A friend purchased a '30's hoodless car running a Chev V-6 (4.3 liter) and would like to know if a set for a SBC V-8 can be easily modified to fit on his V-6. He always goes with swap meet items and likes to go DIY and low buck. Anyone know if this is the way to go?
I'd look in one of the older Chevy Power books. I think they had dimensioned drawings of the cylinder heads including port size, location, and stud size and location. Then again holding a V8 header gasket up to his cylinder head would make it obvious if they'd bolt on, requiring just a tube-ectomy. Anything more complicated would be not EZ without moderately serious fabricating skills.
Sanderson makes some flanges for the 4.3, get those and some J bends and start building ! They also make some shorty headers for different applications, you might find some that will work out of the box.
Hmmm. A 4.3 is a 305 with 2 cyls. cut off. 2 ports are together, 1 by itself. Maybe you could get a pair of v-8 and chop one pipe off. If you don't have a pair of header gaskets from a v-8 to compare with the v-6, get some cardboarb and make a template. I would bet smallblock headers are cheap enough new to be worth the labor to chop off a pipe if it works.
I have a 4.3 in my 26 Tudor, bought the flanges from Sanderson, bends and collectors from Summit or Jegs (I forget which now) and got to wire feed welding, fish mouthing, and grinding...I put the extra dummy pipe on because it just looked WRONG having 3 pipes on each side..I didn't do it to fool anyone, as soon as I start the car you KNOW it's not a V-8, but I'll admit, it's been kinda fun at shows when the "head scratchers" come by, look, keep going, stop, back up, take another look, and then ask the question "WTF kinda motor is that?" I think next time the headers come off, I am going to drill and tap on the flange on each side of the dummy pipe, shorten some header bolts, and screw 'em in, just to keep the charade going, and the questions coming... 8=)
26Tudor... that is cool !!! Oldolds... Chevy wasn't thinking ahead for us. The 2 ports that are close together aren't as close as they are on a SBC... they are spaced far enough apart to have bolts on the side of all of the ports ( see 29Tudors pic)
In theory that is what the 4.3 is but it isn't like that in real life. The tube spacing is different. Whoops, I didn't read all the responses before posting. Greybeard covered it.
I thought the 4.3 was a 350 w/o 2 cyl, and the 3.8 (229 c.i.) was the 305 w/o 2 cyl Well they shared the pistons, valve train etc anyway. I have a 229 in the garage to go in something someday and had an '81 El Camino with a 229 and a 4 spd
Summit shows several choices and the ones for full size 96/99 pickups might be worth looking at. http://www.summitracing.com/search/...LET/Engine-Size/4-3L-262/Engine-Family/GM-V6/
The 4.3/262 CID IS a 350 without the 2 back cylinders and the later, roller lifter "VorVec" version doesn't have adjustable rockers like the SBC does.
Just because the 4.3 has a shortened v8 block doesnt mean it has shortened v8 heads. Not sayin I know... just sayin.
Check out a Hedman header P/N 69400 made for an S-10 2wd Pickup with a 4.3L 90degree V6. These might work. Google the P/N and it will pull up a picture of them for you. John
Exhaust port spacing is different between the 4.3 and any SBC so the answer is NO. You can get these from Summit http://www.summitracing.com/parts/pte-h8067 or a set of these http://www.summitracing.com/parts/pte-h7883 if his welding skills are acceptable.
I think your time is worth more than the aggravation of trying to make some when you can get a set of shorties for a couple hundred dollars however I have noticed the pre 92 4.3 use different headers. I have a 4.3 in my 41 IHC using a y-pipe and a 36" cherry bomb
correction , the fun of making them. These are for my rail. Not a vee but a slant 6. Tuned for 6000RPM when finished and built from off the shelf EMT elbows from Lowes at $6.56 a bend. They weld nicely and bends are darn near perfect. I made one primary per day which took about an hour or so then left it till the next day. Wasn't really that hard. In fact kinda interesting. Got to add the cloverleafs and collectors plus a bit of clean up with the grinder. Don
The 4.3 is a 350 with center cyls removed. There are no siamesed exhaust ports. I'm running the factory headers from the '88 MonteCarlo I got the engine from. Similar headers were used on the same era Impalas and pickups. The headers are made from stainless but are not shiney. My headers had single fittings on each for air injection.
Check with Doug Robinson, here: Horsepower Engineering 47 Fulton Ave. Pasadena, CA 91107 626-440-0440. Fax #: (626) 440-9740. Email us at [email protected]. They make headers for about every make and model. Tell him Carl sent you.
The Jalopy Journal
