Just picked up a cherry 89 RS with a sick 3.8 multy port motor and wondered if a 4.3 longblock would be a direct swap with the 3.8?

89's didn't get a 3.8 stock- that didn't happen til 96 or 97 or so. are you sure it isn't a 3.1 or even a 2.8? and they never, ever put the 4.3 Chevy V6 into ANY Camaros- ever. at least the factory never did.
they did, however, put a LOT of small block V8 engines in them. you'd need to swap as much stuff to put a 350 into it as you would to put a 4.3, and a small block will bolt right in with the proper mounts.

To this day I don't understand why Chevy never put the 4.3 V-6 in the Camaro??

It woulda been a natural combination, imho...

4.3 with either the 5 speed or the 700 woulda been a winner to me and it would not have had enough power to tear either up..

I guess when you sell the suckers by the pound, every overweight pound counts so it got vetoed early on..

pdq67

Thanks guys, Not into 6's but just checking my options. I did some research and came to the same conclusion to do a swap and might as well go V8. Now I'm looking for a donor car with ALL the goodies. I wouldnt even think of this but the car I bought is in perfect shape and very low miles. Also toying with the idea of an LS1 or 6. I guess its just measured by the depth of my pockets. Ha
Thanks again.

pdq- i agree. the 4.3 would have been a perfect base engine instead of a 3.1 or 3.4 or 3.8. if they would have done that, they would have been able to use the same transmissions and engine front accessories across all model lines, which could have only saved the general money. and since the 4.3 is a pretty torquey engine, the fuel economy average for the fleet would not have gone down by much- and might have actually gone up since more people would have probably bought the base Camaro if it just had more power.
in the end, tho, it probably came down to the rate the inurance companies put on the cars, since they had to know a lot of people would have bought the base cars just so they could do a cheap weekend swap to a V8 and only insure a V6. hell, you'd only need engine mounts and radiator hoses to do the swap.