed shop and he ran 4.3 in his car. This was the reason ofcourse that we had to build up a V6. HE won all the time! He always claimed the difference in wieght gave him an advantage over the SBC guys. Of course he was running (one off) parts in his engine, custom pistons, custom cam grind, etc.