school me on older diesels

jakec69 · Mar 22, 2016

im selling my Harley and am also entertaining the thought of trading it for a tow rig. a few guys have offered to trade for an old diesels and I know exactly **** about them. id prefer a ford but a dodge would be ok too. chevy would have to be awfully nice for me to get one. anything yall can tell me to be looking out for? things to avoid altogether? itll be late 80s to early 90s trucks im talking about. if nybody has a good one they want to trade for a 1990 FXR let me know!

AllGoNoShow · Mar 22, 2016

6.9 or 7.3 IDI.

Neal3000 · Mar 22, 2016

Avoid all pre-duramax chevy and gmc diesels

The older 6.9 and 7.3 n/a fords are solid, easy to work on but underpowered/weak, if you can find one with a turbo they aren't bad

Old dodges have transmission issues

Don't turn your back on a big-block V10 ford or 8.1/454 chevy if your looking at old/cheap

jakec69 · Mar 22, 2016

Neal3000 said:
Avoid all pre-duramax chevy and gmc diesels

The older 6.9 and 7.3 n/a fords are solid, easy to work on but underpowered/weak, if you can find one with a turbo they aren't bad

Old dodges have transmission issues

Don't turn your back on a big-block V10 ford or 8.1/454 chevy if your looking at old/cheap

I actually want a gasser but just seem to be getting offered diesels. it just needs to pull a jeep to a park a couple times a year. went and looked at a 92 f250 with a 7.3 yesterday. dude said it ran great blah, blah. got there and it was pouring diesel from the motor. guy said its a gasket on injection pump inspection plate or some ****. I don't know enough about diesels to know if that's true or how bad it would be to fix so I passed.

lowbudgetjunk · Mar 22, 2016

Injection pump and diesel can be a very expensive endeavor. HPOP (high pressure oil pump) is a run for the hills phrase too.

For as little as you want to use it, and I never say this, get a gas burner. The only caveat is that it needs to be a F'ing Big Block!

toreadorranger · Mar 22, 2016

lowbudgetjunk said:
Injection pump and diesel can be a very expensive endeavor. HPOP (high pressure oil pump) is a run for the hills phrase too.

For as little as you want to use it, and I never say this, get a gas burner. The only caveat is that it needs to be a F'ing Big Block!

I bought one cheap from a guy (88 F250 7.3L IDI) at work to build into a crawler, when and if the motor or injection pump goes, I will be scrapping the motor and going to a gasser. Injection pumps are in the $600 range.

pholmann · Mar 22, 2016

Shoot for a 95-96 7.3. That was the first years of the powerstroke. You will get good power, electronic direct injection, and a lower price. Try for lower mileage if possible, but the 7.3 are near bullet proof. You have to be a certain kind of special to **** one up.

Neal3000 · Mar 22, 2016

jakec69 said:
I actually want a gasser but just seem to be getting offered diesels. it just needs to pull a jeep to a park a couple times a year. went and looked at a 92 f250 with a 7.3 yesterday. dude said it ran great blah, blah. got there and it was pouring diesel from the motor. guy said its a gasket on injection pump inspection plate or some ****. I don't know enough about diesels to know if that's true or how bad it would be to fix so I passed.

Look close to see where the leak is, they have a rubber hose and plastic piece that goes to top of each injector, they dry rot and leak eventually. If thats all it is it's a easy and cheap fix

muddinmetal · Mar 22, 2016

pholmann said:
Shoot for a 95-96 7.3. That was the first years of the powerstroke. You will get good power, electronic direct injection, and a lower price. Try for lower mileage if possible, but the 7.3 are near bullet proof. You have to be a certain kind of special to **** one up.

I had one for 5 or 6 months and ran a mix of 50% diesel & 50% filtered used motor oil for fuel... I loved that about it

Eddyj · Mar 23, 2016

pholmann said:
. You have to be a certain kind of special to **** one up.

Challenge excepted!

mdo817 · Mar 23, 2016

Re:

We used to wheel with one of those "special kind of stupid" and he proved it by ****ing one up. Drich on here, hell he couldn't even keep enough oil in his for it to pump fuel.

pholmann · Mar 24, 2016

That's the beauty of the 7.3 powerstroke engines. You cannot run them out of oil and lock em up. They starve the HPOP first and quit running. Saved my ass a few times. My HPOP had the standard leaking non serviceable plug for a long time and I always knew when it was time to put oil in it. It would start running like **** at higher rpm's and I knew it was time to throw a gallon in. So negligent. I have to actually check the oil on my 6.7 now.

Neal3000 · Mar 24, 2016

Re:

mdo817 said:
We used to wheel with one of those "special kind of stupid" and he proved it by ****ing one up. Drich on here, hell he couldn't even keep enough oil in his for it to pump fuel.

and he would take his crawler to jiffylube to get the oil changed :rolf:

94xjsport94 · Mar 24, 2016

I have a 96 with 276k on it and love the truck to death, but like mentioned you could get a much newer gasser for the same price I paid for mine. My truck doesn't have a lot of the same creature comforts I wish it did or the last truck I used did, but it certainly gets the job done.

30th6 · Mar 24, 2016

Re:

I like my 98.5 cummins, it's cheap and gets the job done

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Elliott · Mar 25, 2016

My work truck is probably as reliable as you will find if you could find one, 94 superduty, it has the 7.3 with mechanical injection, but is the first year to have a turbo, so you don't have the power of the new diesels but it does pull pretty good, and you don't have to worry about how big of a chip has been on it. Ive had the truck for 3-4 years and not one problem yet out of it. knock knock on wood

Neal3000 · Mar 25, 2016

Elliott said:
My work truck is probably as reliable as you will find if you could find one, 94 superduty, it has the 7.3 with mechanical injection, but is the first year to have a turbo, so you don't have the power of the new diesels but it does pull pretty good, and you don't have to worry about how big of a chip has been on it. Ive had the truck for 3-4 years and not one problem yet out of it. knock knock on wood

Thats the exact truck i had, 4x4 with a 5-speed trans.....great truck!

jakec69 · Apr 20, 2016

well I went completely against all of yalls advice and ended up getting a damn 93 chevy 4 door dually with a 6.5. it was in pretty good shape and came with a stack of receipts of all the stuff hes done to it. lots of new parts on it and its black. ive been a ford guy my whole life but I like this truck. it should do what I need it to do. im not hauling much or often. son of a bitch gets better mileage than my 06 pathfinder! came with 5th wheel and gooseneck hitches.

mdo817 · Apr 21, 2016

Re:

Neal3000 said:
and he would take his crawler to jiffylube to get the oil changed

He had that done, loaded up went to Harlan, drain plug fell the **** out going up the mountain, had to follow the oil trail back down to find the plug. :****: