Buying a used deisel.......

[metalmacguyver]

Well yesterday my truck blew the motor. I was just driving down the road and bang! I have no oil pressure. So I pull over to the side of the road, take a look under, see oil pouring out , and promptly call AAA to get towed home. While waiting for the tow I pull down the starter motor and find a nice hole in the side of the oil pan.......

*Insert picture here*

Great.... My truck is dead.



Well, I dont have the time/means to fix it the way I want to soooooo OFF TO CRAIGSLIST!!!


So I stumbled across this little find right here. http://southcoast.craigslist.org/cto/931221983.html

I called the guy up and found that it has over 300K on it but being a deisel that is not too bad. The guy knows that it is worth twice the price that he is asking, $1250 and said he had already received 9 calls on it but had no one come to look at it.

I am going to look at it this afternoon.....despite the damn rain, cause I dont think this deal will last.

Here is my question

What should I look/listen for when looking at this truck? I have no experiance with diesels yet. I can confidently evaluate the rest of the truck for roadworthyness, rear spring hangers, front end, TREs, ball joints, wheel bearings ect...... But I dont know what to be aware of/pay attention to when checking out the motor.

For those that dont know off the top of their head, it is a pre-Powerstroke motor, 7.3L IDI turbo.


Thanks guys!

 

[99ranger4x4]

baddd idea if your looking for speed. its a IDI indirect injection, prepowerstroke. my 3.slow could beat it in a race. as for torque it is still pretty impressive. woops just saw that you knew that. are you sure its the turbo diesel model? i thought that they were only made in 94? my friend bought a 97 powerstroke 350 and we put a ton of work into it. it had 180xxx when he got it and he paid 6500. we have gone completely through the truck and dont a new steering column which is very common for the bearings to go around the wheel. we did new batteries starter, altenator, tie rod, drag link, soon to do ball joints and steering box today hopefully. new tires, and brakes all around and im sure im forgetting other stuff.

how high of mileage is high? that 5 speed is a tough transmision behind the 7.3 and should hold up good scince its not producing ground breaking numbers.

just my opinion but unless you have dinero to spend on fullsize parts, itll be expensive. im constantly amazed by the price of parts for my friends truck in comparision with the price for parts on mine.

 

[truckman]

99ranger you are correct It was Mid 94 when the Powerstroke came out. The 93 in question came factory 7.3 IDI inderect in jection. is none turbo. So unless this guy put a banks kit on it or fabbed up something its a N/A setup.

Not to say if u were to convert it to common rail and put a banks kit on it it should move damn good.

my buddy had one w/ 400,000 miles on it still goes strong. Being a manual listen for noise from the dual mass fly wheel thats all hes' had problems w/it

On the plus side u get a d60 out of a f350 it bolts right in. u just have to sorten the drive shaft i think

 

[JohnnyU]

Burnside used to have an '89. That truck used to average around 7-9mpg, if I remember right.

 

[low_five]

if I remember right some 7.3s had porous cylinder walls on the back two cylinders. check the fluids pretty carefully.

regular cab diesels are sweet. thats a neat truck if you got a good engine in it.

 

[Will]

You don't have the time/means to fix a Ranger and you want to get tangled up in that? The injection pump goes and there is twice the amount it would have taken to find a used motor for the Ranger. And those engines do wear out. 300,000 is a lot of miles. It's not a lot of a semi, but for a pickup it's not all highway miles. I would only get that truck if you have room in your life for two projects.

By the way, that is a TTB front axle.

 

[Sevensecondsuv]

My brother had a 97 just like that except it was a power stroke. It had 200000 on it when he sold it and it still ran dang strong. That trans was incredible.

The downside was that between fixing a crankshaft position sensor, replacing dual batteries, the double CV rear drive shaft, 3 starters, and some other odds and ends he had over 3000 in repairs over a 6 month span. And none of those were serious problems, just maintenance issues.

I'd hate to see what one cost if it broke something big.

 

[OilPatch197]

3 starters

THREE starters is hardly a maintenance issue!

 

[metalmacguyver]

are you sure its the turbo diesel model? .

You are correct, it is a N/A motor. I was doing some research and what I read was that they had a turbo and I assumed that it was standard as opposed to an option.

It needs brake work, a little rust on the drivers side of the bed.

Actual mileage is 395K.

Burnside used to have an '89. That truck used to average around 7-9mpg, if I remember right.

I really hope your memory is faulty......

if I remember right some 7.3s had porous cylinder walls on the back two cylinders. check the fluids pretty carefully.

I did read about that. It had to do with the way that the crankcase was vented. Most of the crank vent gas was going into the back two cylinders which had an effect on combustion. The result was increased cavitation of the coolant around the cylinder. Cavitation as you know results in pitting of the metal surface. In some more severe cases, this was bad enough that it ate through the wall and coolant would come in and hydrolock it.

You don't have the time/means to fix a Ranger and you want to get tangled up in that? The injection pump goes and there is twice the amount it would have taken to find a used motor for the Ranger. And those engines do wear out. 300,000 is a lot of miles. It's not a lot of a semi, but for a pickup it's not all highway miles. I would only get that truck if you have room in your life for two projects.

By the way, that is a TTB front axle.

Perhaps I should rephrase what I said. I dont have the time/tools/knowlage to do a motor for my ranger THE WAY I WANT TO (aka, the right way) right now. I absolutely need a daily driver. I will acknowlage the fact that this is a gamble for a daily driver but if it works out for me for 2 months, I will end up with a truck that I can part out at any time and break even on, and a tow rig for my ranger when I go wheeling.

I went and talked to some mechanic friends and they helped me decide that this is a gamble worth taking.

I went and looked at the truck. It is really clean, not too rusted. Just some rust above the rear fender wells which I can handle . It started well. Some blue smoke when you get on the throttle. The shifter has alot of slop in it but that should be fixable.

It does need brake work. I priced out all new brakes ball joints and such. I should be able to cover it if it is needed. The catch is that I had to dig into the money that is saved for such times as when my motor blows up so I need to sell some more stuff and better yet, get a job.

 

[Shran]

THREE starters is hardly a maintenance issue!

I can believe three starters. My buddy has a '97 that goes through starters too. They're $170 to replace and he's only got 140k on it. He's had a lot of problems with it, for example, it will die at random times. Factor in all the other expenses like oil changes and they get expensive fast.

 

[Hahnsb2]

I did read about that. It had to do with the way that the crankcase was vented. Most of the crank vent gas was going into the back two cylinders which had an effect on combustion. The result was increased cavitation of the coolant around the cylinder. Cavitation as you know results in pitting of the metal surface. In some more severe cases, this was bad enough that it ate through the wall and coolant would come in and hydrolock it.

It's amazing what water can do at very high velocity. I've seen a liner from a semi diesel (I think it was a Cummins Big Cam) that had some nice pitting in it.
At least it's not a PSD. For $1250 I don't think you can go wrong, just check the usual things you would on any other vehicle.

 

[JohnnyU]

I really hope your memory is faulty......

It's not. The 5sp might net you another couple mpgs (10-12), but I would be surprised to hear it getting any better than 13 miles per gallon under normal driving conditions.

 

[metalmacguyver]

Well, if your right, I will just need to adjust my driving habits accordingly. I plan on DDing it for a little bit and then leaving it as a tow rig only/back-up DD.




I got it for 1200. I just need to do the insurance and registration and I can go pick it up.

 

[Ranger44]

Tim, Glad to hear you got a truck lined up!

As I said earlier, If I were alot closer I'd be over there helping you fix up the ol' 4.0.

 

[metalmacguyver]

Tim, Glad to hear you got a truck lined up!

As I said earlier, If I were alot closer I'd be over there helping you fix up the ol' 4.0.

So come visit. Gas is cheap now.......