xkenut

I have a 1993 S10 Blazer 4 door 4 wheel drive with the Tahoe package. Very nice truck, always kept up. But the transmission went out on it a few months ago. It has 193,000 miles on it, yet burns no oil between changes, no leaks, never runs hot, but certainly is feeling low on power. I have always thought I would like a V8 conversion.
I have been offered a 1994 Chevrolet Suburban that is wrecked in the front end. One owner, always maintained well, It is a 2500 4X4 loaded, but has 240K miles on it. Would I, should I consider pulling everything I can from the Suburban, rebuilding the engine and transmission, and using everything to make a very stock looking 93 S10 V8? I am open to keeping the V6, but would like it to have more torque and horsepower.
Any and all suggestions and comments welcomed. Thanks.

Hedgedog

A v-8 swap may make your blazer way more peppy and lots of fun to drive but has some positives and negatives in my opinion.
positive are the HP and torque gains that can easily be had when you rebuild the v-8. It’s lots of work but can be well worth the effort, leaving you with a nice little sleeper vehicle. There are lots of aftermarket support products to help you build a nice combo to suit your needs.
The negatives are potential costs associated with the build. Plan it out or they can get away from you fast. I’m not a huge fan of rebuilding a front engine collision engine because there is a risk that it’s not good anymore. The other downside is that moving forward you’ll ne leaving yourself little room to work under the hood. It can be a real pain.
I would suggest a potential third option…you could build the v-6 (assuming it’s the 4.3l). It can take many off the shelf products that the v-8 does, and it’s an engine that you already know. It’s reasonable to get 270-300hp and similar torque gains without getting into using a power adder…with one 500 is reasonable to achieve. Just my thoughts.

xkenut

I appreciate your response. The current 4.3 has 190,000 miles but runs perfectly, doesn't use oil, but just isn't very powerful. I was driving it daily until the transmission went bad. I really like the idea of having 300 hp from the 4.3. It has the CPI injector and I don't see that as being preferable. As I began to study what was available, it seems like the choices were very limited. The Blazer is a 93 and as I understand it, is a OBD 1.5 with first generation electronic transmission. A really nice blazer that needs no paint or interior work.
I now have the 94 Suburban in my possession. My thoughts were that the computer, wiring, EFI, engine and transmission would be great after a rebuild and minor upgrades to the V8. In reading the book from Jags that Run, I can clearly see that a V8 conversion is NOT as straight forward as many YouTube videos would have me to believe. I'm not afraid of work, yet I have plenty of other cars to play with. I'd just like the Blazer to have more power.
ANY suggestions on making my current 4.3 more powerful appreciated.

bearbait

find a shop that builds race engines and get a quote from them. Should be much cheaper than squeezing that V8 under the hood. I'm sure they can squeek a lot more horses out of that 4.3.

xkenut

I appreciate that suggestion, but one of things I love doing is building engines. It isn't the engine I'm concerned with. It's the OBD 1.5 which as I understand was part of the problem with the new (then) electronic transmission. The ECU is expected to control the engine AND the transmission. I don't know about now, but I did read that the ECU may have been one of the reasons that the early transmission failed in these. The original owner tells me that he never did anything to the transmission. I drove it two years after the transmission started shifting really hard into second gear.
What I found in researching the 4.3 is the limited performance options. I can rebuild the engine, put a performance cam in it, but how do I fuel it and how do I make the transmission perform as designed for years to come? At 62, I would really enjoy driving this Blazer as long as I am driving.

Hedgedog

I currently have 3 vehicles with a 4.3l…one is a W code 1993 GMC Sonoma extended cab. I have a 2001 S-10 ZR2 and a 2003 Blazer ZR2, so tbh I’m a fan of the 4.3…and I like your choice of vehicle. saying that, it really depends on what you want with your build.

You can wind up spending quite a bit of money building this engine, depending on how deep you want to go. if you’re going to tear it down to the block I’d start by having a shop clean and mag it to make sure it doesn’t have any cracks (since you own it and say it’s good you can probably assume it’s good, but if I’m tearing it down this far I’d be certain).…then have it decked…you could have it bored if you want to go all the way with it. Definitely roller rockers, forged pistons. Depending on the direction you take this, LS cast iron heads are more than sufficient for this power levels. As far as cam goes, if you have a W series engine the cam is ok…although I personally am willing to sacrifice a bit of idle quality in one vehicle for HP gains since I have a few similar vehicles. 110 or 112 for the cam. To simplify your life you could go carburetor with it instead of fuel injection.
You had concerns with the transmission…I’m assuming it’s a 4L60e?

There’s a decent video on YouTube on the power nation site of a naturally aspirated 4.3l build…they could give you an idea of what you’d be in for. As I said earlier, I would do a more aggressive cam, they use a 114. To see the difference in cams engine masters does an episode (anticlimactic and slightly predictable) using the exact same cam except for one is 112, one is 110, and one is 108 I think. It’ll give you an idea of how differences show on a dyno using a 5.7l …the difference wouldn’t be as big on a 4.3 but you’ll get the idea.