What is the life expectancy of a 4.3L Chevrolet Engine?

Asked by Dawn Jun 28, 2016 at 08:16 PM about the 1996 Chevrolet S-10 LS RWD

Question type: General

I own a 1996 Chevrolet S-10 with a 4.3 Liter 6 cylinder engine. I currently have 195k miles on it. It doesn't burn or use oil, and I do an oil change on it every 3k miles. It's recently had a tune up and I put a new fuel pump on it last year. Within the last 2 months the lifters just started rattling a bit. Haven't experienced any issues with driveability issues at all with it. I work for an auto parts store so when repairs come up I can usually get the parts I need easily and replace them myself. I also have a reputable garage I use when I have repairs that I can't do myself.

1 Answer

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If you're trying to gauge how much life is left in this engine, then consider the following; Does it burn oil? Is there oil/coolant mixing? Does it lose coolant excessively? Does it still make good compression? Also take a look at the engine cradle for excessive rust. If it looks decent, and want to keep the truck going, throw a new set of lifters in there. At nearly 200K miles, they've probably gunked up and are collapsing and not maintaining proper tension on the valve train (the source of the noise you say you're hearing).

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