I own a 1988 Pontiac Firebird with the original stock 2.8L V6, and im sure we can all agree, its not ideal for a sporty coupe for power, economy, or even reliability, so i am looking to give a mild build to a throttle body injection 4.3L V6, roughly a 200-220HP build. my 2 questions are, do i need a power chip for the computer to tune it to the different engine, or is it old enough that i don't need to worry about that, and if i do, what would be a good place to find the equipment that i need to do this tune, the other question is, stock Tuned Port Injection to throttle body, how difficult is that, and what do i need to make the conversion on the car itself? On a smaller note, does anyone know where Turbo Charger kits are availible for Chevy V6's? Thank you for any information provided!

 

As the 4.3 is more like the V8, most of the 4.3 swap info is in the Engine swap subforum, not here in the V6 subforum. As for modding a 4.3, most of that info will be on websites for S-10 owners. But the swirl-port heads won't get you there. Better to swap GM's '96-up marine 4.3 and be done with it. Best GM V6 cam, best heads, best intake, best injectors. Should meet your 220 HP goal easily, even without headers, which don't exist for this swap anyway.
As for a turbo kit, forget it. It's an uncommon swap. Plus TBI won't support the resultant power, you'll definitely need the marine intake and injectors, which requires the '96-up heads anyway. You'll have to piece together the turbo setup yourself. Do your own rear-turbo if it needs to be quasi-legal, emissions-wise.

 

In the early 90s GM put out an S10 truck called the Cyclone,also a jimmy named the Typhoon. 4.3 turbo. It was an absolute rocket for its time. I saw them turning in the 13s stock. Id suggest looking into how they made that engine run so well.

 

Forget that; unobtainable parts, too-small turbo, doubled the HP without also doubling the TQ somehow, swirl-port heads, micro-cam, and the reason they ran 13s was AWD.

 

3800 and 4.3 V6 are a waste of time. You'll spend more effort swapping those in than a V8. If you want power and economy put a T3 on your V6. 300HP easy.

 

[QUOTE=cosmick;5899716]Forget that; unobtainable parts, too-small turbo, doubled the HP without also doubling the TQ somehow, swirl-port heads, micro-cam, and the reason they ran 13s was AWD.[/QUOT
Im not very knowledgeable about 6 cylinders or turbos etc..Don't particularly like them or the way they sound but I do remember watching the Cyclones, Buick GNXs, and TTAs really embarrassing a lot of larger displacement engines back in the day. I was a lil impressed with their performance especially the TTA, which I want to get one day later on when my kids get grown and gone.

 

This is just my opinion so take it as a grain of sand if you want.

For the time and effort to swap in a 4.3L V6 you could spend the same on a V8. Either a TPI l98 or whatever. BUT I personally like our V6s. They are power house engines. Meaning that they might not make a lot of power stock, But toss on a power adder and it comes awake and can take the extra abuse with ease. Its hard to blow up a 86+ 2.8L or a 3.1L. The only way you'd blow it up is from install problems when adding parts, or just tuning it like crap and detonating the heck out of the engine.

If your dedicated to tossing in a 4.3L V6. Yes you would need to tune the engine and do a bit of wiring to make it all work in your thirdgen.

Im sure somewhere on the engine swap page someone has done this swap but its pretty rare. The main reason for that? Is because your transmission wont work, the engine mounts are different (IIRC) and so forth. The 4.3L shares the trans bolt pattern with the V8s.

Now if you want 200-220 hp and all motor. You could also entertain the idea of doing a hybrid swap with a 3100 or 3400 top end on your current 2.8L. Then toss a nice cam in there, mabey port those head out a bit. Put some headers on it, work the exhaust a bit, and then tune it. That would wake it up!

 

I'm doing a 4.8L LSx because it should be capable of 35 MPG when really trying, and there's no no real limit to the HP, since street tires will lose traction by 700 RWHP anyway. There's no reason I can have both 700 RWHP and 35 MPG with ultra low emissions, but the up front build cost, even doing everything myself with used parts is 50% more than my presearch suggested. But it is a well-documented, common swap with tons of support, and even so it's still not as easy as old SBC 350 swaps.
The 4.3 is an easy fit, with S-10 swap mounts like Trans-dapt. They have 2.8-to-4.3 brackets. But it won't do any more MPG than a 4.8, once both are geared to make each happy. It's the drag of the car itself that limits MPG / potential.
If your concern is insurance, that varies based on the company, your age, and your driving record.
If you just want a surprising V6, 3400 heads on a 3.4 with a 2.8 crank should have impressive potential. Not sure a Twin Dual Cam 3.4 would be a real option for you, but it makes the power and likes the boost.
But for a V6 with the off-idle torque of a 305, the 4.3 really can't be beat. Worlds largest regular-production gasoline V6 engine ever, even today.
But the second gen, as found in the new '14-up Silverados is like 3/4 of an LSx, starts at 285 HP, and is still torquey. Nobody has broken one yet, nor retrofitted one, but I'd bet a lot that they'll hold 600 HP once someone figures out adding a turbo to those.
You have too many options, you need to define your goals more specifically, not just combining a car you may have with an engine you may have.

 

The suggestion about looking in to the Syclone and Typhoon engines was not about sourcing those parts as I read, but to use a similar recipe for any 4.3. I wouldn't go talking smack about the the recipe that GM used in those trucks, the recipe worked and worked well. I don't know where the idea of the turbo being too small comes from, it was sized for quick off-idle spool, not all out top end power, this is not too small, this is a decision about how the truck was to perform was made.

It's a good reference for anyone wanting to build a turbo 4.3, and have it perform well, regardless of finding actual Syclone/Typhoon parts. Other parts can be substituted in place with similar or same results.

Why would you destroke a 3.4? That only reduces torque (in every simulation and I've done and in researching other engines that have been destroked), with no appreciable gain in top en power or RPM potential.

You would also need custom pistons to make it work, or possibly some longer rods, but again, likely custom, because no one so far (that I know of) has found any off the shelf combination to make this short stroke 3.1 work. And everyone that has looked into do that has come to the same conclusion, that it's just not worth the effort. The only exception would be in a displacement limited class, which never seems to be the case.

Keep the 3.4 a 3.4 and use the gen3 top end, best to use the 3500 top end, because they flow even better than the 3400 top end.

Best swap IMO would be a full LX9 (3500) swap, but that requires some custom parts complete, and some not so common modifications to transmissions and such.

The other thing with a 4.3 swap is that everyone that has done a 2.8 to a 4.3 swap in the S-10s that I know say they should have just gone to a V8, because the work is about the same, with far more potential in the end.

Personally I swap 60 degree V6s into everything because I like them more than just about any other engine, they have great potential, and take a beating.

 

for the love of god dont destroke a 3.4 ive done it , it had some benifits but the cost and troubles i encountered were not worth it

i could have much just as much power with 3.4 bottom end

the reason i built my destroked 3.4 was to run in a displacement limited racing class that eventually died