I recently purchased a 1988 F150 XLT Lariat 4x4, previously m daily driver was a late model s10 but I've since only driven my f150. I was looking for advice on what I should do with the truck, I have dozens of plans but no idea what would be the most intresting. The truck is an 88 with a 351w and C6 three speed with no AOD and 3.55 gears. I payed a 1000 bucks cash and she had less than 93,000 miles on her when i bought her 6 months ago. Originally I was simply going to hse her as a commuter until i finished one of my older projects, but recently I've toyed with the idea of either a sleeper, an offorad tow rig, or an overlander. I have plans to uncork the 351 and really let it breath, any advice or known issues with these models of truck that i should be aware of? Or perhaps any idea why it would have been parked for so long that could spell trouble? I've driven everyday for almost 2 months with no real issues. Thanks in advance and I'm happy to be part of the community!

-Chandler

 

Sweet truck dude! Here’s my best advice for it just to get it started new heads and a cam and new gearing and new exhaust . Those new heads will let it breath a lot more and alow for a bigger cam. Then with new gearing like a set of 4.10s or 4.56s you’ll probably get better mileage and you will get much better torque to those wheels once you put bigger tires and it lift it if you plan to go that route. Then for exhaust I would put a set of shortie headers then all new exhaust on it and A nice sounding muffler. And also make sure to fix up all the little things if you have any of those. The 351 in my opinion is one of the best engines Ford ever made and is very reliable. But make sure you don’t go cheap on your parts or else you’ll lose that reliability. As with the C6 from what I know they are good automatics I’ve never had one, I have a E4OD and it’s great. I hope that helped you out some. Good luck!

 

Nice truck. Any work done to it lately?