How did you get into an IDI?

[03wr250f]

I got reading this thread

https://www.oilburners.net/threads/...-for-the-enterprise-up-for-grabs.19461/page-2


And there are a lot of great stories of how people came to own the trucks they love, I figured why not keep it going?


I first started looking at an idi when I was a senior in high school. I had previously had a 94 f250 extended cab long box 351 5 speed and man it looked good but it was a XL truck that was beat. Previous owners had not been kind and was using coolant and needed a head gasket. I did not have the knowledge or money to put into it so I sold it. I then began looking for another truck, disregarding my dad’s suggestion to get a commuter car for college. He would not let me get a 460 because of fuel costs, and he said no powerstrokes, and all of them were out of my price range. That left me with a 351, or an idi diesel. I really wanted a diesel, and started doing my research here even before I owned one. I researched on here for about 6 months before I found one. Our family made a yearly road trip over the Christmas holidays from Montana to Boise, Idaho to The Dallas, Oregon. I had not had much luck finding trucks in our area and began looking along our trip route. I ended up finding 2 that I wanted to look at. 1 was a white one that was immaculate by the time we got there it had sold, but the blue and white one was still for sale.

My parents and I went and looked at it. A 89 7.3 non turbo 5 speed extended cab long box 4.10 4wd xlt lariat 112k miles basically everything I wanted in a truck. I ended up buying it and it ran absolutely awesome and decent power for a N/A idi. It started extremely hard though. She was addicted to ether to boot. Drove it home and then started working on it after school to fix up the variety of problems. Valve cover gaskets, thermostat, block heater, injection pump, injectors, glow plugs, rear brakes. All of that in a pole barn filled with hay bales. Man that brings back some memories, and so many learning experiences. Anyway I could write a dang book of all the experiences I have had with this truck but I will spare ya. Got it running and driving pretty well and realized I did not want to be a mechanical engineer, well I didn't want to spend 20 grand a year to hate the next 4 years of my life. I then realized how much I loved working on my truck. I figured why not go to school for what I love doing. I did just that and took it to college. WyoTech in Laramie, WY. Part way through my time there 2 bad tanks of fuel ended up giving me a heck of a run for my money. There was more water than diesel in the tanks it ran but not well. after doing 2 block heaters, 1 coolant change, an injection pump,2 fuel filters, a bad battery, return lines, fuel filter housing reseal, glow plugs and a few other little things a insane amount of diagnosis trying to find out all of those problems were working against me I finally got it running, put a new turbo cal injection pump on it, drained the tanks, timed it and got it going. Installed a pyrometer and drove back to Montana averaging 17.8 mpg @ 78 mph. My dad’s brand new 2015 dodge 6.4L gasser with like 10k miles on it also averaged 17.8 @ 78 mph . Did I mention egts get hot fast at 7220' of elevation with a N/A? Got it home and put on a 4'' exhaust and muffler for a power stroke on it. I also noticed that it lowered egts which is awesome. Then had a ray bell air intake given to me. Ran it like that for quite a while. Ran absolutely amazing for a N/A.

In a race from a dead stop I beat my buddy to 45. He caught me at 45 and beat me to 60, but his truck was a 97 7.3 e40d with an intake ts6 and exhaust. I felt awesome about it.

I then found a turbo kit and intercooler on craigslist and went down and pulled it.

It sat in my garage for a year before I sent it off to idiperformance.com to get rebuilt. I then built up a set of traction bars for the impending turbo and intercooler addition as I already had wheel hop as a N/A. I then got my turbo complete with ww2 sent back to me 2 weeks before hunting 4 horsepower. I was able to get it all put on and ready to go. I had been doing everything I could to prepare beforehand though. I then dynod it and was very impressed with my numbers 226/501 @ 7 psi boost. It ran amazing had great power egts were within reason, so why not add a little more boost. That was a terrible idea. I then started a downward spiral to needing more power. 15 psi of boost for almost 2 years it never skipped a beat and got great mpg while doing it. I truly knew that I would at some point need to stud the heads to keep the record of never skipping a beat, even running water ****. I figured it would be better to do it on my time schedule than the trucks. I began buying parts in preparation to pull the motor, reseal it, stud the heads, and cam it. About 1 month ago I finished doing exactly that.

I borrowed a buddy's shop, pulled the motor, put rebuilt heads on, comp 910 valve springs, Inconel valves, comp pushrods, arp studs, r&d stage 1 cam, stage 1 drop in turbo, and custom intercooler piping to work with the new turbo, along with powder coating everything possible to dress it up. It runs flat out amazing, tons of power lots of boost. Did I mention I love it?


After school I got offered a job in Spokane WA and worked at an international dealership there for 2 years. I then found my second job looking for parts for my truck. the owner of the junkyard saw how well versed in vehicles I was, how every word out of my mouth wasn't a swear word, and I showed him my resume (my truck) and said this is how well I do things, and I treat every vehicle like it is my truck, He kept in contact and while on my honeymoon (yes I took my truck) he offered me a job. My truck was already invaluable to me, but at this point it has directly gotten me one job, and indirectly gotten me another, as well as shaping my life you could say I have a bit of an attachment to it especially after Almost 5 years and 35k miles later. Besides all that, I have met so many awesome people, and learned so many things from my idi it isn’t funny.

Sorry for the book, but it is hard to shorten what shaped the course of your life over the last 5 years.

 

[pafixitman]

The first half of my diesel life is in that original post. I'll keep things brief. In 2009 I relocated to GA for ADP. Got hit for divorce and ended up losing my ADP job shortly after arriving. Dumped the truck for support and attorney bills. Hind sight says it was probably a stupid decision but PA threatened extradition... In 2013 relocated to Milwaukee, 2014 broke up with my gf and moved to Maryland. Met my now wife shortly after moving back. In October of 2016 she bought the 89 Reg Cab in my sig from Darrin as a wedding present.

Gathering parts as $$ permits and plan to do a minor restore to the truck.

I would love to get another aero nose crew dually. Turbo, D60 conversion....

 

[homelessduck]

I bought my very first IDI to transplant in to my 1975 F100 ( truck in avatar ) . Been hooked ever since.

 

[IDIoit]

i started off in the diesel world in powerjokes
AS A hotrodder i wasnt too excited about an electronic diesel,
so i got into the IDI's for the ease of running WMO and the lack of computers.
even tho ive destroyed a few blocks, i still love them

 

[Mulochico]

I had bought a house and needed something to use when working on it. Wanted a Ford, Diesel (being a truck driver by trade), 3/4 ton or more, 4x4, extended cab or bigger, and a stick. I had looked around, found the one I bought online at a little dealer in town. He had it in the back, had taken it in on trade. I went to look and he said he had a deposit on it as the guy was coming on Friday (this was Tues). I gave him my # and told him to call if it fell thru. I got a call on Thurs that the other guy couldn't come until Monday and the dealer wanted it gone. So I got it.

It's been a big learning curve, but I do love the truck. I don't "need" it myself, even considered getting rid of it a few times. But, every time I think of selling something or someone comes up and there is a need that the truck fills perfectly. Now my 20 year old son says I can't sell it as he wants it. That's fine, it fits me and most everyone knows its me coming. (can't get away with anything that way though). Also, what else gets 17+ mpg on the hwy and can pull what this does? And there is no payments!!!!

 

[fyrfghter]

Was in college and couldn’t afford a power stroke, now I could buy a new truck but stick with old faithful. The guys at work constantly make fun of it but my truck spends more time running well and costs less to work on them several of our newer diesel trucks.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ABNORDY]

Inherited from my Dad. 88 F250 Custom, he was a no frills dude!

 

[IDIBRONCO]

I got a job in August of 1995 working at a shop that remanned these engines (also the 6.2/6.5 GMs). I worked there until the end of September 2001. This is where I developed a love for these engines. After my time as a civilian contractor in Iraq, I finally had enough money to buy a truck with an IDI in it. I traded a 1975 F250 Ex. cab 4x2 with a 460 plus $500 for my first 1985 F250 Ex. cab 4x4 in May 2005. I got it fairly cheap since the guy who had it decided that he was done with diesels that don't start. He'd done everything he could think of to get the glow plugs working and still couldn't. After I made the trade, it didn't take 5 minutes to get the glow plugs working. I just cut the purple wire next to the relay, stripped the insulation back, and shoved the 90* connector that holds it onto the terminal over the wire and they worked. Since he only left one weak battery in the truck, I went and bought two new ones and had it running and driving that afternoon. It was wrecked in May 2008. That led to the 6.9 Bronco project which was fun, but impractical. I bought my current 1985 F250Ex. cab 4x4 so I could use the engine in place of the 6.9 with an external crack that was in the Bronco, but I fell in love with the truck as I was driving it home so I decided to keep, instead using Bronco parts in the truck. The rest of the Bronco went to an old friend who just hauled it off for scrap after the city was going to tow it because it was an inoperable vehicle. I bought this truck in January 2013 and have had it since. The #1 reason why I can never get rid of it is that I installed a reman 6.9 in this truck while I was working in the shop years ago. I can even remember working on it. This is actually the only engine that went through our shop that I've seen afterwards. That is the long short version of my story.

 

[snicklas]

Well, how I first got into the IDI's, in the other thread (this has a bit of my history in it, so please be patient with the length). I took the Enterprise on it's first "drive". I'm pretty sure I scared the salesman on the test drive. Both pedals were pushed to the floor a few times. I've always been a Ford person and we are a Ford Family, as Travis said in the other thread. Before the test drive of the Enterprise, we had owned a 73 F-250 2wd 390 C-6, an 83 F-150 4x4 351M C-6, 85 E-150 302 I think an AOD, and several Ford Cars. At this time, I still had just cars, but liked the Enterprise, all except being an "Ugly Bricknose" (yes I know....). I stuck mainly with Fords, but there has been an off brand here and there (a Pontiac, VW, a couple Dodges and Momma's Infiniti (which I will admit is growing on me)). I even co-hosted a get together with Travis in Angola, Indiana. Funny thing about that, Travis and I were both in Dodges and everyone else was in a Ford (He had the Nanny Goat, I had a Durango). That is where I met several Members and their Families for the first time, Dsl_Dog_Treat, Agnem and a few others. That's when I knew I wanted to get to the main July IDI rally. I still wanted to get a truck, but at the time an SUV was more practical. With the kids, and a family member that had health problems and in a wheel chair the Durango was the best choice at the time. After the family member passed, I still had the Durango and bought a camper. I also met Momma during this time, and she had 2 kids, I had 2 kids, and we found out we had one baking..... I had just had the transmission rebuilt in the Durango (towed a camper a season and a half and burned up the transmission, imagine that) and with having 4 soon to be 5 kids a van (Momma said NO VANS!) or an SUV was the only choice. So, the decision was made to keep the Durango, since it was lower miles, and I had just put $1400 in the transmission, we had planned on keeping it for many years, it was in good shape, and fit our needs. I still wanted to get a diesel sometime, but was content with the Durango and Neon I had.

Then something happened, nothing bad, but none the less something happened. In the town I live in, all the car dealers, except a couple are all right in the same area, and I drive by them everyday going to, and coming home from work. The larger used dealer we have, had an Excursion show up on the lot. I looked at it as I drove by, and after a couple days, I noticed the DIESEL sticker on the windshield, so it really caught my attention. I looked at it every time I drove by, and one day Momma was with me, she why don't you stop and look at it..... Well, that was the "something that happened". I pulled in "just to look at it". I liked what I saw, an 03, 4x4 Diesel Excursion (that was all the details I had at the time, just a Diesel). Took it for a ride, liked how it rode, loved the room compared to the Durango, and liked the power. Talked to the salesman and didn't like the price. Thanked him for his time, got back in the Durango and left. But there is sat, every..... day...... So we went and looked at it again, I even brought it home to make sure it would fit in the garage, because "If I'm going to spend that much on a vehicle, it's going in the garage!!!". I was sorta hoping that it didn't fit and I could talk myself out buying it, but it fit...... S**T!!!! I took it back, and we came home to talk it over, I was still wanting one, but didn't want to spend the money. So she said to get on the internet and look for another one comparable to it (~60,000 Miles, Diesel, 4x4, Eddie Bauer or Limited, and close in price (They were actually asking book on this one, which was less than most were going for). I spend a few hours looking, and found gassers or diesel's with a ton of miles, or low miles and asking WAY more than this one. So the decision was made to trade in the Durango and buy the Excursion. This was in September 2007, and yes, this is the Excursion that is in my signature. Still love it, and yes, it still gets parked in the garage... So this was my initial step into actually owning a Ford Diesel, I had driven Travis's diesels and been around them for years, but hadn't owned one of my own. Needless to say, I was hooked!!!!

I still had a soft spot for the IDI, and still planned on getting one someday. I then did get my first IDI, a 91 Volkswagen Jetta N/A 5 Speed. My daily driver had been totaled (not by me and a story in itself) and I needed a vehicle and would have liked a diesel. Just so happened Darrin had this Jetta, we talked it over, a deal was made and off to Grand Rapids we went. I borrowed a buddies trailer, hooked it to the Excursion (figured I had to feed it to get there and back, a trailer and light Jetta wasn't going to cost much more in fuel). Made a weekend of it, and brought it home. It was unloaded from the trailer on Sunday morning, trailer returned, and it was put into Daily Driver service Monday morning. I liked that little car, and the fuel economy was really nice. A buddy from work nicknamed it Payday. I get paid every 2 weeks, and I could fill up on Payday Friday morning, and not have to get fuel again, until the following Payday.

Then, once the oldest got his license and started working, and after several vehicles he found a 92 F-250 IDI. It hadn't been used much over the last couple years, and the last time it was driven, a brake line had rusted through and it was parked due to no brakes. It was listed for fairly cheap, so he borrowed a trailer and brought it home. It was a 92 F-250 N/A IDI, 2wd, E4OD, Custom, White, Grey Interior, and had the typical Rust Belt rust. He fixed the brake lines, we replaced the glow plugs and it became his daily driver. I had also added a couple of Crown Vic's that were our daily drivers, the Excursion was the weekend vehicle and the Jetta didn't get driven much (it had lost its prime and I took a bit to mess with it and get it running). I even drove it a few times to work, just because. He had always liked the IDI's but owning one, he was hooked also. He was still daily driving it, when he was at a business for work (at the time he was an overhead door installer), and he saw a Brick sitting in the corner of the lot. He struck up a conversation with the business owner about the truck. The owned had a business in the winter of moving snow, and shoveling walks and this was a "support truck". It hauled shovels and palatalized bags of ice melt, and had only been used the previous season. He bought it since it had a flat bed, but decided it was "too bog" for what he was doing and was thinking about replacing it with a standard pickup, or even a half ton. My son asked if he might be interested in a trade, and he said maybe, what ya got. He told him about the 92, and the guy told him to bring it by. He had said his "mechanic" had been "working on it" because it was hard to start. He asked me to go look at it, he took his truck, I drove the Infiniti and we went to look at it. I looked it over and found it was an 88 F-250, Hypermax IDI, C-6, 2wd flatbed dually, with 30k on the odometer and signs of it actually being 130k, not more. The truck had much less rust, a turbo, a really nice flatbed, had been properly dually converted by the PO (with the shape of the truck and a sticker in the window, I think it was an old man's horse hauler), with a dually axle and front hubs. I looked it over for quite a while, saw some of the electrical issues it had. Glow plugs didn't work (which is why it didn't want to start) and they said it had to be jumped to start (which is because most of the battery ends were split and wouldn't tighten. He decided he didn't want to trade, but had given my son a price of $800 if he wanted it. We talked it over, he listed the 92 and it sold within hours, and we went and paid the $800 for the dually. The guy asked how we planned on getting it home, since we showed up in the Infiniti. I told him we were going to drive it home. He laughed. I grabbed a set of jumper cables out of the Infiniti, made sure the pump would kick on since it was wired to a toggle switch on the dash, and the FSS clicked. I let it sit on the cables for a few minutes, grabbed a can of ether, gave it a shot, hit the key and after maybe 6 or 7 revolutions, it caught and fired, and sat there and idled well. The guy was amazed, I had made more progress in 10 minutes than his "mechanic" had made all summer. The reason I keep saying "mechanic" when we looked at the the first time, he was there "working" on one of their 6.0 trucks. It had a miss, and was hazing blue. I looked at the owner, Momma and son and told him looks like he has a FICM failing or maybe an injector. The "mechanic" reved it to the governor a couple of times, and since that didn't fix he blue haze, she shut it off, exclaimed it was a piece of S**T and needed to go to the f*****g shop, and slammed the door. So son got in the dually, and we drove it home, much to the sellers surprise. Got home, fixed the battery cables, replaced the one bad battery and it would start with the key (other than needing a shot of ether to cold start) before we went to bed that night. He started daily driving it the next day. Spring rolls around and he decided he wanted a different truck, so I bought the dually off him, and he bought a chevy, lol. So now I own the dually, and he ran his blazer most of the summer, but he started to get he itch for another IDI, even asking about buying the dually back. So late last week, he found an 89 F-250 N/A 4x4 ZF-5 for sale, cheap. He contacted the owner and started asking questions. He had been daily driving it, but a wire got hot and melted. He "fixed" the wire but couldn't get it t start. He was a "Jeep Guy", was tired of messing with it and just wanted to get rid of it. He sent son a few pictures of the truck and the wiring he had to fix. We figured it was one of two things, the plugs weren't working, or the IP wasn't getting power and the FSS was staying off. He found out it was a couple hours away, and asked a price. The guy told him $500, but someone was coming to look at it on Saturday. Son told him thanks for the information and good luck with the sale on Saturday. Sunday morning, he gets a text from the seller, Hey the guy flaked out on my yesterday, since you have to come so far (2+ hours, we are in Central Indiana, they were almost to Michigan), $200 and come get it. Sons response was on my way. He called a buddy with a Gooseneck and they went to get it. I gave him a couple suggestions and told him try that and you might just be able to drive it on the trailer. He got there, made the deal, and told the guy he had a couple tings he wanted to try and see if he could drive it on the trailer. The guy told him, oh, there's no batteries in it. Had he know that, he would have taken a couple. They get back to town back to town late enough and just unloaded it. He went out Monday after work, put batteries it in and tried a few things, in the rain, and didn't have any luck. I helped him on Tuesday, figured out a couple of electrical things from the seller, got it cranking well, no plugs, and after 4 or 5 crank/rest sessions, it was running. He drove it to work yesterday, and realized it wasn't charging. Helped him figure out someone had rewired the voltage regulator wrong. Got that corrected and now it charges. Hopefully this weekend we will have the plugs weekend. Gotta run a new power lead to the relay, which I already know how that's going to be accomplished, and hopefully be starting with just the key by the end of the weekend.

So that long story is how I got into IDI's and how I have them now.

 

[Macrobb]

Lets see...
My family always used to be Chevy people - with a '66 half-ton, a couple 80's suburbans over the years(back then, 6 MPG was affordable).
Then, my parents decided to get a 5th wheel to live in for a couple of years as we sold our place and moved. This was back in '03 or so. We get a '02 F-350 crew cab 4x4 with a 7.3 PSD and 4R100. It was nearly new at that point, 10K or so on it.
That was my mom's DD for a few years. It proved quite reliable(very little work done to it at all, though the transmission's gone out twice).
So, when we decided we needed another truck, it was going to be a ford diesel.
Powerstrokes were(and still are) expensive. So... IDI it was. That truck was a gray '88 F-250, extended cab, 4x4, 5-speed. Even way back then, we wanted a stick. That rig actually came from a dealer.
A couple of years later, we ended up picking up another one of them on Craigslist - a Tan '88 F-250, extended cab, 4x4, 5-speed. Ether-addicted.

Well, it was used sometimes, and sat for a while... Got some mold or something in the heating system and my dad didn't want to drive it cause of the smell.
About that time, I was around 20, and looking for a job after getting a machining degree.
So... the tan '88 became my first real rig. An hour or two of driving with the windows down and heat on full cleared the smell out of it, and fixing the glow plug system fixed the ether addiction problem completely. I did various work on it over the years, learning a lot about IDIs.

After working for a year or two, a local saw me in the parking lot and said he had one that I might be interested in. I ended up picking up 'little blue', an '88 F-250, single cab, 4x4, 5-speed.
As always with my IDIs, make sure you have some good batteries, and with a bit of cranking it'll fire up even after sitting for a couple years.

That was basically my diesel collection for multiple years. I didn't need other trucks, and work kept me busy.

I did work on the tan '88 over the years - added a turbo, swapped out the motor for another, had the original motor rebuilt and put it back in. 8 months later, it fails, right in the middle of Winter. This was november-december '16.
I take my savings, 2K worth, and go on Craigslist. I find a rusty, but feature-full '93, with factory turbo! 5-speed, 4x4... Drove 3 hours to get to it(with my parents taking me there in the '02... which now has like 360K(!) miles on it).

She does fine, aside from the belt tensioner snapping on a sunday night with outside temps at 32F, an hour from home. Limping it to the auto-parts store 3 miles away ended up weakening the head gasket, and it started to weep from the corner.

A few months later, in February, I see a '92 F-250 with Banks kit on Craigslist for like 1800. Talk her down to $1500, drive 3 hours away and trailer it home.

Then, for reasons unknown to me, I ended up picking up a '90 F-250 in... poor to acceptable shape, but with ATS turbo(4x4 5-speed etc) for 1K. Never registered it, and it's more or less sat until very recently. Fired it up a couple months ago(after sitting for two years) with a little ether and drove it onto the trailer to take up to my new property.

I've also picked up a '90 F-250 4x4 E4OD with trans issues(but good motor) for $500. Drove it an hour home... in 2nd gear at 35MPH.

Then, recently picked up a '87 F-350 2x4 CC dually truck with ATS turbo and C6, 12' flatbed for $600, but it had a bad spot on the flex plate. Drove it halfway home before running out of fuel, and then had to trailer it to my parents place. Fixed the flex plate, drove it home.

There's probably a lot more I could add, but overall, I have been collecting rigs(not to mention parts...). I just like them - so simple and easy to work on. And pretty darn hard to kill.

Oh, and my first truck, the tan '88 is still with us. The original motor threw a rod and the block is shot, but it's got a motor in it(actually, the block from my '93 after it blew a head gasket and I just swapped it out for another running motor I had) and will drive down the road fine. The motor needs work(I still think I got a bad typ4 cam), and I recently stole the starter for another rig, but she could be driving in a matter of an hour.

And the truck that started all this, the '02? Currently has 374K on her. I currently have her parked at my place, to try to fix the oil leak it has. It had been parked for that and 'starting issues', which was resolved with a new starter and decent battery. (I was still pretty impressed - sits for nearly 2 years, put a battery in it, cycle glow plugs, and it fires up within 30 seconds of cranking).

 

[notenuftime]

Never really meant to get into diesels or a idi but i was driving down the road one day and saw my truck now sitting out for sale. Couldn't help but stop and ask about it, had no idea what i was getting into the fellow who sold it to me just had his garage burn down and from what i collected from conversation got a nice insurance claim AKA bigger garage and going brand new powerstroke. Said if i where to buy it he had a stash of parts and one other truck he would throw in on the deal. The price was right and i was excited so i bought it, can't lie have done a lot of work on this truck more than expected but i can't complain it just keeps running and doing everything i ask of it. Much thanks to this forum for the wealth of knowledge and nice folks.

 

[lkrasner]

I Went Kayaking and the place had a bus for sale. I wanted a bus so I bought a bus. Honestly I thought it had a powerstroke when I saw 7.3, really didn't know any better, as this is my intro to the diesel world.

 

[SebastIDIan]

Bought my 87 from my neighbor with the intentions of dailying it at the farm so I wouldn't "beat" on my 6.0

Well I eventually fell in love with the stupid thing and now beat on the 6.0 and baby the IDI. After joining this forum I learned that what I thought were a 6.9 and C6 under my truck are actually a 7.3 and 4x4 E4OD out of a F-Superduty. The fire only burned hotter after that and decided to convert it to 4x4 since all the hard work had already been done lol

I bought a cab and chassis shortly after but didn't use it much since I already had 3 other trucks so the wife talked me into selling it. I learned a few weeks ago that the guy I sold it to killed the IDI with ether and is currently swapping a 3126 CAT into it. I'd be more than happy to take it back whe he's done

 

[Golden Helmet]

I didn't get my truck so much for the IDI, but because this truck in particular was always a dream truck to me. The PO of my truck is a friend and coworker of my dad, I've known him since I was 5 years old. I always LOVED his truck, it looked super cool with the two-tone blue and the black light bar. I remember asking him why his truck sounded so different from other trucks and why the exhaust smelled different, so that was my introduction to diesels. I loved the look of it, the smell, the diesel sound, and riding in the back seat when the PO and my dad were out hunting or chopping up firewood. I wanted that truck bad.

Fast forward almost 20 years, I've got a job and I needed to get my own vehicle. I didn't really need a pickup, my dad has an '02 Silverado 2500HD that I can use whenever I want it, so I could have gotten away with a Honda Civic or something. But I wanted my own truck, just for hauling brush / trash / etc, so all I needed was a longbed Ranger or an F150 really. I did a lot of looking on craigslist but I couldn't find anything I wanted. In the back of my mind I knew what I really wanted, I wanted that cool blue diesel truck, but I never thought the PO would part with it, he loved the truck as much as I do. But hey, never hurts to ask, so I asked him if he was considering selling it, he said he's been thinking about it, I told him I'm looking for a vehicle and I asked how much would he let it go for, he said "For you, $2k", I said "SOLD!" No test drive, no haggling, none of that. At the time the truck had a bad master cylinder and he wouldn't give it to me until he got that replaced, but once that was done, it was mine and I got to drive home my childhood dream truck

It had 290k miles when I bought it, the PO did a fantastic job maintaining the truck (he actually knew was SCA's were, and had a bottle of VC-8 in the truck to prove it), everything that had to be lubed was taken care of religiously, but there were still a lot of little age / high mileage issues to take care of. Before I put any money in to the truck I had the engine compression checked (and new glow plugs, since the old ones were coming out anyways, why put old stuff back in?), every cylinder came back with 400+ psi, that combined with the lack of oil consumption told me the engine was good and this truck is worth putting some money in. So put money in it I did

Fairly early in its life, it got new headlights, new shocks x2 (the first set of replacements didn't last 5k), new tires, new tie rods, a redhead steering box, fixed the cruise control, all new rubber brake hoses, new calipers, just some little things to keep it roadworthy. After an off-road adventure I found out the E4ONO front pump seal was bad, so that was fixed with a new seal, a super beefy low-stall torque converter, a bigass cooler, and half of my wallet. At about the same time the transmission acted up, the IP started having hard start problems, and that took the other half of my wallet

So yeah, I'm not here specifically because I have the IDI bug, it just happened that the "cool blue diesel truck" happened to have the 7.3 IDI in it. But I did a lot of reading early on, and quickly concluded that I had won the lottery. When I was searching for any old truck, I specifically wanted one with Ford's 4.9l straight six because the legends say they're damn near unkillable, and that's what I wanted. Come to find out, the 4.9l wishes it were as durable as the IDI. I think that counts as a lucky win

 

[jwalterus]

"How did you get into an IDI?"

With a key.

I need a truck to use as a truck. I'm cheap, diesel was cheaper than gas, and I was tired of feeding 460s (IDIs as a rule get better mileage).
I still have 460s, I also have small block trucks.
I use my IDI more than any other.
The 460s will out-tow it, the SB trucks will outrace it, the IDI is just plain reliable and gets the same mileage as my half ton, plus I can fit the entire family in it if needed.