Ok,

I really don't know what I am doing at all so here goes.

I bought a truck for parts, and the truck came with a vortec half ass installed. I was going to use the 94 blazer motor with a 3spd case and a sm420 in my 1980 cruiser but I have NO clue on a lot of stuff. :eek:

First is wiring. EFI scares the shit out of me, all those wires and crap. I have an untouched harness and computer but I dont know where to start. Huh?

Second would be flywheel and mounting the 420 to the motor. Sensors and stuff? :confused:

Motor mounts should not be too hard but it is the placement that scares me.
I am still unsure about a lot of stuff. Lets pretend I am a kid that has all the crap he needs to do this and no Idea how.

Anything will help, pics, info of any kind.

Otherwise I will sell the motor and :mad3: go with a carb 350 :flipoff2: ( yeah I know it would be stupid to go from efi to carb)

THANKS: RYAN

I have not installed a 4.3 into a Cruiser so I would be winging it on engine placement, however I would install it 4-6" off the firewall, someone here may have better ideas. Mount it to where the 420 shifter will come up and not interfere with your heater.

Call Fuel Injection Specialty in San Antonio, they will make you a harness, labeled, (around $350) about a one hour install plus another couple to route it, protect it, and make it look good.
They can tell you what sensors you cna do without and what consequences come with omitting them.
Flywhee, I think you use the 350 fuelie......almost postive the 4.3 and the 350 interchange, early cast iron bell housing that came OEM with the SM420, The fan,drive belts and accessories on the motor now should work, as will a good stock radiator.
Check the thread "some of our work"
Butch

It isn't to difficult to do, but it is intimidating.
Look at the EFI stuff on ih8mud.com web site (tech page). I am doing an TBI swap on my 71 right now.
Most of the stuff on the web site is for 350, but everything for the injection is the same (wiring and plumbing). One thing that the swap guys say is to strip everything out of the harness that is not for the computer/efi/ignition. I am not doing it that way, I'm trying to integrate everything into one harness. Finished the engine parts today, starting on the wiring tomorrow. NAPA now sells a inline fuel pump for the low presure TBI setups.

some links:
http://www.customefis.com/ (he has instructions and sells kits)

http://www.jagsthatrun.com/ (info/books/parts)

I would get the wiring diagram for the vehicle the engine/harness came from.
I know the automatics (4.3 vs 350) use different bellhousings, not sure about manuals.

David:usa:

As mentioned above Jags that Run has the VSS you need and I believe they are about the cheapest. Downey Off Road has a good V8 conversion manual that they will send you for free. It has a the basic color codes for connecting a GM harness to a Toyota harness. There really aren't too many spots where you need to combine the two. Starter and ignition might be the only two I can think of you'd need right off hand. I had some more like a tach and Air Conditioning. Another good source is Howell Engineering. They can sell you the correct external fuel pump, wiring harnesses, reprogrammed proms, VSS, etc... It sounds as though the place in Texas Butch was referring to might do the same. Personally, I felt it was pretty easy hooking up all the wires, each connector is a different shape or size so it is almost bonehead proof. Good Luck!

I have concverted about a dozen trucks now. What I found to be most helpful is the saying "keep it simple stupid". Phil Wyatt out of texas (903)482-0747 sell adrop in wiring harness with a speed sensor that is a dream to install, literally about 15 minutes. For the rest of the truck I use a Painless kit. This may not be the most cost efective but it sounds like you do not have alot of experience and this is the most fool proof. If possible you may want to locate the transfercase in the stock location. This will save you big money in having drive lines made. AA sells a V8 swap manual you may want to get. Also they can sell you all the brackets and adapters.

Good Luck

Aside from the instrument cluster wires the ignition switch wires/ fuel pump are all I can remember hooking up on mine. My advice would be to plug everything on the engine in by mating plugs together likewise on the puter. Then with your leftovers get a little organization start separating and labeling acording to a manual of some kind for the motor not the cruiser, you can idiot trip through most of it's wiring with a test light and a hot lead. you can do it, just don't be intimidated. I ripped out my whole fuse block last week with a pair of bolt cutters and had everything back in place within 48 hrs. Just dive in, the unsolvable problems are the ones you conquer and learn from. Plus someone here always has an answer or three that you can usually use. just remember to take things as resource and not as fact because everybody makes mistakes and has their on opinions.

Thanks for the info.

I've decided to go with a painless wiring harness, even though it will be hard to gulp spending that much on a couple of wires. PN 60210 @ 360.00 US. Has anyone used painless in their swaps? They make it sould so easy, but is it??? :confused:

.Question to all of those that run 4.3's, what computer number do you have???

Mine says "16196395" but the painless guys said "16197427." What the diff? I'm going with the computer I have, If it don't work I will grab a computer out of an astro van instead of a blazer.

again, should I just run the 4.3 flywheel with my 420, will that work ok????

I'm bolting up the 420 to a 3 speed case via an Extreme Bends adapter. Should work fine.

Anything else??? post it please.



I will be posting lots of pics of my progress staring next week, i think :D

Originally posted by dr_claw
I've decided to go with a painless wiring harness, even though it will be hard to gulp spending that much on a couple of wires. 360.00 US.

So why do they call it painless if it costs $360 US ? :rasta:

It would hurt me spending that much when you can get a bunch of wire and connectors for $50. Making wires isn't much harder than connecting them.

hey...

looked for a fuel pump psi rate and I cant find one for my vortec. Is it like 45, 60 or a crazy 90 psi??? Buying a holley in line pump and I don't know which one.