Help on buying a diesel

[podius]

I'm new here, very impressive site. I'm looking at a 89 f350 7.3 non turbo and High Miles. It starts fine but has lots of blue smoke and sounds like a mis. The engine smells strong of fuel when running and quits after a while of running. The antifreeze looks clean, no antifreeze in the oil. It is a manual. GP's, Injectors, and IP have never been replaced. It's a regular cab with flatbed, long frame $1000. Should I be interested or run?
Thanks, John.

[jonmercer05]

The smoke could be either oil or fuel. Take the truck and get it checked out before you buy it, because it is very expensive to rebuild these motors, trust me i know. Ask the owner about SCAs if he doesnt know what that is turn and run. With high miles im almost positive your IP and injectors need replaced.

[jdkline]

Yeah, with all that wrong with it and several unknowns I would expect to sink some money into it to make it nice. See if you can talk him down to the $700-800 range. If you can its worth it just for parts, maybe even for the 1K dollars. No oil/coolant swapping is very positive. It means you don't have a sever case of caviattion or a bad head gasket failure right now, but if SCAs haven't been applied correctly there is a better than good chance that cavitation will some day have its way with the motor. You say high mileage what do you mean by that? How many miles, do you know? Does the owner have any receipts and/or a logbook of some kind? As far as the blue smoke, I would take the oil filler cap off and see if the blowby seems excessive. Excessive would be puffing liek a freight train normal would be simmering out like a hot teakettle. We're talking about a fine mist of combustion gasses in the crankcase at idle. When you rev the motor, theses gasses should disappear or sharply decrease. If they don't that means the rings or valve guides or the CDR valve is shot. The crankcase puts out a slight positive pressure at idle and pulls a slight vaccum at higher rpms if its in noraml shape. Also if the blue smoke smells liek raw fuel and the engine quits after a time of running, I would suspect the injector pump. This pump will cost you $275-300 at a reputable online rebuilder such as MWFI or Diesel Care. DIS is a little more expensive but they too have a very good reputation. They'll all want your core back or core charges will apply to the tune of $75-200, depending on the shop. Injectors run around $20-30 each for these engines. I would have them all pop tested at a local shop and if there are more than two or three bad ones, I'd replace with all new ones money permitting. Iw ould try to find a shop that won't charge you more than $20-30 for testing the whole set, both of my local shops do it free, so don't get ripped off! In any case, make sure the injector codes are compatible. Have fun, and let us know what you decide to do.

[BuilderBob]

There are many great diesel mechanics in and around Spooner,
Drop a hundo, and get an experts opinion!

Really, How much trouble can you get into for $1000,??

You live in the "Land Of Plenty", $1000 is nothing for you guys.
Sell some of Packer memorabilia, a chunk of the family Cheese Wheel,
or even cut down some swamps trees and sell'em for pulp.
Go for it!!

[podius]

I suppose there's no harm in a $1,000 other than it's hard to come by(starting my own bussiness). It seems like money has been hard to come by since I got married...does that sound strange?

[tim94f250]

You can easily make your money back and then some if things don't work out. I hear ya on the money & marriage thing. Funny how that works. I guess it's for the best though! If I stayed single, or my wife left me in charge of the money, we'd be broke, living in an apartment instead of owning our house. But, I would have every tool ever made.