nola mike
Vice Admiral
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2009
- Messages
- 5,082
I've been looking for a 4.3L for quite a while to replace my 470. I was fairly diligent looking for donor motors and junked hulls this offseason without much success. The ones that I found were '80's vintage. V8s are more plentiful, but I'm very wary about adding even more weight to my light hull. Also realized that I don't have the room or time to store a junk hull, but I don't want to sink a stupid amount of money into a 30+ yo hull. The bobtails I was looking at are $5k+. Really even $3k would probably not be sensible. So do I have any other options? I'd like to pull and freshen a vortec truck engine, and then try to source the rest of the parts individually maybe, realizing that this will be a lot more expensive than a junk hull, but might be more realistic to source the parts over time and store them. That being said, can anyone help me with a *complete* list of parts I'll need? The truck longblock will be easy to find, so let's assume that whatever year is best will be the one I get.
I'll start:
1. Carb (4 bbl).
2. Intake/exhaust manifolds, risers (would probably need to replace the exhaust bits anyway)
3. Y-pipe
4. Coupler
4a. Any other back of the engine bits that I'd need or would vary between years? Does the coupler just bolt on to the standard auto flywheel?
5. Starter
6. Alternator (Can use my current one)
7. Brackets...can I pull these off an auto engine? Do newer engine use serp belts, would that be preferable?
8. Oil pan/dipstick, are these different?
9. Wiring harness? I think these are fairly similar.
10. Ignition. Would probably be better with Delco than finding a used TB setup I'd guess
11. PS: Would rather not have the added complexity and freeze point of PS, could I delete this easily? My boat has ZERO need for it...
12. Exhaust flappers (see, these are the type of things that I'll forget about and will start to add up...)
So what am I forgetting? Going to try to fire up the 3.7 for the first time this spring tomorrow, hopefully nothing is going to force my hand before fall
I'll start:
1. Carb (4 bbl).
2. Intake/exhaust manifolds, risers (would probably need to replace the exhaust bits anyway)
3. Y-pipe
4. Coupler
4a. Any other back of the engine bits that I'd need or would vary between years? Does the coupler just bolt on to the standard auto flywheel?
5. Starter
6. Alternator (Can use my current one)
7. Brackets...can I pull these off an auto engine? Do newer engine use serp belts, would that be preferable?
8. Oil pan/dipstick, are these different?
9. Wiring harness? I think these are fairly similar.
10. Ignition. Would probably be better with Delco than finding a used TB setup I'd guess
11. PS: Would rather not have the added complexity and freeze point of PS, could I delete this easily? My boat has ZERO need for it...
12. Exhaust flappers (see, these are the type of things that I'll forget about and will start to add up...)
So what am I forgetting? Going to try to fire up the 3.7 for the first time this spring tomorrow, hopefully nothing is going to force my hand before fall