Hey, I just bought a 87 pickup and it's my first yota. It runs great, was a 4 cylinder but at some point had a 6 put in at the dealer. It's 5 speed, shifts smooth and 4x4 work. Had a lot of rot in the body (already packed with bondo and a couple homemade patch panels) but frame is good. Has a small lift. Just wanted to know what are the things to know about these trucks. Common issues, tips, tricks, etc.

 

Tons of info on this site.

Love my 88 Sr5 xtracab.

These trucks are worth fixing up and keeping.

 

Which 6 cylinder is in it? That would be expensive to have a dealer to convert it from 4 to 6. A ton of work involved in it. These trucks are getting old and age and previous owners is starting to take there toll on them. I suggest just slowly going from bumper to bumper and working your way thru the issues. Most of the work can be done for cheap of free. Mostly just cleaning the various systems out. On my links below in my signature is where and how I have found and fixed several issues. Most are cheap fixes.

 

If it has the 3.0 V6, then the headgasket is a likely problem if it has not already been changed at some point. There are some other small things that eventually get replaced, like TPS, shift seat bushings, etc., but as these trucks get older, anything can break.

It seems unlikely to me that the dealer would do a swap. That would involve welding new mounts, new transmission, new wiring and ECU, along with various other parts. Look at the VIN number on your truck. Look to see if it is RN or VZN. RN is 4 cylinder, VZN is 6 cylinder. Also check the frame number. Someone could have swapped bodies at some point. Another thing to consider is the month it was manufactured. It could be an '88 model year manufactured in '87. I believe August was the cutoff.