Yup... That's it. I'll pull the cover off tomorrow and double check but that's where the noise is coming from. Neat, guess I get to pull a trans
Might as well throw a converter at it while it's off. What's stock stall?
I also bet its a cracked flexplate, sounds just like what mine was doing. Pull inspection covert then start truck, i bet you can see it wobbling.
Tip, use long 3/8's bolts in the bottom two trans bolt holes so you can just slide the trans back. no messing with re-lining up the dowels or anything, just pull drive shaft, remove cross member, remove all 6 trans bolts, add 2 long bolts in bottom, remove 3 torque convertor bolts and slide it back.
Hoist helps alot, i did one in my driveway in a day, hoist with BSing at same time was 1.5 hours.
If you ever plan on doing a V8 swap, just keep the stock convertor, it is about 2200RPM behind a V8 and about 1900RPM behind a V6 IIRC.
I for one wouldn't bother with a 305 if you ever end up doing the swap, 305's are only about 10-20 more HP then the 4.3L, if you are going to do it just go right for a 350, i honestly cant see any reason to go 305, i bet the 350 gets just as good MPG.
I have done the 4.3L to SBC swap, pretty straight forward, alot of people think engine mounts are the same, they aren't, you will need engine and frame ones, fan shrouds are different, rad is most likely the small one unless you have extra cooling options of some sort. other then that it is very basic, V8 and 4.3L share same accessories, starter, flexplate, sensor's, etc. the TBI unit is the same just needs the injectors swapped (You can swap whole pod if you like) and then just find a PCM for the 350/Auto.
PS- spring for a SFI Certified flexplate while in there (around $75), I had one of the cheap Chinese ones break within 3 months and the starter always sounded like crap, new SFI flexplate was way better quality and you can hear the starter sounds better.
