The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop power/ mpg ?

i have a 47.1, 46 design pu factory frame from motor mounts back. the front end & m. mounts crosmember is 1975 blazer 4x4 .
i plan/ thinking to put a 4.3 with overdrive& transfercase from 1988 4x4 s10
the front tire track is 7" wider each side than the fenders so concedering a 81 toyota front axle as i want to keep it 4x4 the toy uses 6 hole chev wheels, & i got a few lawing around .
i want to use as dayly driver to & from work as i work in a restoration shop & it might draw more work in ?
so hows the 4.3 for power & gas milage pulling a full size rig any one driving one of these cool pu with a 4.3
i will want to use a carb as wireing is not my thing

I don't know about mileage or power, but I'm thinking this would be a great time to learn about electrical. The injection would be much, much better. It would also give you more indespensibility at work.

from what i read in the s10 forum a eld 2114 intake w/ 4 barrel & mild cam gives 42 HP over the injection with out the headakes of the computer

i run a 4.3 with 700r4 trans in a 4 door 1946 plymouth, i get 18-20 mpg. i converted mine to a 500 cfm carb from factory tbi( it was shot) dyno's at 203hp. more than enough power for around town and 80+ mph on the freeway.

daren

Since your intended front axle/diff is Toyota I assume your going to use the rear axle form a Toy too. I doubt you'd find the gear ratios the same as the S10 if I understand you correctly.

the carburetor is much more trouble than that computer will ever be. I was just thinking it could be used as an opportunity to learn something else. Maybe it is because I am contemplating EFI for my 216 which someone here has done (on a 235 though) already, and has nearly all his information in one of these forum posts. And the fact that I don't like having machines I can't figure out.

thats what im thinking thanks
did you use the eld 2114 intake
what carb

so how do you mean the computer is less trouble

yes i still need to check out the ratios
was concedering a step lower than the s10 due to the extra weight, not sure

thank you for the thoughts /responces gives me a lot to concider

don't remember the intake # offhand. I used the one recommended to me by summit racing. actually, i think edelbrock only makes one manifold for that engine. it cost me $119 for it, that i know.

daren

I have driven at least 300,000 miles in EFI cars and changed a couple of fuel filters, while carbureted cars don't run well when cold, and are inefficient. Had to rebuild them a few times (not really too much, but more than once) Whereas the EFI just runs. I know virtually nothing about the transplanting of one of these engines into something else, but some of the EFI engines have a stand alone system, so if you get all the components out of a donor vehicle, it is pretty much a plug and play. All you need to do is find someplace to put the boxes. It would take a little research, but you would be learning a valuable lesson all the while. You could actually meet current emission standards (or at least current at the time of the donor engine build date)at the same time. which doesn't matter to many people but if it is that simple I see no reason not too. They are getting incredible power out of cars now days, with insanely high MPG for the amount of power they are putting out and don't emit much more than a little C02 and water, (that may not be really correct, but you get the idea.) Not to mention the EPA will probably start requiring something like this one day anyway. BUT if you change everything over, you will have to buy a manifold and carburetor on top of everything else and if the intake setup for one of these is anything like my mustang, it will eat up the better part of a $1000 bill. Like I said earlier there is some fella on on this forum (stovebolter)that did up a 235, I can't remember when, but there was about 15 pages of info, also someone may have posted a tech tip. Go to other forums, (I apologize in advance) the HAMB, and chevytalk are a couple, they have many discussions about this sort of thing as well. If you are like me and are about as computer literate as Ogg the cave man it seems like a daunting undertaking, but bit by bit it can be done. OH I didn't see the $119 for the manifold till I finished this, but the carb is about $400 (at least mine was)

Have you weighed both trucks? I would bet the S10 is pretty close to the same as your old truck. They are big, but its just sheet metal, they don't have all the hidden crash bars and such as newer trucks have.

I would go EFI if I had a choice, for sure if I had the donor already.

Wind drag will kill more fuel milage then weight will.

The best investment you could make is to buy the painless TBI harness, and the wiring on that is done for you. You can get edelbrock intakes for the TBI, and a chip, and then there's nothing to worry about, the computer takes care of the tuning.

Most of these 4.3's in the Blazers and S-10's get really poor fuel mileage (worse than a same-year 350 in a full-size truck). In the half-tons they can get mid-20's, not sure why that is.

GM builts thousands of full size trucks and vans with the 4.3 engine in them so your size and weight is not a problem. All the 4.3 1986 vans that I worked on came with the 4bbl Quadrajet which is probably as good a combination carb as there is. If you keep your foot out of it and run just on the very small primaries it gets decent (but not great) mileage. Kick open the huge secondaries and they scoot hard as the gas gauge plummets.