Also, one thing to note, if you do swap in an 8.8, but the time you weld on new brackets to the axle, you've done a good portion of the work in swapping to a triangulated long arm system. Clayton's replaces the upper control arm and trackbar mounts with a truss that the new triangulated uppers mount to. I've had my Clayton's for 10 years now and am very happy with their setup.
Also, the talk about the movement of the suspension based on trackbars and control arms brings up another good point on long arms. When you hit a bump now, your front suspension has to travel forward before it can begin to compress. That can make the ride pretty rough. With long arms, not only are the "frame" side mounts much stronger, but the length of the arm flattens out the arc that the axle travels through. This makes it ride, and flex better. The axle still has to travel forwards, but at a much shallower angle, making the ride smoother.