Advice on potential 6bt purchase

[chris_wei17]

checked out a 6bt out of a 1990 truck today, half seriously, and half for something to do. It was sitting in someone else's shop and the guy who owns it said sure take some things off look at what you want so i figured why not.

Nothing looked glaringly wrong to me, but again thats me who has no diesel tech training. The valves didnt look burnt, the piston heads didnt look cracked, the cylinder walls still have the cross-hatching and have an orange tint but dont really look rusty or pitted. There was no oil pan to look for metal in, but I tried looking up in there and nothing *looked* bad. the inside of the air intake channels, I think thats what they are...theyre inside the head and they werent the exhaust, had some rusty/grimy looking spots but i dont know if that matters.

just looking for some opinions from anyone who knows, the guy wants $900 for it, which seems like theres alot of room for failure given he doesnt know if it runs or not. he also claims he doesnt know much about it either. I figured free would be a good price, but maybe $500 would be a little more reasonable. Thanks for any input in advance.

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not really sure what I was taking pictures of in the next two, was just kind of pointing and shooting since i couldnt lift the engine high enough to see.

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[The Warden]

Is the engine complete?

If there's nothing missing and nothing looks badly wrong (i.e. no cracks in the heads or pistons)...I'm not an expert on the 6BT by any means, but for a complete engine, $900 sounds like a steal even if some work is needed. Hopefully someone who knows the 6BT chimes in soon...but these engines are pretty valuable...

 

[chris_wei17]

theres no turbo and no exhaust manifold, but other than that it looked like it was all there. I can get a mani for 50 bucks and Im not worried about the turbo for now. If you mean intercooler and radiator it doesnt have those either. The pistons look solid and i didnt see any cracks in the head or block either

 

[The Warden]

When I said "complete", I meant the long block and anything that attaches directly to it. For example, is the valve train all there? Is the fuel system all there? I see the injector pump, and it looks like the injectors are in the head, so I'm guessing yes, but these are still questions you want to be asking yourself. The injector pump on these engines is a high dollar item, although that's balanced by the fact that they're not normal wear items like the Stanadyne DB2's that the Ford IDI's use...but that would mean that, if it were not there, the engine's value would be lower. That would also include the turbo and the exhaust manifold, but if you can source an exhaust manifold that cheap and aren't concerned about the turbo, and if all the other major components are there, I say go for it before someone else does

You're not generally going to get an engine complete with radiator/intercooler unless it's still in a truck when you buy it. But, that gives you some flexibility for what you want to use

 

[chris_wei17]

Thanks for that advice, I just wasnt really sure what counted as "whole". The fuel lines come with it, just werent attached and there were injectors in it (im almost positive). The lines werent connected though, leaving so injectors exposed in a shop environment so I dont know what that might do to them. Other than that I think I'm going to jump on it, seems like the pros outweigh the cons

 

[alienturtle]

if that is a true 1990 motor it will be a non intercooled motor. The head will be of the older casting and have 9mm injector nozzles in it. Most injectors you purchase today are of the 7mm style. Yes you can buy adapters. That head will also have the old style floater valve seals. The new style is held down by the valve spring. My 1990 head didnt appear to have any cracks in it. After a magnaflux about 12 of them showed up. The non intercooled motors had larger piston bowls which ran 155* spray angle compared to the intercooled 145* angle. The injectors in a non intercooler are larger than intercooled as well. You have yourself a VE pump there. Very easy and cheap pump to work with and can make enough power for most peoples needs. Hope that helps a bit

 

[Exekiel69]

With the lines pulled from the IP and injectors (dirt), the unknown condition of the engine (heads?) a $500 value sound fair.