Hi, i have a 97 2.3 5 speed.. Black regular cab short bed. Basically the same thing as redneckstones older truck but black. Now im trying to decide wether to give it a little offroad look, or street look (which probably wouldnt benefit where i live). I like the way redneckstones truck looked but i also liked some other styles, like the other day i saw a similiar truck to mine but teal and it had 15x10 wheels with wide street tires on it.. Looked pretty cool. What direction should i go in? I dont offroad, but i do live in a country place. So im thinking perhaps going with an a/t tire, but not too big as to where i lose my low end, and top end as well. I probably already answered my own question lol, But what would be a nice wheel/tire combo for an A/T tire? And i was thinking on a simple roll bar.. would that look dumb ?? What other things could i add? Any input is great. Thanks for reading.

 

heres my old truck, same as yours, so you know my vote

 

What you running for wheels/tires? I was looking at the Cragar soft 8 wheels. Whats your thoughts on that?

 

i ran rockcrawler soft 8s. samething, i think the cragars are cheaper though. had 31" mud rovers, did what i wanted them too and lasted for awhile, then went to 33" pro comp mud terrains, did the same, mud terrain is a mud terrain.

 

And you had the 2.3L ??? Thought running big tires will lose low end, and possibly upper end power? i was thinking of running 15x8's with 30" BFG's lol.. But i like your old truck, looked nice.

 

i ran the 31s on the 2.3 for over a year. less power yes, but it was tolerable, it was a 4cyl, not like i was racing anyways. when i went to the 33s i went with 5.13s, that was awesome!!

 

Someday if i ever found someone who can, or if ill ever learn the mechanic trade lol, id like to have a turbo in it but lol, seems like a pricey job. But yeah i want to keep some power.. Btw, you run any exhaust? Im weary on running any type of exhaust on a 2.3L.

 

i planed to run the 2.3t and convert to 4wd, but got rid of it before i got to involved in the project. I had a dynomax muffler dumped under the bed before the axle. straight pipe from the manifold to the muffler, no cat.

 

Just get a Gibson or magnaflow. Re-gearing will help your truck have that "umpf" you need. Turboing the 2.3's isn't rare, a few guys on RPS have done it.

Now for your real question. It's up to you, but here's my imput. You said lowering wouldn't be right for where you live. I wouldn't risk my truck for looks so I'd say lift it, even if it's just the 3" PA Body Lift, and get bigger/wider tires. More rubber that meets the road the better. You can regear the rear end to keep your performance you need. Most of that stuff is cheap depending on what you want to spend, and the brand so it won't break the bank either.

 

Nice sound, any vids outside the truck? And I mean id like having bigger tires, but how big is too big for a 2.3? The low end right now is pretty good. And how much money (assuming i dont put it in myself) would cost to have the parts, and labor charges for a turbo (used probably)? My original idea was to just run 30x9.50x15's on 15x8's. Or would that be dumb? I think re-gearing would cost me a lot, since i wouldnt be putting them in. As for exhaust i dont need it to sound like a angry bee in a trashcan type deal lol, and i need to have a cat in order to pass inspection, would the ones you mentioned be a good fit?