85 PICKUP

I've been gone for some time as I sold my 85 4wd back in May of last year. I purchased a 2wd Nissan Frontier and am thinking of going back to 4wd again.

Anyway, I have always like the T100's and have been reading that they are really good trucks. I do have some questions -

1) I am avoiding the 3 liter so I will stick with 95 - 98. Of this 4 years, is there a best year that I should be looking at? T100's are hard enough to find so I dont think I could be too picky. I am seeing mostly 96's are these a good year?

2) As I stated above I want a 4wd, but it needs to be an auto too. Are the auto trannys good and want type of mileage should I be looking at (mostly freeway)

3) Lastly, I was reading somewhere else that the headgaskets have issues similar to the 3.0. Is this correct and if so what years does it affect?

Any other advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Froggy93

the early 3.4L's were the ones with the headgasket problems. not to sure bout mileage cause I drive a 3.0 t100 but I would guess about 16-18 city driving and about 20-22 highway.

nashvegas

I bought my first truck- a '97 T100 4x4 with 143,000 miles off ebay back in November-and drive it a few days/week mostly interstate commute- gets about 18 mpg combined city/highway on a 50 mile round trip daily and it rides sweet. I noticed a couple on ebay -one in TX looks pretty clean..quite a few listed on autotrader.com.....if you can find a clean one that has been taken care of it, buy it, you won't be disappointed...good luck!

BlackToySteve

My auto tranny has been pretty stout. It is similar to the tranny in a Jeep Cherokee (both are made by Aisin). Truck has 195,000 on it, and I haven't changed the fluid yet in the 25,000 miles I've put on it, but the previous owner might have. There is a manual shift body kit that you can get for them from somewhere, if you're into that sort of thing (with 32s and a 3.0, I'm seriously thinking about it).

Flannelman

1) I am avoiding the 3 liter so I will stick with 95 - 98. Of this 4 years, is there a best year that I should be looking at? T100's are hard enough to find so I dont think I could be too picky. I am seeing mostly 96's are these a good year?
I have a 97 and I like it. I would say 97 or 98 if you want 16" wheels stock if you don't care 95 or 96 is fine


2) As I stated above I want a 4wd, but it needs to be an auto too. Are the auto trannys good and want type of mileage should I be looking at (mostly freeway)
They have AH340s which are solid as long as you perform maintenance on them. Mileage I get 18-19/21 with a 5spd so something around 18-20 avg for the auto

3) Lastly, I was reading somewhere else that the headgaskets have issues similar to the 3.0. Is this correct and if so what years does it affect?
as stated early 3.4s had the problems if you get a 96 or later its a non-issue.
Any other advice would be appreciated. Thanks.[/QUOTE]
Just take it for a good test drive and make sure everything works

hartzog69

I have a 1996 T100, 5speed, i wouldnt trade it for an auto anyday, just my personal preference, have driven both autos and manuals, i live in the mountains of NC, and to be honest, i just love having the option to gear down when i come to hills if need-be, the 5speed around here for me saves my breaks alot, my t100 has the 3.4L v6, love it, i cut off stock muffler, left cat on, and last time i measured the MPG, i had been running it hard a few times, and i still got 20-22 mpg, so yea, i love the gas-mileage for the fullsize truck