Old truck - New owner. It needs some love.

If someone did a clean swap, you may not be able to tell. If your radiator has trans cooler fittings, that doesn't mean much either. I think most of the aftermarket OEM style radiators had a trans cooler in them because of ease on the selling end. You shouldn't have to do anything to your pump or injectors in order to run a ZF5 no matter what transmission your truck originally had.

I finally have another day to work on my truck. I replaced the glow plugs because the PO said they used Autolights. Well, they were Delcos, no matter...they came out like butter and they're all swapped with ZD9 now. One thing that really concerns me is that one of the glow plugs was covered in gritty, muddy looking diesel. The grit had some teeny tiny metallic dust flakes (almost looks like the flakes are coming off of the metalic glow plug tip) but overall, the grit looked like rusty mud. It was the second cylinder closest to the firewall on the passenger side. My return lines have been leaking like crazy and I am replacing them at the same time. They leaked so bad that glow plug valleys were pooling up with diesel. I noticed that in this particular glow plug valley, there was no pool, it was wet and leaking from the return cap above... I very much doubt the fuel would have been able to leak past the glow plug carrying along the grit that had collected in the valley, however, that's my only thought. I am nervous to hear what you all think.

I'm new to IDI as well, I'm already in love with it. My 6.0 is giving me sideways glances when I walk past Good luck with it! I have the Ford manuals for '91 Pickups and Bronco on .PDF if you're interested hit me up.

Ryan Cowper said:

I very much doubt the fuel would have been able to leak past the glow plug carrying along the grit that had collected in the valley, however, that's my only thought. I am nervous to hear what you all think.

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If you mean leak into the cylinder along with the grit, then no. You'd have compression coming out past the glow plug WAY before you'd have fuel leaking into the cylinder. The compression should be over 300PSI, while the fuel only has gravity as pressure.

@IDIBRONCO point taken. Any thoughts about the muddy grit? Is it something to be concerned about?

Ryan Cowper said:

@IDIBRONCO point taken. Any thoughts about the muddy grit? Is it something to be concerned about?

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From what I've read, I don't think that I'd be worried about it. This is assuming that the stuff came to you when you bought the truck. I'd clean it all up the best that you can and keep an eye on it just in case it happens to come back. Then you know that you have an issue. You really can't tell what the PO may have done.