A little good or bad news

[Sidewinded_idi]

idk why I consider it bad lol but I always liked the idea of my truck being a well maintained 351k mile truck. Well that all changed today! I met with the previous owner to drop off some stuff I found and he had pulled out all the old paperwork on the truck.

A little backstory he used this truck solely to haul his race car around to the drag strips. Basically a 35 foot triple axle with car and gear, super heavy setup. Well what I knew the trans was new but found out this is it's 4th transmission! He had receipts looking like he replaced U. Jointss every 6-8 months. Said they didn't like towing his setup. At least records show this trans has about 15k miles only so I should be good for a while


But the biggest hit was the engine. This truck runs beautifully and now I know why. It's been replaced 3 times!
First time it dropped some valves, second motor came straight from ford and overheated, said it had the wrong head gaskets in it. He showed me the receipt for the current engine and it was a little more than 10k dollars ordered straight from ford fully dressed from manifolds to intake brand new. I looked at the mileage and it was only 40k miles ago so my engine is actually a low mileage unit : ( this truck was parked for a long time before I bought it so this all happened about 10 years ago.

Now he installed the sidewinder kit and had the turbo blow towing before he parked it. No biggie he had the receipt for a brand new turbo installed 6k miles before its current reading!

Most of you would say I am lucky as I got the truck cheap and it runs flawlessly I was just always liking the thought of it having 350k miles and running as good as it does. Talking to him it seems the truck didn't like his setup and it shows. 4 transmissions and 3 engines but I can only imagine what he was weighing. Thought I'd share my little story with you all

 

[Hydro-idi]

I'm guessing you got the E40D in there. That sounds about right for that transmission needing a rebuild 4x. Sounds like he maxed out the towing capabilities of that truck one too many times. You would think after the second breakdown, he would have realized his need for a heavier duty truck lol.
Sounds a lot like my wife's grandfather. He has an old 86 gmc S-15 with 195kon the clock. He bought it brand new and installed a utility box on it, maxing out the limits for that truck immediately. He's on his 4th engine and 3rd transmission. One of the engines broke a crankshaft after about 10k lol. He will be ready for a 5th engine soon, as numero cuatro is starting to knock

 

[FORDF250HDXLT]

Wow.He was some ******* her.Just towing a car though? Why would he go through engines and trans so often I wonder.Did you see any receipts for oil or trans fluid changes? lol.
Edit; oh yeah,I see.A triple axle w/all those tools and such.

 

[riotwarrior]

What race car....

Just sayin...

 

[madpogue]

Reminds me of that farmer's "old" shovel he's had for the last 35 years. He's had to replace the handle twice, and the head three times, but he's had the "same" shovel all this time.....

 

[Sidewinded_idi]

What race car....

Just sayin...

Yes he still has the race car and trailer it's a fully enclosed with full shop basically inside. Most likely way over weight for the truck. Drag car is a 57 tbird but the po makes his living owning an auto shop so it was always maintained.

 

[oregon96psd]

Sounds about right for these.....mines on its third, the po just towed a travel trailer with it. Its got 173k on it now. Its pretty hard to find one that's done any real work and has the original engine anymore. They run forever......until you quit putting new engines in it

 

[towcat]

see this towtruck? no turbo, no AC, ZF5. 980k LOGBOOK miles. Documented 2 motors. first replace at 560k/mi 3 transmissions. wore 2 out and cracked the case on one. Replaced the cab once.
Orig carrier bed, orig frame(no cracks) orig Dans 80 rear.
Other than the lack of AC, this truck doesn't owe me a dam thing and has faithfully put food on my table.

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[Thewespaul]

Beautiful F-Superduty! Building one for my father at the moment

 

[oregon96psd]

If thats true you should buy a lottery ticket lol.

The 94 I drove for a couple years, the original engine dropped a valve at 72k, and the reman did the same at around 125-130k. The company did have an 88 (maybe 89, I don't remember) that almost made it to 170k before it started knocking and making metal....no pictures of that one though.

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[oregon96psd]

***??? Stupid photobucket

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[pelky350]

As far as I know my 88 has its first motor still, was first bought at a "lug crummy" later became a firewood hauler then at 120k it broke fromt axle
Shaft and parked, family friend bought it after then it sat again to be worked on one day, well it sat for a while longer and then the husband passed away, then sat again. Some work was done to try to make it run again but no go. Sat again on property to be sold, house sold truck destined for scrap yard to be crushed for couple hundred dollrs, I thought that's no way for that truck to end. I offered just over scrap price and made it run drove it home that day for 600$. Now I still have my first idi 6 years ago almost now with 180k miles and a ton of work done runnin strong

 

[towcat]

If thats true you should buy a lottery ticket lol.

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far from lucky.... made a decision a long time ago not to overstress a NA motor and not drive like an ******* consistently.