2000 S-10 4.3L 4x4 Im getting ready to drag this little piece of **** out of my garage, and beat it with a sledg hammer. I just removed the intake manifold for the second time in a month. The first time was to replace the leaking intake gaskets, and this time the lifters. I got everything all buttoned up and it won't run. It has spark, and fuel psi but the injectors don't appear to be firing. It will start and run for a few seconds if you pour gas down the TB. The grounds on the rear of the head appear to be intaced, and everything is plugged in. Im at the end of my rope with this thing and any help will be appreciated. Thanks, J

 

Why did you have the intake off? The spider assemblies in the intake are known for going bad on the 4.3L's. Mine did and ended up replacing the whole thing. My symptoms were a loud "clack" from the engine like bad lifters, missing under load and shitty gas mileage. When my assembly went bad it ended up taking the cat converter out as well.

 

I would have to agree with Hirdlej, the injection system sucks on the 4.3's. I had to replace the whole system in my old truck and in a buddy's old truck. They are a bit of a pain in the a**!

 

Did you make sure you got the distributer back in correctly?

 

The first time I had to remove the intake was to replace the gaskets, they were leaking coolant. The second was a lifter, it started out just ticking at startup then got to worse. When I removed the valve covers you could see the the slop in the rocker arm, and the plunger was stuck bottomed out in the lifter. Distributor is in correct at first I thought that was the problem but it run if you pour gas down the TB. Truck ran fine before I took it apart except for the lifter tick. It acts like a ground, or a broken wire but everything looks ok. I guess I will have to cut open the harness

 

The whole engine, and drivetrain design on these S series trucks is a total piece of ****. The leak prone intake gaskets, oil cooler lines, spider, steering, rearend, etc is just too much. I really wish I had never bought this truck

 

double check the plugs on the distributer are in good cause one of them will not let the injectors pulse(open).and check the big plug on top to make sure none of the connecters did not fold over.

 

I checked all the plugs, pins, grounds, connections fuel psi etc everything is ok the problem has to be inside the intake manifold assembly. I have 58~60psi of fuel pressure while cranking, and there is power to the injector plug. It will pulse a test light while cranking on each set of pins. There is no fuel getting from the top of the intake manifold to the injectors.

 

Wow, that sucks. I had a 99 4.3 4x4 5spd, and loved it. It wasn't fast or anything, but I thought it was tough as hell, had 200,000 miles when I traded it, ran great and it saw the Red Line EVERY DAY

 

Is it possible the oil pressure sender is unplugged on the driver-side rear of the block next to the distributor? I think there is an oil-pressure related failsafe in the PCM that cuts the fuel pump if oil pressure doesn't come up on start.