buying a mid-80's silverado

[vwsmp]

is there anything i should know before buying a v6 regular cab built in 1986. are there any better years to search for? are there any posts pertaining to the subject?

[sub006]

You are right in the years of several changes in GM truck engines.

Do you want a carburetor or TBI?

Do you want OBDI engine controls or fewer computer black boxes?

If you do your own maintenance, earlier years should be simpler. If you pay someone else the later models tend to need less frequent attention.

[vwsmp]

i would prefer a carburetor and a few computers as possible

[toenailclippers]

i bought an 83 2 days ago and love it. go for the earlier years, especially the carbed 350's. so far i added an edlebrock intake, hool 600 cfm carb hooker headers. true dual exhaust with single chamber flowmasters and a shift kit and its fast as hell.

[jveik]

yeah im restoring a 73 cheyenne, which is the first year of the 73 to 87 style run. i love these trucks for thier simplicity. if you want good design or lighter weight the 80 or so to 87 is about 300 pounds lighter than a similiar 73 to 80 or so. look at the headlights and you can tell by that if its a newer it will be square ones and an older one it will be round ones. also the front fender and hood is different between the two. the older kind look completely bad-ass with a glossy pewter finish and the newer ones are awesome with glossy black or a metallic blue color.

make sure to do proper engine testing and stuff, see if the cams flat by if it backfires and stuff and have someone who knows what their doing drive it and see if theres any blue oil smoke coming out the exhaust. better yet, put a new engine in one that has a bad one b/c you can get the bad engine truck for cheap lol.

get a turbo 400 or turbo 350 automatic for a bulky tranny, i dunno what a good manual transmission would be but i heard they are all pretty good for the most part and the usual uses.

check under it for rust, cant stress that enough, make sure the inner rocker and inner cab corners are intact and look for signs of a previous repair and number one rule::::

IF THERES BUBBLES IN THE PAINT, THEN IT IS RUSTED THROUGH!!!! dont believe the old hick dude sellin his truck that says it just needs to be sanded down good, because you will not find good metal, you will sand a pinhole right thru it and it will be annoying as hell lol.

other than that, just use your best common sense lol and it will turn out great