Dirtleg
Full Access Member
The thing that concerns me most is the blowby and the coolant. The truck gas 245,000 miles on it. Pretty high mileage granted it is a diesel. Just dont wanna have to drive the truck back and then rebuild or drop in a new engine shortly after.
These engines have some blowby. Mine always has. At 275K now. Runs great and hardly uses oil as in I don't have to top off between 5k mile oil changes. Could be it needs a new CDR valve. Minor issue if that's the case.
I wouldn't worry about the coolant so much. The biggest issues on the 7.3's were early on. By 92 it was pretty common knowledge to keep the SCA's in them. My guess is the previous owner probably had some knowledge of it.
Regardless I'd get in a good long test drive before committing to it or heading back in it. Just to see how it acts when driven, no overheating, dying at stoplights, etc. Make sure it restarts when warm. A worn IP will loosen up when hot and not create enough pressure to fire the injectors when cranking.
But for a turboed truck, 5speed $1500 isn't a bad price unless it's too rusty.