Motor Degrease and Paint I decided to do as much as I possibly could to both the engine and the Blazer before I actually installed the new engine. When I got the 350 it was coated with grease and oil. It was out of a 1988 full size conversion van and I don't think that the engine had ever been cleaned. I did my best to degrease the engine. I then removed all of the 350 accessories as I plan to use the mounting hardware and accessories from my 4.3 . After removing the accessories I degreased the engine again. Then I painted it with hi-temp engine paint. Here is a picture when I was done:
Exhaust Manifolds The next step was to find a set of manifolds that would fit on this engine and clear the frame rails in the truck. The JTR manual recommends using low performance manifolds from a Firebird or Camaro. I needed to find a set from a 1987 or newer engine in order to have adequate clearance between my valve covers and the manifold. After calling numerous junkyards and not finding anything, I decided to look around on the net. I stumbled across the FireBird/Camaro web ring. I started looking for someone who had replaced their manifolds with a set of headers. I found Ron Mullin's site. Not only did he have a set of manifolds for sale, but he also had done a V8 conversion. He offered to sell and ship them for the very fair price of $30. They were exactly what I needed.
Neither my 4.3 or the 350 came with an A.I.R. system. So I ran to Lowes and bought 1/4" pipe plugs and screwed them into the A.I.R. fittings. The manifolds bolted to the engine with adequate valve cover clearance. Oil Pan I then decided that it was time to cut my 4.3 oil pan and weld the extension in place. This went fairly painlessly. I degreased the pan, cut it, welded it., checked the weld for leaks(with water), cleaned it, and painted it.. Some of the holes on the pan need to be re-drilled to fit the 350. I used the reinforcement rails as a template. All said and done, it bolted up nicely and seemed to seal well.
Along with the pan and pickup tube, I also got a 4.3 dipstick and tube. I ended up breaking this, so I cut the tube from the 350 to be the same length as the 4.3 tube. Then I used the 4.3 dipstick with the shortened 350 tube. Seems like it should work OK. Motor Mounts After the oil pan was installed I decided to move on to the motor mounts. Originally I made a set modeled after the ones that Advanced Adapters sells. These plates are supposed to allow you to use the original 4.3 motor mounts with the 350.
When I was removing the 4.3 from the engine bay, one of the 4.3 mounts fell apart. After examining them, I decided that I did not like the design and that I did not want to use them with the 350. They are designed in such a manner that the rubber can pull apart from the metal. I liked the 2.8 mounts better because the metal actually wraps all the way around the rubber isolator.
I decided to use the 2.8 mounts(less than $10 a piece) and build a set of mounts according to the diagram in the JTR manual. Here is the engine with all of the above mentioned mods:
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