wondering if anyone has ever investigated this for either the crankshaft or for putting gas heads on and making it a bored turbo motor. I'm thinking about the crankshaft in this thing a lot, it's gotta be nodular iron or forged and unless I'm mistaken the mains are big block, it's probably 4 bolt in the diesel block as well. The pistons are 4.057 bore, and if it's like the 350 diesel it should bore out about 1/8th of an inch roughly with tons of meat left still. I What I'm curious about is wether or not the crank is spaced right for the Chevy 4.3L V6. Probably won't be that lucky, but it's a thought I've got in my mind so I've gotta get it out =) Got a friend with a few motors so hopefully he'll lend me his crank so I can check it up against my block and see how it looks. I'd REALLY be interested in getting my mains done if I were able to drop that in there, with a set of eagle rods I bet I'd be ready for tons of power too. I picked this bit of info up as well "1982 - 1985: The 263 V-6 diesel was available in the Cutlass Ciera and Supreme from 1982 to 1985, 85 hp, 4.057" and 3.385" stroke. Basically a 350 with two cylinders chopped off. The V-6 Diesel was an option in the newly designed and FWD 1985 98. " Any comments on what I've dug up so far is appreciated, if I'm wrong on this one someone shoot this idea down, I'll probably end up having my friend bring his crank down.........
4.3L diesel engine
- Thread starter Drac0nic
- Start date
Smallblock
New member
That little diesel is a completely different animal from the 4.3s that we all know and love. The 350 diesels were Oldsmobile based and If what you say about that diesel is true then those v6s are Olds based also.Nothing is interchangeable between Olds and Chevy engines.
442typhoondude
Ty'less Bum
Hes right. The oldsmobile 4.3s were alot different. However I do wonder why GM never made a chevy 4.3 diesel. The diesel blocks get alot stronger block builds. Thats why most of the Olds guys go with a diesel 350. Good idea, but too bad there isnt one. I'd be amazed if the olds crank fit in the chevy. Although they are the same size with very similar bores, the block construction is completely different. You could always build a turbo v6 olds. i wouldnt reccomend it though.
yeah, figured as much. Personally I've seen pics of the gaskets for both, they don't line up far as the water holes go. I'd think that non vortec heads are an exercise in futility honestly, I may see about a set of the rods if I can find em though, they may be a cheap alternative to Eagles, they're very close to 4.3L rods, they should be very heavy construction and the bearings are within about 3 thousanths in all manners I think as far as dimensions go so I may be able to find something there. The diesel would be an interesting conversion if I could find some 4.125 pistons or so (the diesel blocks punch out in insane manners) even a high CR wouldn't need much if it had an SBC compression hieght to give you 8:1 CR or less, you could probably get away with what would be rather high CR for an SBC. In my book what'd be the issue would be the heads, not like you're gonna be bolting a set of Vortecs up to it any time soon...........