Have a 4.3l in it now, my dad bought it that way. Have a 94 34’ Motor Home with a 454 in it. How difficult a swap will this be? The truck is a 5 speed and the camper is an automatic.
You can probably get it to eventually fit . . .
But a plain jane 1/2 ton truck isn’t beefy enough to handle that big block drivetrain . . . not in my opinion
You brakes would be severely underrated, to name just one thing
You’d have to swap in the big block AND the automatic, probably a 4L80E, and then you’d also have to beef up the stock rear end, or swap it out entirely, for something stronger
A stock 4L60E isn’t up to the task
I could go on and on
You see where this is headed, I hope
Either keep driving your truck the way it is . . . or buy a 1-ton pickup with a big block in it, preferably one that left the factory that way
1 Like
Knew it was gonna be a job. Think the 4.3 is about to die was lookin at a possible cheap fix. Guess this isnt the route. Thank you for your time and opinion, good sir.
Those kind of projects rarely turn out good.
Have a 92 vette with lt1, would this be a better swap? Putting the 454 into it and then the lt1 into the silverado?
That sounds like a better arrangement of vehicles and motors, but I’m just a driveway diyer, so no idea what problems you’d run into doing it. But it sounds like a fun project.
I’d think the 454 would be a much tighter fit in the Vette, with much more expensive mods required.
My first thought was are you nuts? A 454 truck engine in a Corvette ( there should be a law against that ) the Corvette V8 engine in a truck that I think had a V6 . The amount of money this would take will buy you a very good late model truck or even possibly a new one.
Instead of taking the engine out of the motor home and turning it into a very large lawn ornament , sell it and use the money to rebuild your truck engine.
It can be done, but expect the “rule of threes”.
It’ll be three times as hard, take three times as long, and cost three times as much as your absolute best estimates show.
Or, in this case, alter that to the “rule of fives”.
But my first question would be “why”? If you’re doing it to get a hot rod without spending a ton of cash, forgetaboutit. Not possible.
If you’re doing it for the challenge, and just to see if you can, go for it.. That’s how Orville and Wilber got off the ground at Kittyhawk.
Sell the motor home and the pickup, add the $5000 you have spent on the swaps, and I bet you could buy a nice pickup.
1 Like
Drive the pickup until the engine is toast . . . I don’t know why you think that will be soon, those 4.3 engines are pretty stout
If the engine does conk out, it might be worth dropping in a used engine, as long as the body is in decent shape, and the truck has been well maintained. If it’s been abused and the body looks like swiss cheese, forget it
And drive the Corvette as is . . . or is it already wrecked, and just a donor vehicle at this point?
As for the motor home, unless there’s something unusual about it, it probably isn’t worth much, especially if it’s an older one. I agree with texases . . . sell it for whatever you can get. Unless you actually need it . . . ?
You can buy a remanufactured 4.3 L engine for $1800 and install it on a weekend. Custom installations will take ten times longer.
The LT1 Corvette engine has 300 horsepower, the RV engine about 250 HP, a lot of work for less power.
Your other post states that you have a serious drivability problem, that should be corrected before you consider replacing the engine.
The 454 of that era wasn’t exactly a screamer. This is pre-Vortec (LT-1 based), so you’re looking at 230 HP and 385 lb/ft of torque. A much better swap would be either an LT-1-based truck 350 ( 255 HP/ 345 torque) or the ever-popular LS swap, (270-350 HP depending on which one you go with), these engines are readily available for cheap and don’t require much in the way of fabrication to get them to fit.
your other thread about no power points to something being off. is it motor or exhaust? or something else?
Thanks for all the thoughts. Just was lookin at the yard seein what i had readily available. Pretty much had similar conclusions, but as a student an extra $2000 for an engine really isnt in my budget. Plus i have an 08 kia that just blew the motor that i got to replace. Just for reference i dont drive like a demon and i take really good care of my cars, but sometimes stuff happens. Thanks again everyone for your time and comments.
Then you have no need for a motor home and a Vette .
I don’t know what kind of student you are . . . high school, college, grad student, etc.
But it doesn’t really matter
To be brutally honest, it sounds like you’ve got more cars than you need
The 2008 Kia . . . which model?
If it’s one of the cheapo models, it might not even be worth installing a used engine
I would sell the motor home and the corvette. If you’re a student, you should be watching your money, anyways, I would think
Keep on driving the truck, and when the time comes, make the decision if it deserves a used engine, or a rebuilt engine, as Nevada mentioned
As for that Kia, why do you say you have to replace the engine?
Was that your daily driver?
I’m assuming because you’re a student, you don’t own property
Which would mean this yard you’re talking about isn’t actually yours. It sounds like you’ve got 3 vehicles that are running and 1 that isn’t. If you start switching things around, you might have only 1 vehicle that’s running, and 3 that aren’t, to name one possible scenario. Of course, it’s also possible you’d have 4 vehicles that aren’t running.
2000 chevy silverado 1500 with the 4.3l v6. Sat up for 10 years at my dads. Flushed all fluids, changed fuel pump and filter, got it running.
you were going to use truck in place of bad kia?
and have a motorhome motor to use as a swap candidate?
truck runs, find out why it wont rev past 3k rpm
The 454 truck motor was detuned more than the car versions so IMO the truck motor would need some work to make it the beast it should be.
I like the idea of the Vette swap but trying to do it for 2 grand might leave you short even with a free engine.
When doing something like this it WILL be one thing after the other even if you do it all yourself. I know…