4.3 tuning?

[cst805]

whats up everyone? Any body on this board have a tune on the 4.3 vortec? or is it even worth it? I roasted my 4.3 a couple of months ago and since that i've done a rebuild with forged connecting rods, some good bearings, and some diamond brand pistons. So anyways, does farmtruck's company even bother with tuning these things and if you do what kind of gains can be expected? i've done the usual cheaper doo-hickey's intake, exhaust, a whistler,(a.k.a. throttle body spacer) ported throttle body, descreened the maf. but my truck is still hurtin as far as power goes. so what do you say? can anyone help me?

[Dark Knight]

You want power then I would suggest a stroker crank and an ATI procharger.

As for the setup you got going on, are you running higher compression now? If so, a tune for high octane could give you a noticeable bump. I am sure that Allen can do something though. Even something as simple as raising your redline and firming up your shifting will do a LOT for the performance because it will keep your engine from falling out of its power band after shifting.

[cst805]

I was actually wondering about that, if they actually had a v-6 stroker. if so i would totally be down to tear this engine down again and perform some "surgery". as far as compression ratio's its still stock 8.5-9-1 or something along those lines but it does feel marginally quicker with some good pistons and rods so where can i score a stroker crank? i would love to see the look on peoples faces "it's just a v-6"

[Dark Knight]

The only decent kit that I am aware of is this one. The only problem with doing this is that the more you build up an all motor high horsepower 4.3, the more that the power moves up the RPM range. I have seen drag prepped 4.3's use adapted lunati cranks to punch the displacement out to 5.0L and pump up the power to 500hp, but even something that extreme is kinda weak in the low rpm range. Just an fyi. That is why I say to use a forced induction setup from someone like http://www.machperformance.com

[cst805]

This actually is just beginning to sound like a pain in the ass, lets see here i could drop just about $5000 to have a built v-6 that might push 350 horses or i could take that same amount and buy an ls1 and t6 that probably would last a helluva lot longer than some majorly worked v-6.

B.t.w. i am still looking for a v-8 5.3 or bigger with manual tranny in case any of you might have one laying around

[RedHeartbeat]

find someone to port your heads with good flow numbers. Make sure they have a good reputation someone will speak for and let them know you want low end torque as well as mid-range. you probably don't want it making it's peak power at 7000 rpm.

[Dark Knight]

Originally posted by cst805@Aug 13 2004, 02:59 PM
This actually is just beginning to sound like a pain in the ass, lets see here i could drop just about $5000 to have a built v-6 that might push 350 horses or i could take that same amount and buy an ls1 and t6 that probably would last a helluva lot longer than some majorly worked v-6.

BINGO! That is why no one bothers to build up the 4.3. It is a damn good motor, but just too expensive to build up in comparison to the cost of doing a V8 swap.