Thanks to BlazerLT, I know now to get exhaust, then an intake kit. But I still ponder on the other things. Chips, Programers, TB spacers? I've seen ads for programmers that will criticize chips for being extremely difficult to install and also state that you cannot return to stock settings. But then there's chips which I believe, personally, already have the best settings possible for your truck. What's best for me to use? NOW, Throttle Body Spacers. How do they work exactly? If I want every horse available for my 4.3L, under my hood, should I get one?(does it really increase HP?) What order should I get all this stuff in? And finally, Is there also an aftermarket cooling set-up for the 4.3L?
The Programer Modules, Chips, and TB spacers I've been looking at, are here: http://www.performanceproducts4trucks.com/CatalogList.aspx It should go straight to the 4.3L Blazer page.

FYI: I'm asking the 4.3L nation because I'm hoping some of you have tried, or know someone who has tried this stuff, and can give me your own feedback without trying to "sell it" to me.
:banghead:

1.) Muffler
2.) Intake
3.) Chip

TB Spacers are a waste on a 4.3L.

Hey Pedro , Do you work at MAGLITE . If so I am a big fan . 15 plus , so far. I agree with LTs priority list . The mechinic shows on TV do it in that order too. I am upgrading my 89 model , which was TBI with lots of problems. I already have a freeflow exhaust after the cat , but I am installing a power package from Edelbrock . It will boost my stock 160hp rated 4.3 up to 210 hp and 260 ft/pds torque. I should finish it this weekend . Edelbrock has lots of goodies for your year engine too . Being in CA you are limited to what you can legally do . Rob

Sounds like a plan for my 98 after I finish paying the damn thing off! I get to tow a camper this weekend with my Blazer, she does really well towing believe it or not.

I agree with all the mods, but a TB spacer will help the 4.3. As with any spacer used in any high performance application, it will help produce better mid range power - exactly where these engines with the TBI setups are suppose to perform the best. Also if you want a little more boost in power without spending too much(but very hard to find), look around for a 350 or 454 throttle body intake. The bores are bigger for thoese TBIs and the stock computer can handle the change, as long as your engine is stock. I tried a 350 TBI, basiclly bolted right up, and I did notice a little more kick with it installed. I still wish I had my 89, it was a great setup(TBI) and quite easy to work on as compared to the Vortec, also the price of parts for the TBI did not even come close to the price of parts for the Vortec.

Hey Pedro , Do you work at MAGLITE . If so I am a big fan . 15 plus , so far. I agree with LTs priority list . The mechinic shows on TV do it in that order too. I am upgrading my 89 model , which was TBI with lots of problems. I already have a freeflow exhaust after the cat , but I am installing a power package from Edelbrock . It will boost my stock 160hp rated 4.3 up to 210 hp and 260 ft/pds torque. I should finish it this weekend . Edelbrock has lots of goodies for your year engine too . Being in CA you are limited to what you can legally do . Rob

Ive got an 89 model 4.3 too where is that power pacage at I would really like to look into it

cam, if you want to squeeze that 4.3 find an rv cam for it, and i say an rv because its mild enough for fuel injection, and you dont need a new set of springs

Hey rmbodie...you say a "power package" for your 4.3? What does that include? I have been thinking about the TB spacers as well, but I see that LT says it's a waste. I already installed a Ravin Z55 muffler on my 89 4.3, and it is nice. It's not very loud...perhaps I should have gone with the Z33. I would love to have a little more power, but I don't want alot.

Thanks for the help. But still, does the TB spacer increase Horsepower or torque? And finally, Does "chip" just mean don't even bother with a programer? They're expensive, I know. But I'm at a time in one's life when I have the ability to buy this stuff. "No kids, no wife, no house, and a damn good job." Anyways, If they can do a better job than a chip, it is well worth the $500 more.
*Is this power package also available for the 2000 4.3L V6 Votec?
**No, I am not Pedro. But my dad used to work at MAGLITE. That's wierd that you'd say that. And that's not the only "BIG" corporation here in Ontario, CA.
***So-Cal SUCKS!!!!!!

a tb spacer is not worth it, and with the living condition you have, put a small, or even a big :evillol: block chevy power house in there... otherwise, yes a programmer is much better then a chip, and like i said in previous post, specally if you have the $$ for it, camshaft, headers, high flow cat, cold air intake, and induction, supercarger for stock cam, power throughout the power band, or turbo with an rv cam and crank the horses at higher rpm's

The Power package is made by Edelbrock , But JEGS is the only retailer that that sells it . It comes with matched carb (500cfm)4barrel, cam, and intake manifold . For the TBI engine it is part number 350-2111pk ."jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/productdisplay?" . It sells for $540 , which is less than the parts seperately from any source . I have been thinking about this kit for over a year. I know F.I. is superior in most situations but I am tired if trying to find may problems with mine. Point the nose up a hill and it bucks and spits . I replaced every ignition and FI part with no luck . I cant wait to fire it up this weekend .Rob

TB Spacers are a complete waste of money and the only proven place where they have been proven to work are on the older dodge V6's.

I read a site a while back where the guy installed his TB spacer and dynoed it before and after and he has a 3HP loss.

As said previously, it is crap.

So I go to begin my upgrades today, and as we all know now, exhaust first. I go into Midas and ask how much to get a Ravin exhaust system installed on my Blazer. The man's response (as clearly as I can 'member): "Ravin just got bought out and is going out of business so we no longer stock or can order their exhaust systems." What do I get now? I originally wanted to get the Magnaflow, mainly because it's quiet. But after joining this Forum, I've wanted to push my Horses to breed more horses (or just invite some friends). Is a magnaflow still a good choice? Is this a sign???
:wtf:

(apologizing now, drunk but coherient) wow, didnt know ravin got bought out... but my cousin did say it best the other night while we were cruzen around in my fire bird... it doesnt have to make a lot of noise to be hella fast... meaning keep the exhaust down, nice tone at open throttle, but something quite and mellow at idel and low rpm's kind of a sleeper thing...

I just asked the local Midas up here in Canada and they still can get any muffler in. Must take a while before the Canadian supplier run out of stock.

What you want is straight through flow muffler with no deflectors or unneeded baffles like the flowmaster 40.

I heard good things about the Flo Pro and when I was at my local Midas dealer they had a new muffler called a Rhino which seems to have excellent flow characteristics.

flow pro is what i have on mine, sounds like blazerlt's sound clip, sept i get a little more grunt at idel, and you hear it somewhat on a 2 lane highway (55 ish)

need your soundclip.

I got my power package running now . MAN will it haul ass . big difference from the old TBI . I did not install the cam , only the intake and carb . But WOW . they make parts for the Vortec engines but not a carb conversion. Intake and cam only. AND Nitrous !!!!!! Rob

need your soundclip.
as of right now i have no way of recording sound, not even a vidieo camera. Ill see if i can get a hold of one and put it up for ya blazerlt

damn you!

well hey, im headed up to canada hopefully by the end of the month, you live anywhere by overboard? if not im sure he could tell you how nice it sounds lol

I am in Sudbury, Ontario.

Flowmaster 40 Ehhh? (Sorry Lt, I'm not making fun of you.) It ain't loud is it? As stated by dmbrisket, you don't need noise to have performance, and I kinda don't want too much noise! Find a way to upload a soundclip dmbrisket. If a Flo Pro sounds nice, I might get one of those instead. I'm kinda trying to stay away from the Flowmaster scene. I'm here in shit-hole so-cal, and if you ask anyone with exhaust out here, "What do you have?" the response will most likely be "Uh, Flowmaster Brah!" No matter who it is. Soccer-moms, girlfriends, ex-girlfriends, 'ballah's,' big trucks, little trucks, old folks, youngin's, & it goes on-n-on! If I have to go loud though, then I guess I will!

I just checked out the sight for Flo Pro http://www.flopro.com/mufflersounds.htm#, and I like what I've heard. I like their "style of sound." I am nowhere near Canada though, So please upload a Soundclip soon dmbrisket!!!
(or anyone with Flo Pro exhaust on a 4.3L V6)

like i said as of right now i cannot do that... if i can find a camera and make a short movie i will, otherwise sorry... but i can tell you the shop that installed my high flow car and muffler, the guy has done this for years, and when i went to pick up my truck even he said "wow, i never expected it to sound THAT good"

Does anyone in Southern Cali. area know where Pro Flow exhaust is sold/installed? If someone does know, Which I really hope someone does, but I also doubt that someone does, Please, PLEASE let me know. In a pm or in this forum. Thanx!

I just googled for pro flow and got nothin looks like you might be stuck without that brand . I will look at mine to see what brand it is . It has a good deep rumble . Like a V8 . Rob

dmbrisket has got me out lookin' for a Flo Pro now though. I'm sold on what I've heard at the site and what his installers response was. But I'll check out whatever you got though. Thanks Rob!

i got my flo-pro v-force muffler from this place called Performance Exhaust in Saticoy... If you live near here... other than that, I would try calling around muffler shops.

oh yeah, and here's the sound clip from mine... file link only lasts 14 days tho, i will try to find another hosting service

http://www.sendmefile.com/00077129

oh yeah, and here's the sound clip from mine... file link only lasts 14 days tho, i will try to find another hosting service

http://www.sendmefile.com/00077129
Not to go too far off topic but did you get your qoute from "The Boondock Saints"??

I've seen this pop up on many a performance board and you might be able to do these in a different order as you can with many other vehicles.

First point though: BlazerLT - I've seen a lot of your posts and you are a smart individual on many subject so I don't want to step on your toes on this. Nothing but respect here. There is a possible order change here though as I haven't seen any scientific data on other posts so far... It might have been covered but I haven't seen it.

It might be best to do: Intake, Chip, Muffler.

As everyone knows, the engine is nothing but an overglorified air pump. We need to find where the restrictions are to improve it. Does anyone have any dyno results on what happens when you pull the exhaust off, or the intake seperately? It has been found out on my 2004 Monte Carlo, that the exhaust doesn't really need to be changed until you hit generate more than 300 HP as it isn't that big of a restriction... the restriction is getting air into the engine. This is also on the 3.8 and 3.8 Supercharged version which is a dynamically different engine.

Does anyone know the volume of exhaust that goes out the stock mufflers compared to when you run strait pipe? Also if you pull the air box off and run stock mufflers if it changes in case the intake is choking the engine?

If we don't know these numbers, you always have to start with the intake then exhaust, then chip. If the stock exhuast is great, then you can change the chip as in the case of the Monte Carlo.

Another way of looking at it is air pump example. 1 inch intake tube to pump to 3 inch outgoing tube... doesn't make sense. Flip them around and you still draw the same as the air is not being forced into the engine, it's being sucked by the downward stroke of the piston. The best we can do is make sure the intake is good first, then worry about what is being squirted out the back. Especially if you go the low cost (which I don't recommend) method of cheap parts - Ebay intake $30, exhaust $120.

Hope this helps people.


1.) Muffler
2.) Intake
3.) Chip

TB Spacers are a waste on a 4.3L.

Does anyone know the volume of exhaust that goes out the stock mufflers compared to when you run strait pipe?

The volume of exhaust going out, through a muffler or through a straight pipe will be exactly the same. The difference is in the amount of pressure required to push the exhaust through whatever restriction is connected to the exhaust manifold.
Mathmatically(simplified) PRESSURE multiplied by VOLUME = POWER. If volume is constant , but pressure increases, power(loss) increases.

04 Intimidator,

Thanks for your input.

The thing is, there is not as much restriction in the short intake when compared to the 6 or so feet of exhaust running out to the rear of the truck.

Add in the fact that the huge stock muffler is a huge restriction and you get an overall bottleneck happening more in the exhaust that you will ever see in the intake.

There is no point in upgrading anything on the engine whether intake or chip until you have gone after the biggest power reducing in the 4.3L's path.

The volume of exhaust going out, through a muffler or through a straight pipe will be exactly the same. The difference is in the amount of pressure required to push the exhaust through whatever restriction is connected to the exhaust manifold.
Mathmatically(simplified) PRESSURE multiplied by VOLUME = POWER. If volume is constant , but pressure increases, power(loss) increases.

Whoops!! My bad on the terminology. herkyhawki is correct, we would want to measure the pressure and see how much restriction there is.

I'm also going to assume the BlazerLT knows from life experiance that the muffler is the bottle neck. Like I said looking at his previous posts in other topics I can trust him. In this case and the engine will gain HP by simply removing what is wasted by the piston trying to push the exhaust out.

BlazerLT - I don't want to word this in a negative way as it's not my intent. Do you happen to have some numbers on how much HP is gained by just removing the exhaust and running straight pipe?

I am in process of trying to do some power mods to mine. I found the ECU programmer on e-bay for $100 so I got it, needless to say I have done ECU first, nice because it gives you the ability to return to stock with just a plug and 5 mins. i was going to try the intake first because of the $$ involved in the exhaust. However you all have brought up a good point obout the exhaust being done first. Do you think incrasing the size to 3inch from the cat back is enough? Would you not still have restriction in the manifolds and upto the cat?

2.5 inch is as big as u wanna go with the exhaust. any bigger and you will lose power.

The best and most efficient upgrade, somewhat affordable is called an LS1. But yes, it's called a scavaging effect, you want a certian amount of back pressure.

1. Cold air intake
2. Cat-back exhaust
3. Headers
4. Chip
5. TB Spacer
6. Thermost

before i upgraded to an LS1, i had an 00 4.3 vortec, .030 bore, forged pistons, stock crank, comp cam, 1.7 rockers, Stock ported heads, 5 angle valve job, fitted with oversized valves, 160* thermo, Headers, Catback exhaust, upgraded computer, corvette radiator.

ive been wanting to build a 250 inline so bad for my s-blazer seems like the tbi is an easy swap to the inline plus inlines are soo hard to hurt. any previous experience would be helpful though ill update as i make progress. right now just bolted holley tbi on my stocker ill update after i put it through its paces

thread is over 2 years old. your question does not relate to the topic so feel free to make a new thread about the 250.