[lwrs10]

Doing a little write-up while it is fresh on my mind. This will be specific to 2000-2003 s10 with the 0411 silver computer and 2wd......but a lot of info will cross over into other years.

First, the engine:

You want 1996-2003 350 out of a full-size truck or an express/savanna van. If it is out of a 2500 or larger pickup, you must change the oil pan to 1500. It will not clear the cross-member.


Things you want to do before install to the 350:

Well, make sure it is a good engine. If it has too many miles on it, I will rebuild it just for peace of mind, even if it is a good running motor. You do not want to be pulling this motor again in 20k miles.

AT THE VERY LEAST, change the intake gaskets.

I would also recommend changing the spider injector to the updated version.

Check the distributor gear for wear and the shaft for side-to-side play.

Change the water pump. They are $40 for a brand new one. Again, peace of mind.

PAINT IT. This will make it look much, much better when installed.




Things you will need before you start this:

Motor mounts.
Many different companies make them, including JTR and Current Performance. I went with the JTR.

Headers.
Four options here. Hedman, Sanderson, eBay stainless.....all shorties. Or, if you dare(you will have to move your fuel lines), long tubes. I used the Heddmans. You have to specify bigger flanges with the heddmans. They come with 2".

Radiator.
Most people use the 1986-ish Corvette radiator. This requires cutting on the core support. And requires an adapter for the lower radiator hose. I used the stock 4.3 radiators. I figured if I had to cut, I might as well make my stock one work. That way, I could use the stock tranny cooler and oil cooler. There are other options that do not require cutting. Current Performance makes one that fits in the stock location. But it was 500 bucks. I will post pics of the stock radiator frenched later in this post.

Fan.
I used the stock clutch fan that was on my 350. My 350 came out of 1996 2500HD. You may want to go with an electric fan...I will be later when money allows.

Here are the electric fan options.
Using the stock radiator(16x26 inches), a 2000-ish Dodge Intrepid fan will fit PERFECT. And I will keep it cool. Also only pulls 14-16 amps. Also, a mid 90's Volvo fan will fit perfectly.....but pulls around 40-50 amps. You can also use an early-mid 90's Nissan Quest fan. It fits like stock and pulls only 20 amps.

If you go with the Corvette radiator(16x23 inches), your options change. A ford Taurus fan fits it perfectly. The 1995 and below single fan dual speed ones. You can also mod the Nissan Quest fan and make it fit.

The biggest thing to remember here is 1 or 2 aftermarket fans without a shroud WILL NOT COOL IT WITH AC. You must run a shrouded setup to get maximum airflow over the radiator.

AC condenser.
No matter what, when you move the radiator forward, your stock condenser will not work anymore. Some people modify the hood latch bracket and move it to the front of the core support. Another option is the Current Performance one. It will fit behind the core support.

Computer.
With a 2000 and up, you can use your factory 0411 computer. It will need to be reflashed. Many places do this. I tried Wait4me and got screwed. It did not work. Engine only ran on five cyl. I now have a Current Performance computer, and it runs great.

Companies that do this:
Pcmforless
Current Performance
Black Bear Performance
And many others...


Harness.
From 2000-2003, use your 4.3 harnesses. You only have to add the two injector wires, a one-wire knock sensor, and separate the low side ground for the O2 sensors. I will get into wiring specifics later.

Tranny.
The 4L60E will work fine. I am sure the 5-speed will work fine too. You will have to get different bell housing bolts. The 4.3 are metric, and the 350 are not.

Starter.
The stock 4.3 starters will work fine on either flexplate as long as the 5.7L was from a 1500 truck with 4L60e. My engine was from 2500 with 4L80e, so I could not use the flex plate. Again, the bolts on the 4.3 are metric, and the 350 are not.

OK......next post will concern installation. More to come.

 

[lwrs10]

Now we are ready to do the swap. I found it easier to pull the motor and tranny together. There is not dust cover on the 4.3 bellhousing. You have to unbolt the flexplate/torque converter bolts thru the starter hole.....good luck doing that in the vehicle.

You need to "massage" a couple of places before you throw the 350 in. Passenger side will need a good hammering for the header collector to clear the firewall. You will also need to fold the seam back in the tranny tunnel. Took me a total of 10 minutes to do this.

On to install of the 350.

This should be real straight forward. MAKE SURE you install it with the headers. Otherwise you will be like me and be cussing when you have to halfway pull the engine back out.

Also, install it with the fuel lines. They are impossible to install with the motor in.

Motor mount adjustment:
Most of the mounts you buy have a top and bottom hole, and about 2" adjustment front to back. If you want to run AC and want your hood to close, use the bottom holes on the motor mounts.

If you do not want to shorten your driveshaft, put the motor as far forward as you can get it. I did this and still fit a clutch fan in front.

From here, its easy. All the 4.3 accessories will fit right on the 350 with no mods.

Just start bolting everything back up.....and now we are ready for the core support cutting and the wiring.

 

[lwrs10]

I will start with cutting the core support. I will be pretty straight forward. I cut the top, some people cut the bottom. I will let the pics do the talking.

 

[lwrs10]

Now its time for wiring. This is what most people want to know. You will want to wire it as a 2002 Express van with a 5.7. You will have to run 3 wires(4 if you turn on the electric fan pin). 2 injector grounds and a single wire knock sensor.

Wiring:
First thing you will need is some pins for the computer. You will get 2 off the old knock sensor pins, but you still need 2 more. Junkyard is the best place. Just cut off a whole computer harness.

Here is the injector pinout you will use. I am not going to resize it so it is easier to read.

The easiest way to do this is just swap the pics at the injector plug. You have to change it to the v8 one anyways. Just make sure the correct pins go to the correct injector. The pink wires are the 12v positive. Just splice the 2 added pink injector wires into any other pink.

And just in case the photo dissapears...

Injector 1: pin 36
Injector 2: pin 3
Injector 3: pin 4
Injector 4: pin 43
Injector 5: pin 76
Injector 6: pin 37
Injector 7: pin 44
Injector 8: pin 77

Now the knock sensor. Go to the hardware store and get a 1/4 brass NPT elbow. The knock sensor will not clear the motor mount unless you add the elbow.

The knock sensor will go to pin 51.

You will need Express Van O2 sensors, the Bosch part number is 13474.

My O2 sensors were taking forever to warm up, so I measured heater voltage at the O2 plugs and had zero. After a review of the wiring differences between the 2002 S10 and a 2002 Express van, I found that the S10 O2's used a PWM heater circuit driven by the computer, and the Express van O2's were just plain old fused 12V that are on anytime the key is in the run position. Well that explains it. Just the simple flash to the Express van OS in the computer makes them not work. This all comes back to the s10 using signal ground O2's, and the express van using case ground.

O2 heater wire pins on 02 S10, these pins are in the red plug:

Pin 74: O2 B1S1 and B2S1 high(+12V positive)

Pin 80: O2 B1S1 and B2S1 low(ground)

Pin 72 O2 B1S2 low(ground), after cat

The after cat O2 has its own 20A fuse in the underhood fuse box. I simply spliced into that wire at the fuse box plug, and ran it in the harness and tied it to the wire that was in pin 74. This 20 amp circuit should be more than enough to carry all 3 heaters.

The 02 Express van diagram showed the ground for the heater circuit tied into the alternator bracket, and sure enough there was a ground point on the side. so I ran the ground(pin 80) to this point, and finished it with a ring terminal.

This morning on a cold start it took about 5 seconds for my O2's to start switching, where before it took a good 3-5 minutes. And it really changed my fuel trims...for the good.

You will also need a mass air meter from the 5.7 engine. The 4.3 one will not work unless you tune it in.

And if anyone wants to review the ECU wiring diagrams all this info came from, here they are.

Various years S10:
https://drive.google.com/folderview...4OTA1YzktYjgzYy00NmEyLTg3YzMtYThiODIzMTRhNzdh

And the Vortec 5.7 0411 computer diagrams:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4qslwsH0IjsRDBYVnVLajRnMTQ/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4qslwsH0IjsVFBZYzBvVTlvYUk/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4qslwsH0IjsQ3ZDZjhkSTNKR0k/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4qslwsH0IjscEtobDVnRVRTdlE/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4qslwsH0IjsZHJ2NTA4Rmo5Mm8/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4qslwsH0IjsVGhicXNrMUxiR0U/edit?usp=sharing

 

[lwrs10]

that should about cover most peoples questions. Ifyou have any for this specific swap feel free to ask....I will gladly answer them.

One thing i forgot is the brake lines will touch the header. You will have to bend them out of the way.

And for some finished product pics...

 

[Ricky Bobby]

So have ya drove it with the clutch fan?

Im curious to how good it works cause Im thinking of running mine threw the winter and changing before next summer, however my 84 s10 is running a older carbed 350 and no ac or heater!

 

[350Jimmy]

looks nice and clean, im planning the same swap into my 98 jimmy, 4x4, i know i have to get the oil pan and such, but just out of curiosity, why not use the doner vehicles harness and ecm? and do all of your gauges work? id assume the only ones that would be affected is the rpm and temp? sorry for all of the questions lol, just trying to straighten everything out before i start

 

[lwrs10]

looks nice and clean, im planning the same swap into my 98 jimmy, 4x4, i know i have to get the oil pan and such, but just out of curiosity, why not use the doner vehicles harness and ecm? and do all of your gauges work? id assume the only ones that would be affected is the rpm and temp? sorry for all of the questions lol, just trying to straighten everything out before i start

on the vortec swap, there is minimal wiring to be done. If you swap the harness from another vehicle, you are talking about tons of hours.

 

[Ricky Bobby]

whats the shroud from?

 

[swedp]

i´m currently rebuilding a ´99 4wd s10 truck.shall i switch to a ´00 or newer pcm or can i use my original with the mentioned mods?,swedp

 

[lwrs10]

whats the shroud from?

the stock one from the truck...just modified a bit

 

[GATORZQ8]

I've got a 02 with a 4.3 auto, the motor crapped the bed, and I want to do a swap, I did one old school on my 95, but I don't want to butcher up this truck, its really nice. I was wondering, if I could take a 350 that would bolt up to my accessories on the v6, and just do a carb and intake swap, would my gauges and speedo still work or would they not, because i'm not all that crazy about the throttle body injection on these motors. Hope I worded everything right, any help would be appreciated.

 

[lwrs10]

I've got a 02 with a 4.3 auto, the motor crapped the bed, and I want to do a swap, I did one old school on my 95, but I don't want to butcher up this truck, its really nice. I was wondering, if I could take a 350 that would bolt up to my accessories on the v6, and just do a carb and intake swap, would my gauges and speedo still work or would they not, because i'm not all that crazy about the throttle body injection on these motors. Hope I worded everything right, any help would be appreciated.

you can make the tach work, but not the speedo. And they are not throttle body injected. They are full multi port.



Also found out you have to change your O2 sensors to a case ground style. 33474 is the Bosche part number.

 

[GATORZQ8]

you can make the tach work, but not the speedo. And they are not throttle body injected. They are full multi port.



Also found out you have to change your O2 sensors to a case ground style. 33474 is the Bosche part number.

Thanks for the answer, I think I'll go with the injected style, just need to find a motor with the intake, was looking online to find a intake for the vortec motors and didn't realize that it was a two piece. guess Im to old school when it comes to my motors.

 

[GATORZQ8]

One more question, does the two extra wires for the injectors, plug into the connector were the v6 connector is, is there room for the wires on the plug or do I need to the 5.7 plug

 

[lwrs10]

One more question, does the two extra wires for the injectors, plug into the connector were the v6 connector is, is there room for the wires on the plug or do I need to the 5.7 plug

you have to use the 5.7 plug.

since you have the same year as I do...and i just did the swap on a 4.3 auto......PM me your number if you want and I can talk you thru it.

 

[GATORZQ8]

you have to use the 5.7 plug.

since you have the same year as I do...and i just did the swap on a 4.3 auto......PM me your number if you want and I can talk you thru it.

I really appreciate the help, I have to get my motor, and then I'll pm you my number once I get the old 4.3 out, I found a pretty good deal on vortec 5.7's on ebay for 950.00 complete with harness and computer, and accessories. Its hear in florida, over in homestead. Which aint that far of a drive for me, since Im in fort myers.

 

[GATORZQ8]

I read back over the thread, and I saw the O2 sensor has to be changed, when we change the headers, to we have to run o2 sensors on each side or do we keep them in the stock locations, also does the headers hook up to the stock exhaust. Just trying to put together a budget for the build, trying to think of all the possibilities of a snag.

 

[lwrs10]

I read back over the thread, and I saw the O2 sensor has to be changed, when we change the headers, to we have to run o2 sensors on each side or do we keep them in the stock locations, also does the headers hook up to the stock exhaust. Just trying to put together a budget for the build, trying to think of all the possibilities of a snag.

you have to get new exhaust.

 

[AVTekk]

Good how-to man, I'll add it to the forums database soon. I added the o2 info to the orig post as well. Let me know if you need me to edit anything.

On the radiator issue, I always use 4.3 rad for my v8 swaps, never had a problem. My buddy has the 5.7 swap in his s10, his rad blew a seal, and got the all aluminum vette rad even tho I told him not to, and it ran 20 degrees hotter than the 4.3 rad. He sent it back and replaced it with another 4.3 rad. As for placement, he has the condenser in the stock location, with the rad frenched in maybe half as much as your pictures, with efans. Ive never had to replace the stock condenser on a v8 swap, but I always run efans too.