tmooretxk

how did that turn out ?

just exactly what is that thing?

I'd like that dist mod info also

If I had any concept of how complicated and time consuming that swap would turn out to be, I'd have junked the truck in the first place. I bought it as a project, knowing the engine was erratic with no compression on one cylinder, but it was an interesting model - the 86 1/2 D21, the first extended cab Hardbody, with air, power steering, power windows & mirrors & a 5 speed. When I ordered a Japanese pullout engine, they sent me the 3.3, which I naively thought was pretty cool, and although it was radically different as far as everything bolted to it (intake & exhaust manifolds,dip stick tube, pulleys, oil pan, dist, etc), it had drilled and tapped holes in all the right spots for my vg30 accessories, so I dove in. A year and a half later, after discovering that even the cranks were different diameters, requiring a machine shop to ream a replacement for the original crank pulley (so I could keep all the original v-belt-driven accessories), it finally ran again, at which time we discovered that the throttle body fuel injection had major undiagnosed problems. So I pulled the tbi and cobbled together an adapter for a Ford 1 barrel carb to the tbi manifold. After running it that way for a year (lots of interesting problems, no guts, but great highway mileage) I got a VG30.com Holley manifold and a junkyard holley 2 barrel which has worked out pretty well. But if I run enough advance to get sharp acceleration, it pings & runs on. Will look into the HEI fix - thanks. I've got a spare junkyard dist to experiment on. Anyone with further info please feel free to send it along. One tip if you are doing a VG30 to VG33 swap - use the 3.3 dipstick location, no matter what tube gyrations you have to come up with. Something is different about the crank in the area of the 3.0 dipstick location, and it eats the tip off the dipstick and deposits it somewhere in the oil pan. I'm just hoping it has found a nice comfy spot and stays there until I have sufficient reason to drop the crossmember and pan, cause I'm not making a special trip for it.

I think vacuum advance was always ported UNTIL emissions controls, when they went to manifold vacuum so the advance would drop out at wot, reducing pinging on lower octane gas. Always got confusing when swapping chevy small blocks from different eras.

Have an 86 pickup with a vg33 swapped for the original vg30 and a holley manifold. Distributor is the original from the vg30 throttle body engine. No advance, in other words . I keep seeing references to swapping in advance & ignition from some GM dist, but never any details. Can anyone point me to some useful info or someone willing to sell?

Still have the Holley?

I am rebuilding a 1986 D21 PU with the 3.0 V-6 with throtttle body injection. Any information I should have about that system? Information is hard to come by, it is barely mentioned in the aftermarket manuals I've seen.

I bought a v6 from Eric Engines in Dallas which I can't identify. It is going into a 1986 D21 PU. Both engines have vg30 stamped on the back of the block, and everything I've transferred from the old engine to the new one has fit just fine, but the crankshaft diameter is larger on the new engine (1.26" vs about 1.0"). The new engine uses the flat microgroove belts and a timing belt with rounded cogs, while the original used vbelts and squared off cogs on the timing belt. One the new engine, the crank pulleys are cast in one piece with the crank pulley, while on the old engine they were bolted on to the harmonic balancer. I looked at a bunch of junkyard engines, but never found one with the large crank and v-belts, so I had a machine shop bore the old harmionic balancer out to fit the new crank, but i would really like to know what the new engine really is in case I need to order anything else in the future. The old engine has "597310A" by the VG30, while the new engine has "196192Y". The old engine used the throttle body Electro-Injection, which is what I'm putting on the new engine, and so far everything lines up after I replaced the water pump from the new engine, which had a longer snout, with a new one for the old engine. I want to replace the front and rear seals on the new engine, but am afraid to pull them until I'm sure what to buy to replace them with. Any suggestions?