Best vintage for a 3.4L? (1 Viewer)

[ntsqd]

Got a project that I'm kicking around and I'm looking for suggestions for the best vintage or vintages for a 3.4L truck. It needs to be pre any CAN-BUS type electronics (am guessing that rules out the 4.0's) and it would be getting a radius arms & coils SAS so front suspension differences don't matter. It needs to remain KA smog legal without any of the missing body electrical or ABS messing with the CEL. It would also, ideally, be offered in version that has a 112" WB or close to it. As long as there's an adapter to the gear drive t/c I'm not concerned about "those only come in an auto" types of situations.

 

[White Stripe]

Got a project that I'm kicking around and I'm looking for suggestions for the best vintage or vintages for a 3.4L truck. It needs to be pre any CAN-BUS type electronics (am guessing that rules out the 4.0's) and it would be getting a radius arms & coils SAS so front suspension differences don't matter. It needs to remain KA smog legal without any of the missing body electrical or ABS messing with the CEL. It would also, ideally, be offered in version that has a 112" WB or close to it. As long as there's an adapter to the gear drive t/c I'm not concerned about "those only come in an auto" types of situations.

Probably a year 2000 and older.

 

[WildernessRimFab]

If its not too wide...T100's were available from 1995 to 1998 with the 3.4. OBDII (Pre Canbus). No ABS. Manual Trans. 121 inch wheelbase.
The front steering is unique to 3.5 4wd trucks (to my knowledge) in that it has a factory steering box (no rack) which can easily drive a solid axle with a different pittman arm.

 

[ntsqd]

Thanks, but yeah, a T100 would be too wide.

 

[WildernessRimFab]

I'm not sure any of the 5VZ-FE (3.4L V6) engines ran on Canbus. Googling suggests that Canbus came on Tacos starting in 2005, but 2004 was the last year of the 5VZ-FE for Tacos.

 

[Tigerstripe40]

The newest, lowest mileage one you can find.

IIRC some of the earlier 5VZ's had some issues with the oil gallery developing cracks and then leaking oil internally in the engine, causing low oil pressure and eventual failures. And head gasket problems due to similarities with the 3VZ predecessor.

Most of those should have taken care of themselves by now.

 

[ntsqd]

I kind of expected that the latest version would be the most mature in terms of PCM processor speed and controlling code. What concerned me is that I have the impression that the later model, the more entangled with the rest of the vehicle they seem to be.