Wallet friendly engine swaps

Long story short, I'm sick of TBI 4.3's and the one currently in my truck burns AND pisses oil all over the place, nevermind sucking on gas. I'm looking for suggestions on swaps I could do to my truck that wouldn't break the bank during the swap or at the pumps later on.

My concerns are currently reliability and fuel economy, but the potential to turbo in the future is a huge bonus. Current ideas:

1. ecotec with 5spd from solstice/sky
(reliable, should be under $1000 for motor/tranny/harness/ecu, buddy ran 14's in his cavalier with turbo)

2. 2200 vortec with NV1500
(I can get the motor/tranny from my 98 sonoma back for $200. Cheap, decent on gas, direct swap minus some wiring)

3.

The V8 swaps are not as bad as you might think on gas, especially with a custom tune and sticking to smaller displacement with free flowing heads. I expect my blazer to do better with the 305 roller/L98head/LT1 cam engine than it did with the V6 and I'll have a grand into the engine and about $250 into swap items. If you went with a lower mileage vortec 350 and swapped to a carbed intake with TBI adapter the harness ports right over, you could easily do the whole deal for less than $1000.

The big problem with the ecotec swap, which I think would be awesome personally, is a complete lack of availability of parts for the swap.

The 200Vortec is really lacking on internal parts, but there are cheap turbo kits out there, problem here is that you're never going to get V8 power out of them for anywhere near the same price.

As much as I agree with you, this is my daily driver and I drive half an hour to work each way.

I have a lead on a cheap TBI smallblock (cant remember 305 or 350) so that crossed my mind, but I failed to mention I need something slow for now to help resist the urge to drive like an idiot.

My 2200 was reliable and peppy for what it was. If I went that route, I likely wouldn't modify it once planted.

Ah, yeah, I've given up on fighting my lead foot, it's gotten me nowhere.

In that case, I would do a 60 degree V6 build. Grab a RWD 2.8 or 3.4L(preferably a camaro block with the crank trigger in place for the DIS) and drop 3500 heads and intake on it, use the SFI haness and computer from a 3.4L camaro to run it and bob's your uncle. Cheap, much more economical than a TBI anything, more pep than most 4 bangers and pie to turbo in the future.

Was more so thinking pull it out and drop it in, not interested in building anything. I know how expensive that gets haha. Sorry, I know i'm kind of closed minded right now.

Well, pull it out and drop it in, the ecotec is out, that's going to be a chore for mounts. There's nothing really wrong with the 2200 Vortec. On that note, build don't buy, it's more fun.

for your goals, getting a fresher stock engine and dropping it in seems to be the best choice.

if you are going to swap to a different engine, go with an LS motor. easy to drop in, 5.3/4.8s are still cheap, can pick up a gen1 4l60e for under $100 (i sold mine for $50ish)

and you can get decent gas mileage.

mounts are no problem, I have a welder and a good head on my shoulders haha.

As much as I want to swap to LS, i'm already going LS in my red truck and I know if I do it now I'll want to go faster

All in all with your goals it does sound like the 2200 is the best choice.  Not much to splice in for wiring besides fuel pump and gauges and will bolt right in.

With the weight of the truck it will be more than peppy enough for a daily.  I've been enjoying mine even with the heavier truck.

yeah that's what i'm thinking... I was more than happy with my 98 when I had it.

Pending insurance word, I lent the truck out today... see my build thread for more.