2nd POS vehicle

[bikerlbf406]

My 2nd POS vehicle was my 1994 GMC S-15 Jimmy. It was a great vehicle, but the 4.3L V6 Vortec CPI motor is for the birds. I always liked the 4.3L but that CPI motor they came put in the 94's are the worst shit ever. More time & money went in to trying to get that vehicle running right, then what I spent to buy the vehicle, and I never did get it right & finally had to wash my hands of it & trade it in for 1/2 of what I paid for 2 months earlier, not including the $1K plus I spent out on it. Needless to say I will never buy another 4.3L motor vehicle again if it is that CPI motor.

[swamprat]

Sounds like it was a POS.

My POS vehicle was a 1981 Ford Escort 1.6L Automatic wagon. It took 21 seconds to get to 60 mph and topped at around 85. In 1986, my mom and I were driving through the Tennessee and the car started to overheat. We turned into a Ford dealer in Memphis who took 2 days to replace a hose, thermostat and a water pump.

We continued to drive it to Fort Worth. At that point, it spent another week in a Ford Dealership to find out what was wrong. There were some fuel issues as well. I drove it out again and the car overheated once more. I couldn't put up with that, so I traded it for another car. That was a big mistake, but at least I could get to work...

[Mase]

I guess my worst car was a 1980 Plymouth Volare sedan. Slow, boxy, sloppy steering. Nevertheless it served as a family hauler for a number of years and I put 130k miles on it and finally gave it to my son who put some more on it before he traded it for a Sunbird. The air conditioner would freeze up after awhile and put out hot air.

[Eric]

My 2nd POS vehicle was my 1994 GMC S-15 Jimmy. It was a great vehicle, but the 4.3L V6 Vortec CPI motor is for the birds. I always liked the 4.3L but that CPI motor they came put in the 94's are the worst shit ever. More time & money went in to trying to get that vehicle running right, then what I spent to buy the vehicle, and I never did get it right & finally had to wash my hands of it & trade it in for 1/2 of what I paid for 2 months earlier, not including the $1K plus I spent out on it. Needless to say I will never buy another 4.3L motor vehicle again if it is that CPI motor.

I'm getting senile and can't remember... what was "CPI"?

If my failing memory is right, the 4.3 was basically a 90-degree small block Chevy V-8 less two cylinders and was generally considered to be a pretty decent little engine.

[grouch]

I'm getting senile and can't remember... what was "CPI"?

If my failing memory is right, the 4.3 was basically a 90-degree small block Chevy V-8 less two cylinders and was generally considered to be a pretty decent little engine.

Toyota uses the 4.3 in heavier duty fork lifts. I've got one in my current truck at work. This is the 4th one I've driven with that engine and we rarely have any problems with the engines. Toyota often takes our lift trucks after we turn them in at the end of the lease and takes them back to see what we broke and what lasted. This is my second truck with an electric shifter which replaced the mechanical that the dust would destroy the neutral safety switch.

If the 4.3 had any weaknesses, we would find them fast. When we first started leasing our equipment, Toyota asked the dealer about the hours. Many of our trucks run 24 hours a day and we pile the hours up. I don't run mine that much but when it's running, it's flat out. The main difference between it and a pickup with the 4.3 is we run propane in our equipment.

[Eric]

Toyota uses the 4.3 in heavier duty fork lifts. I've got one in my current truck at work. This is the 4th one I've driven with that engine and we rarely have any problems with the engines. Toyota often takes our lift trucks after we turn them in at the end of the lease and takes them back to see what we broke and what lasted. This is my second truck with an electric shifter which replaced the mechanical that the dust would destroy the neutral safety switch.

If the 4.3 had any weaknesses, we would find them fast. When we first started leasing our equipment, Toyota asked the dealer about the hours. Many of our trucks run 24 hours a day and we pile the hours up. I don't run mine that much but when it's running, it's flat out. The main difference between it and a pickup with the 4.3 is we run propane in our equipment.

Toyota uses the Chevy 4.3 V-6 in forklifts? That's a new one for me!

Any idea what "CPI" stood for?

[Ken]

Toyota uses the Chevy 4.3 V-6 in forklifts? That's a new one for me!

Any idea what "CPI" stood for?

Central Port (Fuel) Injection.

Ken.

[grouch]

Central Port (Fuel) Injection.

Ken.

In the U.S. that is called T.B.I. Throttle Body Injection. I think GM used that up until about 1995 or so. High performance engines got tuned port.

[grouch]

Toyota uses the Chevy 4.3 V-6 in forklifts? That's a new one for me!

How often do you test heavy equipment? The first Toyota I got went through 4 transmissions and many, many differentials. The second one went through one transmission and two differentials. My last one was on the original drivetrain when I turned it in. My current truck has been in service since the late summer and now has about 700 hours on it. Alomost all of those hours are at full throttle. I'm always flat against the governor.

The lighter duty lift trucks use the Toyota 4 banger. The last one of those I ran had 16,000 hours on it when the hour meter quit working. Only 40 psi compression but if you cranked it long enough, it would start. That was the last one I had that we bought. We now lease them for three years. They tried going 4 years once. Only once. That fourth year ate them up on repair costs. The mechanic from the dealer we lease them through said the factory asked about the hours because it is unusual to put that many hours on them. All in all, they make a good lift truck but I'd do some things different. Then again, engineers rarely ask people who use the equipment what needs to be changed. How many times have you seen a bad design keep getting reused in cars? Like the battery on some Chrysler product cars hidden behind the right front wheel.

[Eric]

How often do you test heavy equipment? The first Toyota I got went through 4 transmissions and many, many differentials. The second one went through one transmission and two differentials. My last one was on the original drivetrain when I turned it in. My current truck has been in service since the late summer and now has about 700 hours on it. Alomost all of those hours are at full throttle. I'm always flat against the governor.

The lighter duty lift trucks use the Toyota 4 banger. The last one of those I ran had 16,000 hours on it when the hour meter quit working. Only 40 psi compression but if you cranked it long enough, it would start. That was the last one I had that we bought. We now lease them for three years. They tried going 4 years once. Only once. That fourth year ate them up on repair costs. The mechanic from the dealer we lease them through said the factory asked about the hours because it is unusual to put that many hours on them. All in all, they make a good lift truck but I'd do some things different. Then again, engineers rarely ask people who use the equipment what needs to be changed. How many times have you seen a bad design keep getting reused in cars? Like the battery on some Chrysler product cars hidden behind the right front wheel.

Never!

I was just curious - and surprised. As far as I can remember, GM has occasionally used Toyota engines but never the other way around!

I think Biker meant TBI (Throttle Body Injection) and not CPI. Those early TBI system looked a lot like a 2-barrel carb sitting on a conventional intake manifold. I don't recall them being problem-prone - just underpowered!

[bikerlbf406]

The 4.3L that I had problems with was the CPI motor. I had several 4.3L TBI motors, that were great motors & never had a drop a problem with them. From '92-'94 Model they had 2 motors they came with. One was the 4.3 TBI & the other was the 4.3 CPFI or CPI for short, which is the motor I had. The 4.3 CPI motor is the one that I hate. They have a very bad rep for internal fuel rail problems & for the CPI unit going out multiple times. Every shop I talked to knows about them & have had to change the CPI units out multiple times. CPI stands for Central Port Injection and CPFI stands for Central Port Fuel Injection. General Motors implemented a system called "central port injection" (CPI) or "central port fuel injection" (CPFI). It uses tubes with poppet valves from a central injector to spray fuel at each intake port rather than the central throttle-body. The 2 variants were CPFI from 1992 to 1995, and CSFI from 1996 and on. CPFI is a batch-fire system, in which fuel is injected to all ports simultaneously. The 1996 and later CSFI system sprays fuel sequentially. I've owned vehicles with the 4.3 TBI and I loved them & then one vehicle with CSFI, which is a wonderful motor.