a few questions/my new burb

[87burb]

Hi everyone, I recently purchased a 87 suburban with a 350 and i'm unsure of the trans, I know the PO had the trans rebuilt and rear-end rebuilt as well. He said its a posi which he did (hes a drag strip guy but races a mustang, ugh..) it has rear-air that i plan on fixing and making sure it works before i put it all back together. anyways, so far i have taken the front off the truck to repair the body/clean everything as well as check the engine. I have put new spark plugs in, new wires and took off the valve covers to check the rockers. Also got some paint to touch em up a bit as the degreaser took off the old paint a lil bit. I went to the auto store today and got a Haynes Repair Manual for 67-91 burbs. Hopefully this can help me identify some things to replace.

Here is my first question, What do i check first? The engine ran fine when i got it, except it reved up and down (almost to dying) and kept doing that, its a vaccume problem from what i read here so i will check that when i pull the intake off. i thought i would have to replace the valve gaskets but they are an orange rubber which seems pretty solid still.

Here are my plans for the truck...it is going to be a weekend/night cruiser. Not a show truck but something i will pull up to shows in as a project. I know it will take quite awhile to finish it up so i'm not going for perfection. I want to drop the truck down since its 2wd and put air bags but that is costly so i will wait on that. while i have the front apart tho i'd like to drop the front a little so i'm still in question on what kind of parts i could order now to lower it and be ready to still install bags later. maybe spindles?

Sorry its a long post but i've got tons of questions and this is just the start of them. the only way to learn is to ask. So where do i start? I know the front end is a great place but the most expensive. What would you replace or check to see if it needs replacing? oh yeah best part, i got the burb for $200, he needed to get rid of it due to the city ticketing him for parking on the street. he wanted a grand but no one bidded on ebay so after it ended i contacted him. Good deal in my eyes. here is a few pictures.







what is that first thing? trans cooler? i'm going to assume thats what it is cause the air is behind it then the radiator.

[87burb]