My dad just gave me for Christmas an 81 pickup shortbed with 4" body lift and 31's geared at 3.90. This will be 75% offroad 25% street. I want to do as little as possible or pay as little as possible. I will do mostly mud and some trails (very little rocks) so here are my questions:

1) I want 35's with a locker.. is my gearing good enough already? Can my truck handle that setup without any mods other than my 4" body lift?

2) What can I do to get more HP for the 22r engine? Or what is the easiest swap?

 

5.29's are ideal for 35's. You could run the 3.90's but you will have no get up and go.
As far as the engine goes, you could think about fuel injection and maybe a header and cam.

 

I think fuel injection would enter into the "expensive" realm. Exaust headers are popular, with maybe a slightly wider exhaust. Cams are a popular cheaper upgrade, but if the engine is worn & tired, putting just a new cam in and not rebuilding the head can have some not-so-good results. The easiest thing is good quality, new spark plugs, wires, cap & rotor, make sure the timing is right, carb is tuned up, then think about things like a header or whatever.

 

I ran 3.90s with 35s and even with 230+ hp I was very unhappy, 4.56s worked well for me but now I'm back to 3.90s with 32s. The truck is back to being a work truck and it's much more drivable everyday like this (tires are cheaper too).
Engine swaps aren't cheap but you can only get so much power from the 4 cyl. with out spending lots of money either. Downey has the best swap kits, look at them to get some ideas. I've been real happy with my Buick swap.

 

I would recommend 5.29's with a set of 35's.
I am running the stock 3.90's with 33's and I can still drive it but 5th gear is bordering on useless. This is with a fairly strong running 22R with 113K on it. I have a set of 35" BFG's but won't run them until I regear.

One thing that would help if you are mainly going off road would be to add a second transfer case or put in a lower low range gear set. I know you are not rock crawling but it would help out in the climbing department.

Engine Swaps: How big is your budget? 2.7 Taco swap is one I would like to do down the road...150 hp and EFI, just need to find a wrecked truck cheap.

Are you positive it is a 4" body lift? Usually 3" is max unless it is a homebrewed kit. Most off roaders prefer to use suspension vs a body lift..post some pictures when you get the chance. More and more 1st Gens are off the road as time goes on.

 

So what yall are saying is that it can work just having 35's on but i need to get better gearing.. what would be the lowest gear you would suggest I use? For some reason this site is asking for a url for my truck images.. dont know how to get that.

What is the cheapest route for a suspension lift and who is the cheapest for gears?

My engine just got a new carb and I have a new tank and lines.. the engine seems fairly good.

 

Cheapest lift will net you a tank like ride, know a good Chiropractor?
--Look through the recent threads in this folder, the suspension debate has been discussed a lot.

-Cheap gear can leave you with chunks out of your ring gear=stranded.
Try Randy's Ring and Pinion, PORC, Marlin Crawler, etc etc...

pictures: upload your pictures to a free service like photobucket.com than copy and paste the [IMG] code that you will find to the right of the picture.

 

Ok, well now its been about 6 months of messing around with the truck and upgrades.. here is what I have and learned:

I have 33's with stock gears- NEED BETTER GEARS!! I top out at 45 miles an hour and it takes forever to get it to that point. I think 5.29 would be great!

installed propane fuel system- BEST INVESTMENT!! now i am fuel injected and have had NO stalls on hill climbs and off camber wheeling.

Need better suspension- Didnt buy anything but going with the cheap setup that came with the truck, chiropractor is right! Already gone through a set of shocks and had to reweld 1 shock mount.

Installed homemade snorkel- no more replacing muddy air filters BUT now trying to figure out how to keep the globs that fling up top off the filter and how to keep rain off it also

Thats it for now but as I continue to upgrade I will let you other "new to old toyota truck" guys know whats good and whats not!

 

pics would be great...

 

I'd like to see pictures of your propane setup. Did you get it through gotpropane.com, or piece together your own? I want to do a conversion in the future.

 

More hp.. you could use a 20r head. Search around a bit on that i think theres some good info

As far as an easy swap you could throw in a 7mge (inline six) from an 86 to 92 Supra using the supra bell housing on your stock tranny and your stock motor mounts with 5mge brackets. Its a pretty easy swap i'm planning on doing soon.

 

look into doing a RUF pack...putting your stock rears up front and either chevy springs in the back or f-150s...

on my 81 i mixed two sets of rears(my and junkyard 88 4runner springs) made a 6 leaf pack that flexes very well and doesnt ride bad at all with bilsteins....the rears are f-150s from the junkyard turned around...they flex really good and dont have the rear overhang like chevys....front crossmember, boomerang shackles, and chevy leaf swap all from skys that i had around $300 in and maybe $75 in junkyard springs.

stock duals with 4.10s should be fine for what you are doing. i sold my 5.29s b/c every toyota in my club is on 4:10s so trail spares are easy if necessary. I DD on 4:10s and 35s for a year and a half and i didnt mind it...5th was fine...60 all day long...no passing but i wasnt gettting left behind. i did strip it of all gear for DD(winch, spare, box, jack,etc.) weber carb, header, exhaust.

going the cheap route may not always be the best...ive found that you spend more money and time in the long run...spend money where you need to....so you can have more fun on the trail.

 

This thread really needs some pics!
Go to www.photobucket.com and create a new account, make an album, upload the pictures from your hard drive and then copy and paste the [IMG] code here.

I can host them for you if you don't know how to do it.

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