My heads are cracked in my 97' 1500. It has 140,000 miles and everyone's been telling me just do a motor swap. So I talked to a local shop and they charge around $500 plus fluids and gaskets for the swap (around 8 hours).
Then they recommended a place for motors. I called them and they have a 4.3 v-6 (which is the motor I need..). They said $700 for the motor and they'll ship it to the shop. The motor has 120,000 miles.

I'm not to sure if this is a good deal or not but I need wheels and a truck!
Has anyone gone through this before and would know if its a good deal or not?

 

Replace it with a 5.7L instead of the 4.3L!! You will not regret it! You will regret it if you don't. Seriously. Same everything for the most part except two more cylinders.

I think $700 is a little on the steep side but it all depends on how bad you need it and the availability in your area and the warranty they offer on the motor. Search online for a better deal. Check ebay. I have bought motors on ebay. Usually they can ship it to any address with a dock.

If I were in your shoes I would look for a motor in the $300-$400 range and install it myself. However, I don't think $500 is too much for the shop to R&R your motor. Don't you have some buddies that could help you?? That's a pretty straight forward swap. A nice weekend job by yourself, a day if you're good.

 

Yes I was thinking about the 350! But i'm not sure about the wiring harness unless its out of the same year of truck. The problem is my buddies don't really work on chevy's (Suby's). But the price for the shop isnt bad I think im gunna call tomorrow and check for a 350.

 

same harness

 

But I had a code and it was tranny slipping. I had it serviced and the light didn't come back so... I dont know if it would be good with the 350..

 

THAT depends how much you use/abuse the skinny pedal! And it sounds like it's time for a trans rebuild very soon. A slipping tranny does not cure itself. (assuming the clutches were slipping) If I were you, I would use this time to pull both the motor and trans, have the trans rebuilt, and bolt it up to your 'new' 350 and rock-n-roll. You will regret it later if you don't. Also, a shop will rebuild the 700R4 or 4L60E cheaper if you just bring it to them. 140k is getting into the iffy zone for a trans in my very humble opinion.. Some go longer, others don't.

If your buddies can work on Subarus then they can work on Chevys.

 

This is true!

Well thanks for the help. Im going to start by calling the motor place and see if they have a 350 and how much. Maybe they have the tranny as well? If not im just gunna go with the 4.3. I really need my truck back soon so I don't have all winter to look. I was planning on selling the truck in the spring anyways so.
But now that you mention the tranny part it's going to worry me about how much life I really have left with it....

Im in a stuck situation.. I paid $4500 for the truck, another $500 in parts plus after market ($500) and now around $1200 for motor swap.. So I paid around $7000 for a truck that I bought around a year ago and its worth a couple of grand not even

 

keep it! it'll have more value to you then anybody else if your doin all the work to it!

 

But I just have a feeling its going to keep having problems. I never even did a motor swap and hardly know anything about them... I figured $500 isnt to bad for the shop to put it in.. it was cheaper than other places. Once it's done there wont be any codes or any computer mixups? Sorry im a newbie at this!

 

I can understand your situation I really can & trust me when I say I wasn't trying to make you worry about your truck any more than you have to. I'm just trying to be honest. You may have another 100k miles left on that transmission ya never know. If it was really slipping & not something else then I doubt it though. But maybe I misinterpreted what you said and your filter was just dirty or maybe a little low on fluid and it wasn't really 'slipping'.. Either way, I wouldn't put another used transmission in. I would go with a rebuilt if you do change it unless you can find a used one that was very recently rebuilt with very low miles. You never know the condition of a used transmission. Anyway, moving on to your real problem.

If you really plan on selling the truck in the spring then the 4.3L is probably your best and cheapest option. the computer and truck won't know the difference. I do suggest keeping your old motor so you can have all the spare parts and sensors off of it if possible. I just had to rob a parts motor I have of a fuel pressure regulator to fix my truck.

Unless you've ragged your truck in the last year, once it's fixed, it would be worth roughly the same as what you paid for it. Chevy full size trucks hold their value pretty well. 4.3L is a little less sought after but still not bad as long as your truck is clean & works right. Remove any aftermarket parts & return to stock before you sell if they're easy to pull because you never get money back out of those. Sell them separate. Keep us posted in what you do & how it goes.