[Stephanacevedo]

I looking into buying a the vehicle in the title. It has 215k on it. Has a misfire on cylinder 6 and a bit of blow by. The asking price is 2500 obo. He said he believes it the piston rings causing the misfire. How hard are these to replace? Special tools involved? Can the motor stay in or does it have to be pulled?

 

[greenskeeper79]

Are any codes set? If so get the truck scanned.

How does the truck drive?

Has it always been stock or does it have a chip or modifications?

Depending on the configuration of the truck it could be a steal at $2500.

 

[Stephanacevedo]

Not sure if any codes popped. All valid questions I will have to ask. Any idea how much it'll cost to get a shop to replace the rings?

 

[greenskeeper79]

Not sure if any codes popped. All valid questions I will have to ask. Any idea how much it'll cost to get a shop to replace the rings?

I doubt the rings are the problem. Easiest way to check is to get a compression test done. A lot of other simpler things could cause a misfire.

 

[klhansen]

What the other guys said about causes of a miss. There are lots of things that are higher on the list of possibilities than worn rings.

If it truly turns out to be broken rings, you're looking at pulling the engine to do it right. Not a cheap fix if you're looking to have someone do it for you.

Take it to a reputable diesel mechanic and have them put their scan tool on it. They should first scan for codes, write those down and clear any codes, do an injector buzz test and a cylinder contribution test, again writing down any codes, clear it again, take it for a spin and scan for codes again. If something comes up they may want to do a compression test (requires removing the valve covers, so figure at least a couple hours labor for that).

Could be as simple as a bad under valve cover wiring harness, which is a $30 part fix and an hour or so of labor if you can track down which bank is affected.
If the owner won't let you take it to get checked out, I'd be walking away or at least talk him down some more if the rest of the truck looks good. If it has good power, a miss can likely be fixed with relatively little effort.

 

[stoverbro]

The REAL question (to me lol) is,"what does the truck look like?" If it's a rust free, lariat crew cab 4wd with a 7.3 its a steal even if it doesn't run... If its a 7.3 that's in OK condition but the truck is an xl regular cab that's been beat to death, then not so much.

 

[Stephanacevedo]

So went to look at the truck with a buddy and it was clapped out bad. Damn truck was treated like ****. Had a ton of blow by. White smoke and raw fuel smell out the ass end. So we walked away. Looks like I'm just sticking with turboing my NA motor. Thanks for the wise words guys