I picked up a set of serpentine belt brackets for my 350 from a junkyard. I watched them pull the brackets from a 4.3L V6. Besides having my fuel lines not route properly, the passenger-side bracket doesn't seem to bolt up the way it should. The tensioner ends up right in front of the throttle body, preventing me from attaching the air filter hose.

Am I doing something wrong? Do the 4.3L brackets NOT work with my V8? The junkyard said that they would work just fine and that I could return them if they do not.

 

can you get a photo showing what's going on?

it's kinda hard for me to picture what's going on.

i don't see how the brackets couldn't line up, they look identical to the regular small bock brackets from as best i can tell.

 

As far as the fuel lines, you're going to need the metal hard lines from a TPI Car that came w/ serpentine setup. Check the dealer, they aren't that pricey at all.


They are different pieces from the earlier 85-86 TPI cars. I have to do the same on my IROC when I get around to installing the completer serpentine setup I have......



HTH

 

a 4.3 v6 would be exactily like any SBC except 2 holes shorter, every thing should be a direct bolt on.

 

I PERSONALLY have never tried it, but a friend of mine has done at least several serpetine conversions on G-Body's and he made a comment once about the truck pieces and there were some differences, not sure if this applied to the 4.3 as well.

But yup, the 4.3 is just a 350 with the front 2 cylinders cut off......


HTH

 

Here's a picture of my brackets.



Now, take a look at this picture (it's from the tech articles).



Note the location of the tensioner in relation to the LOWEST bolt holes. See how on the TPI motor the tensioner is moved farther to the passenger side, away from the throttle body?

That's where I think the problem lies. If I was putting this on a TBI engine it probably wouldn't matter since TBI doesn't have a frontal throttle body.

 

TBI brackets will not work with the TPI because of the tensioner in the way of the Throttle Body.
That is why I had to buy new brackets for my swap.

 

Those brackets are probably from an S10 or Astro van, meaning they will put the accessories higher relative to the block... My first serp setup came from a 4.3 Astro van... Worked just fine (i'm carb'ed, actually made everything easy to reach and still cleared with the cowl hood) but i prefer that original style serpentine setup..

 

I went back to the junkyard today and they don't have the brackets that I need. I sent an email to Trans Am Creations to see if they sell parts separately, and if they're willing to buy my 4.3L brackets. I hope they do.

 

Although my 4.3 brackets are Astro-specific, they bolt up and work just fine.

The brackets above are not from an Astro van as far as I know. The Astros didn't get the aluminum brackets until later on the early '90's and even so the alternator is on the passenger side and the A/C compressor on the drivers side.

 

Yeah, the Astro van bracket I had was a ONE-PIECE stamped steel unit... Pretty amazing, but flexed too much (i didn't have all of the supports hooked up though)

 

Trans Am Creations doesn't sell parts separately . They'd probably get more business if they did... after all, I don't need every single accessory unit for my engine, just two damn brackets.

I think I'm going to put my V-belts back on and forget about the serpentine conversion for now. Maybe I'll pick up a set of pullies from March or something and do a half-serpentine half-V setup like some of the guys have here. I'll keep these "TBI" brackets because I can use them on the 350 I'm putting in my Jeep Wrangler.

 

long&low beat me to it. The tensioner on the 4.3L TBI engine in my S-10 would never work with a TPI setup that has a forward-facing throttle body.