I have a 94 4x4 Pickup with 355,00 miles on everything but the 3.0, (unsurprisingly the truck’s on it’s 3rd one), and I want to either replace the suspension with new stock parts, or do a small lift. The truck:

No, there’s not something heavy in the bed.

The truck is a daily driver on highway, but on the weekends or time off, we take it camping, drive around in the mountains on old logging roads and sometimes take it on multi-state road trips, loaded down with all the gear for two people. At some point a ways down the road, we might want to put a 6” lift and bigger tires on it (it’s currently on a brand new set of 31s), hopefully by which point we will have put in a 3.4 so it can actually drive the bigger tires. In the mean time the suspension is junk and we don’t want to ride on it as is for the next 30 to 40,000 miles. We ordered an ARB front bumper with bull bar and winch mount, which has not arrived yet, but I’m sure it’s weight, combined with the winch which we eventually want to get, will really squash the suspension. If we replace the suspension with stock components, I don’t know if they will make the truck sit higher, or not (the old suspension is quite shot, so it seems conceivable to me that it would be sitting lower as a result). We are also considering doing a small lift, I’ve been looking at the Old Man Emu 2-2.5” lift, which seems to be about the only short lift I can find. I have not been able to find any reviews for the 89-95 IFS Pickup lift specifically, so I am also looking for feedback from anyone who has experience with it, such as ride quality, and any other considerations that I have not thought of. We would like the truck to ride higher, and don’t know if simply replacing the suspension with stock parts will accomplish that to a meaningful extent. I know that lifts can cause premature wear on things like ball joints, and some require break line extensions, but according to OME, their 2.5” lift does not require that, not sure if that’s actually the case or not, would like to hear from anyone who has dealt with that. Since we eventually want do a lift, I don’t know if we’d be wasting money to do a small lift now, but either way we need to do some suspension work now rather than later, and since we’ll be putting a lot of mountain miles on it in the mean time, I don’t know if the little bit of clearance we’d gain from a 2” lift now is worth it.

 

Old Man EMU is a quality lift kit. I would watch a youtube video on how it sits after though if I were you. The ass end tends to sit higher than the front, if you pair it with BJ spacers, it looks pretty good though. The leaf springs will settle over time, but until then it will just look a little goofy.

The front half of the lift uses new torsion bars that you crank to achieve the lift on the front. It will cause a pretty stiff ride doing that, thats another reason people pair BJ spacers with them. The spacers give the lift and the torsions are relaxed to improve ride quality a bit.

But if your end goal is a 3.4L and bigger tires, might want to look into pairing a body lift with the suspension lift. The 3.4 is a taller motor than 3.0 and needs about 1.5" of clearance, either that or weld a hood scoop on. As for the tires, bodylift is the cheapest and easiest way to get bigger tires. It also keeps the driveline angles the same which is a big reliability factor. Check out 4crawlers bodylift kits, he has everything you will need including brackets, steering/shifting extensions.

For the extended brake lines you were wondering about for the bigger suspension lifts, marlincrawler will have all of those for you so that won't be a problem.

 

Years ago when I bought my 93, it had 290K on it and sat just like yours. I ended up finding a 2" lift spring leaf that had come with a 4" lift kit in a junk yard. With the worn out stock springs, it put the back end up just barely higher than the front. Always looked good in my opinion and still running that setup to this day 14 years later. I've been looking at the Rough Country 4-5" lift kit, but it uses your stock rear springs so in your case that may not be the best option.
And as far as the 3.4 swap goes, DO IT! I had completely stopped driving my truck at 365K miles because the old 3.0 couldn't even pull it's own weight anymore. The 3.4 breathed a whole new life into my pickup, and since then it has become a crawler project. Best upgrade you can possibly do to this generation Yota. (my opinion)

 

I paired it with 1" front ball joint spacers to level it out. This is an old picture, the old girl is a little more beat up nowadays, but still sits the same.

 

If at some point you plan on doing a bigger lift, I always suggest not buying another lift before then. Just a waste of money in my opinion. If I were you, I'd just buy oem suspension components to get you by and start planning the bigger build, or put the money you save towards something else (another engine &#129315

 

After going through a few parts combinations over the years, I ended up with this setup on my truck .

Front: 1.5" Ball Joints Spacers- Bilstein 4600 - OME Torsion Springs
Rear: OME Dakar spring - OME Shocks

Not planning to change it anymore since it's giving me the best compromise between daily-driving, off-roading and light towing. Overall about 2" lift, and running 33" no problem.

 

Years ago I did the same small lift and have been happy with the results. Have had many strangers ask me about it in parking lots, many comment it looks very close to stock height since they don't see a bracket lift under there. My final settled in ride height measures 22.5" from the center of the axle to the bottom of the fender lip, on all 4 corners. I fit 33x12.5" tires just barely with some tasteful clearance here and there in the front wheel well (bumper and firewall). The rear tires just barely kiss the bed fender where the mud flaps mount, when fully flexed out after I changed to the triangulated rear shocks - I've considered a longer shackle to resolve this, but just haven't since I hardly wheel the truck anymore these days, at least not much full articulation these days.

Front: 1.5" BJ spacers, stock torsion bars (I'd likely go aftermarket/OME if you're installing the mentioned ARB bumper), OME shocks, OME steering stabilizer, IFS truss/2nd crossmember, no swaybar.
Rear: OME dakar medium leafs, stock 3.5" eye to eye shackles (since you have the shell, I'd consider longer shackles, perhaps a 5" might be a good and not leave it raked forward), OME shocks (triangulated), ubolt flip.

Good luck with the truck!

 

Thanks for the replies, lots of good info. Still unsure which route I'll go, but I can't really make a decision until the bumper gets here, which is supposed to be next week. Once that's installed, I'll see how the truck sits and rides, and whether it looks like I'll have to upgrade the torsion bars, then I'll go from there.

 

I think like others are saying: Ome lift will get you 2.5 in over stock
plus 1.5 in for 3.4 hood clearance

Thats a 4 in lift.

if it were my truck and was a combo hiway and camping vehicle, Id go that route. Id rather put money into a rear locker than a 6 in lift. And I cant express how much I love the 3.4. Just my 2 cents.
nice truck btw!