Thread: Chevy 4.3 V6 oil pan question

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First of all, thank you, everyone, for the tips and suggestions, and I apologize for the size of the photos, I re-size them down to postage stamp size, and they still come out enormous... I dunno..
Shawn Lee, I likme the V-6, in a lightweight car it has enough power for me, I can't melt the rear tires at a rolling 30 mph or anything, but I've slowed down a little in my "golden years" anyway. It's a stock V-6 with the exception of the Edelbrock aluminum manifold, and #1406 carb.

Another question- I have tried to figure out what year the engine is, and have tried the search, to no avail. I have found, on the driver's side, the following, on the back of the block-
F126
and
GM 4.3 16
On the other (passenger) side, I found the following:
1409909, with *maybe* another zero on the end, or it may just be a casting bump, it's really hard to tell.
Anyone out there that can tell me what year V6 I have, and what it might have been installed in originally?
Thanks in advance for any help...

Dave

It was a little hard to read this thread because I had to keep moving my screen back and forth to read it due to the big pictures, so if this was already discussed, forgive me for not seeing it. Anyway, as I recall the 4 x 4's and maybe vans had that aluminum pan, but the cars and boats had a metal one. The aluminum one is deeper as I recall.

Years ago I rebuilt a 4 x 4 4.3 engine for a boat I had and it came with the alumimum pan. It was too deep to clear the bottom of the boat, so I had to buy a new metal pan from Volvo Marine. There are also several generations of that 4.3. Basically, there are early engines that have no balance shaft inside, and later ones that do. Parts from the early ones sometimes do not fit the later blocks (like intake manifolds) and I think oil pans also can be different.

When I did the marine engine I was going nuts because my old boat motor was a 95 and the motor I built for it was a 97.........Chevy made a change in 96, so lots of my old boat parts would not fit........the oil pan being one of them. I finally had to bite the bullet and pay something like $ 250 for the proper 97 marine pan, and associated oil pump pickup tube.

I think the suggestion the guys have of hitting the junkyard is a good one, but be careful because the gasket configuration varies from year to year, so you have to have your old gasket with you or your old pan to see if the one you find at the junkyard is the same shape.

Don

Don, yeah, I apologize for the humongous size of the photos, this is the only website I have trouble with, I put them on as literally postage stamp size, and they come out King Kong size...
Thanks for the help, If I can figure out what year my engine is, and what it originally came out of, maybe I can at least have a starting point. I'd have no problem spending 250 bucks, to gain added clearance for the oil pan... it's either that, or raise the engine up ( at this point, almost impossible to do, it barely fits under the hood now) or just say some prayers every time I go over a bump...

The 4.3 oil pan from a 4x2 steel oem shallow pan comes on a:

1987-1995 S-10/Blazer 4x2
1987-1995 S-15/Jimmy 4x2


You can buy a new oem type on Ebay for as little as $43.00

You will need get the oil pickup also for what ever pan you get.


The oem 4x2 shallow aluminum pan comes on:

BLAZER S10/JIMMY S15 05 (6-262, 4.3L), 4x2, exc. ZR2
BLAZER S10/JIMMY S15 96-04 (6-262, 4.3L), 4x2
ISUZU HOMBRE 97-00 6-262 (4.3L), 4x2
S10/S15/SONOMA 96-03 6-262 (4.3L), 4x2

The 4x4's use a deeper pan with the sump moved back.

Used cost $40.00 on Ebay


Some other 4x2 trucks and vans 1986-2005 4.3's come with deeper pans


Pat

Go here to get a free and easy to use, and always on your right button picture resizer:

----> http://www.pcmech.com/article/mass-image-resize-tool/

I have been using it a long time, and won't switch. I have used others that were crap!


Pat

I wasn't busting your chops for the big pictures, I was just afraid someone had already said exactly what I was posting but that I had missed it because of having to scan back and forth. If your pictures are stored in your computer at about a 640 x 480 size you should be able to just go to the box below that reads "manage attachments", click on it, then hit the "brouse" box and find the pictures you want to download. Then simply select the one you want, click on "download" and the picture should come out at a good size on here.

Don