all it is is a 350 with 2 cylinders chopped off right?? I heard that this makes this engine unbalanced, reducing efficiency.

To put it in lamans terms, its basically a 190 hp motor in a full size truck....need I say more. Esspecially if its an older vortec model.

Take it from a former owner. I owned 3 at one time. One in the boat, one in my 94 Blazer, and one in the 93 1500 exteded cab short bed that pulled the boat (and it was no small boat). Did great with the 5-speed, and got 22 mpg on the highway. We also pulled our 5th wheel (23' ultralight) to CA and back on numerous occasions.

Underpowered? Compared to the 350, sure. But capable? Yes.

There are alot of mods you can do w/ the 4.3. just look at Jegs.com or summitracing.com and do a search for parts. I had a 4.3 and put a 100k on it and now my dad has it and has another 100k and STILL running strong. Awesome motor!

Point for those that don't know:

The 4.3 is a smallblock Chevy 350 with two cylinders chopped. 262 cubic inches.

My friend has an early 90'* Chevy truck with the 4.3. It'* not one of the bigger trucks, so it gets around pretty good. That thing has over 200K miles on it.

I used to have a 93 Safari. Had the 4.3. It was a strong motor. Only complaint I had was that it would puff blue smoke when first started. It needed new valve guides. That started at about 50K and lasted until I sold it at 150K. Otherwise, no problems. Would still do some nice brake torques too!

we have a 4.3 Vin Z in a 94 S10, 135,XXX miles and nothing ever done to the engine or trans

It sounds like you and my grandpa have the same truck. His is a short cab '93 1500 with the 5-speed, too.

Extended cab?

I traded the 93 on a 98 Z71 in 1998 Trade in the right direction, but that 93 with the 4.3 was still a damn fine truck.