what would be the best way to gain 3 inches suspension? I have 3 body. i would love a chaos system, however...i was thinking about b j spacers, and/or cranking up the torsion bars..and blocks or new springs in the rear. what I'm after is max travel. i also want to get fiber glass fenders w/ a 6 inch flair and 3 rise.and it will be getting a sb 350 w/ sm 465,or th 400.

The only thing you are going to get with the T-bars cranked is less up travel and a very rough ride. B-J spacers are a good idea.

What size tires are you wanting to run?

You should be able to clear 35's w/the BJ spacers up front w/a little inner fender adjustment, and either a rebuild of the rear springs. pr some 3" longer shackles(3" longer will yield about 1.5" of lift).

I am able to run 35x12.50's on my '91 w/ just a 2" BL, 1.5"BJS, and some fender mod's, w/o any fender rubbing under compression at full lock.

I don't know of any company that makes a 6" flare for the Toyota trucks, so you are likely going to have to go one-off custom or possibly from a race company.

It is unlikely that you will be able to clear or support a V8 w/the stock IFS, regardless of the BL, so you will either need to add in the cost of a straight axle swap(SAS), or reconsider the need for a V8.

There are better options out there than the V8, and depending on the budget they can have nearly the performance or even surpass the performance that will fit w/ little effort, and not require the SAS.

You could get the stronger 26mm t-bars, that would help w/ the weight of that heavy motor. Also, w/ the upgraded bars, you can run them a little more "relaxed" and it will net you a little more flex. There are tricks like re-indexing them so the starting point is diferent, changing teh ride height.
But in all honesty the stock IFS system just dosn't have many opportunities for both added height and flex.

There are some cheaper "long travel" IFS options now besides TC too, like Blazeland has a bolt-on deal... but it's still several hundred $$

the tires i want to run are at least 35's to 38's. now about the motor. what about a 4.3? how is the wiring work with the ecu?

Do not run more than 33's with the BJ spacers, your tierods, draglink, pitman and idler arm will not like it. The idler arm especially, you can buy a total chaos brace and it will be needed.

Dont get me wrong, you can run 35's but the frontend wont like it to much, once you want to go over 33 its highly recommended imho swap to a solid front axle with hydrosteer if possible.

As for the 4.3, meh its ok I rather keep it toyota and do a 3.4L V6. With the correct gearing and installing perhaps a better cam like an RV cam from engbldr the 22RE can be a real decent powerhouse. Nothing like a larger V6 or V8 but the gearing and cam will allow it to work very well.

Once I replaced all of the worn steering linkages and the steering stabilizer, the BJ spacers seem to work fine. However I have had to replace the idler arm once already, but that was also the side I broke the old tie-rod on the trail. I can't comment on the long term wear effects though, my '91 is only a home-to-trail-to home rig, and the occasional trip to town, less than 2k in two years that it has been finished.

With the desire to run 38's you really don't have much of an option but to do an SAS, as well as cut the sheet metal. Adding on a lift kit to try and clear 38's will just make your truck unsafe to drive. To maintain a good center of gravity requires you to increase the track width by 1.5" for every inch of increase in height. If you add 3" suspension lift plus 38's(3.5 more inches of lift) you will have lifted your truck 9.5" which will require you to wide your track width 14"(move each tire out 7"). Absent running full size axles or 16" tires you will have a very unstable rig, both on the street and especially on the trail. You may want to rethink your need to run 38's, the cost of building everything goes up substantially once you move past 35's.

Whatever engine you swap in, you will have to use the ecu that is designed to work w/that engine, not the original one. You then have to wire up the new ecu to work with the oem wiring. What ever engine you swap in, try to get the hole vehicle, so you have everything you need.

The 4.3 is a good swap if you want Chevy power, I like others prefer to keep it all Toyota. When I am done w/my '87 Supra restoration I will likely be putting either a N/A 7m or 2jz(both I6 motors) in my '91. The 7m is about the same HP and but less torque than the N/A 3.4, while the 2j has about 30 more ponies and the same torque as the 3.4.

What will help us give you more input is to answer what are your goals for the truck, what type of wheeling do you do/want to do?

my wheeling is mostly mud. i cant find any one brave enough or dumb enough to go the places i like.then again i don't think there are trails like that here. as far as the 38's 3 sus and fiberglass nose with 6 flare and 3.5 rise would equal 9 inches of lift with only 3 inches. how ever i just found a solid rear I'm looking at. it will also be a recovery vehicle so to speak.