New to Chevy- c1500 which engine has best rep?

I'm referring to the 90's trucks, particularly 96 and later. Is the V6 powerful enough for light work? Which of the smaller v8's are more reliable? Is there much difference across the board with fuel economy? Are they all easy to work on? (compared to say, my Dad's 98 f-150 4.6 which was a pain in the ass) Are all 96 versions OBDII?

Thanks

I'm referring to the 90's trucks, particularly 96 and later. Is the V6 powerful enough for light work? Which of the smaller v8's are more reliable? Is there much difference across the board with fuel economy? Are they all easy to work on? (compared to say, my Dad's 98 f-150 4.6 which was a pain in the ass) Are all 96 versions OBDII?

Thanks

For light work, your v6 should be fine. When it comes to the v8's, it just depends on how you take care of it. Your v6 will probably get better fuel economy, but I have seen v8's get better than v6's sometimes. I have a 1988 K1500 4x4 with the 305 tbi in it and it's been real reliable for me. I have almost 300k miles on it and it still runs like a beast. The great thing about the 350's and 305's for these trucks, is that they're a dime a dozen and tend to be easier to find where I live as for some reason the v6's are a little harder to come by and thus a little more expensive. The v8's in my oppinion are easier to work on. As for the OBDII, not a hundred percent sure on that one. Hope this helps.

I like my 88 too it's the 4.3, It has one o2 sensor up on the driver side exhaust manifold. It's geared really low too. Very easy to work on lots of room in engine bay. I had people tell me that they used to have a truck like this with the same motor with rwd and were able to pull 5k pounds with 2.5k pounds in the box. The newer 4.3 have an upper and lower intake, more hoses so depending on what your working on it could be time consuming. Also I have torsion bar suspension under the front of mine, idk it they changed that.