I've got a 2000 silvarado with a 4.3l vortec that has a flat cam. the motor is up there in miles. I've also got a 4.3l v6 non-vortec from another pickup that's in good condition. I was wondering if the two were interchangable?

 

Major differences between the engine were the heads, the vortec has a better head design for flow. The blocks were primarily the same; not sure about each component in the block though.

As for an engine swap; I would never say never, but I would guess it to be expensive to adapt the fuel system, computer, etc. to make the non-vortec run. In the long run it might be better and possibly less expensive to just get a rebuilt vortec or have someone rebuild it for you or just replace the cam.

However, since I have never looked into doing something like this, there might be someone on this forum who has done it and it is not as bad as I imagine.

 

That's our main concern is it meshing with the computer. It's one of those things that you hate to do all the work to swap em out just to find out the ecu won't run the engine.