Tee_Adams

Hey, I just bought a '94 extended cab and immediately ordered a 4" rough country lift and I'm planning on going with 33" BFG A/T. I like to go offroading often and I'm looking for mods to make it more capable. What's the best cost effective way to improve off-road performance.
I also want to add some horsepower.

bigmike7362

well for one thing what engine is in it and DO NOT use them bfg u will hate yourself for it later they are more show tire than performance if u want a good tire get cooper discoverers stt thats what i got on my 2wd and i havent been stuck with them yet pics in my page but get manual locking hubs (if u dont have them on it already) put some headers on it bump the timeing up cold air intake make some skid plates to keep your stuff safe i got alot more if u want to go all out

Tee_Adams

It has the "5.0l" 302 which is why I'm looking to boost hp because it is extremely underpowered for my liking but I don't really want to do a swap on a truck that's mostly for fun. It already has manual hubs. It has an aftermarket intake on it but I'm not entirely positive what it is (it's at my mechanic's shop). I was looking at maybe getting cams and headers and/or a chip.

bigmike7362

look at my tires you will like them and its not that the truck is underpowered these old trucks had the wrong gears in them if anything find out what gear ratio u have and lets say u have 2,73s in yours move it up to a 3,11 or 3,55s with a locker in the rear im almost guessing you have a e4od trans they make shift kits for that trans to make it shift when you want it too but what i did was put 4,11s with a rear locker and put headers and cold air intake and changed the distributor from stock to msd with a blaster 2 coil and took the a.i.r pump off and changed th mechanical fan to a dual electric fan and i also put an exturnal trans cooler on it too so now the trans fluid gets cooled twice i also bumped the timing a bit i have plenty of power out of mine

Tee_Adams

Well I'd have to check on the gearing but the labor expense of regearing is so high. This is my first truck, is that something you can do by yourself (if you knew what you were doing)? I'm also on a little bit of a tighter budget considering the lift and tires are gonna run me like $1,600. If you had to pick one or a couple of those things that gave you the most gains, what would they be? Excuse my ignorance haha.

Tee_Adams

I do like those tires too

JbabFX4

For an offroad toy that your going to lift and add larger tires to. I think gears and a locker would be a great start. Unless you plan to do major motor work, some good low gears will do more than 10-15hp you could add with bolt ons. If your truck really has 2.73 gears like Bigmike suggested then then 3.73 or 4.11 will be night/day off the line and crawling in the woods. Just my .02

Tee_Adams

I've been doing some research, I don't have the truck in my driveway to check the door jam, and it looks like it comes stock with 3.55.

bigmike7362

i dont know how loud u like you truck but i would do the headers and save up the money for the gear ratios thats where you best improvements will be like i said before its not that their underpowered its that their overgeared and because your putting bigger tires on it it will feel like it has even less power so thats even more of a reason to get the gears changed or you can probably find a rear end already put togther for pretty cheap and once again i would not get them BFG A/Ts i had them and couldnt go anywhere the tires would automatically cake up with mud and slide everywhere those tires are for pretty trucks on the highway

Tee_Adams

Thanks for the advice, man. I think I am going to go with headers for now because regearing is just out of my price range right now. If I'm running 33's what gearing would you recommend? I'm not gonna be on the highway a lot but I still want to have the ability to go like 75 for when I need to. I think I might just take your advice on the tires though.