Looking into an 89 IDI

[DrButtlet]

Hey sorry if this has been asked before and I am just a pleb, but I am looking at this 89 idi that was used to pull a horse trailer in Tennessee and the guy turned the pump up but did not install an EGT gauge.


So my question is how bad could that be?
When I asked him about it he wrote this back
"It's turned to the max for the engine so it don't over pressure the injectors"

 

[david85]

Welcome to the forum.

I wasn't aware it was possible to over pressurize these injectors, but even if it was, turning up the fuel screw would increase pressure anyway. So his reply makes no sense.

Turning the fuel up without adding a turbo will not increase power by much. The perceived increase is really just more fuel coming on sooner, while max power tends to be about the same. Anything above what the engine can normally burn is simply turned into heat and very large amounts of black soot. If he really was towing under those conditions, then the bottom line answer is yes, its bad for the engine.

Keep looking. Trucks of this era that were not abused can be hard to find, but they are still out there.

 

[DrButtlet]

Thanks for the speedy reply! ^.^
Yeah I was thinking from tech articles turning up the fuel just causes detrimental heat on the NA but I just wanted some confirmation you know?

 

[towcat]

Thanks for the speedy reply! ^.^
Yeah I was thinking from tech articles turning up the fuel just causes detrimental heat on the NA but I just wanted some confirmation you know?

bluntly, if it is "turned up" all the way and there's no turbo, the motor would have melted down a long, long time ago. is there pics of thie truck to show condition? I'd look at the condition and not so closely at what he's saying. why? he's not making sense or has bought a line of ******** someone's feeding him.

 

[DrButtlet]

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And here is the cl posting for good measure!
https://chattanooga.craigslist.org/cto/d/idi/6311995071.html

To be fair it is a few hours from me so not torn up over it. Although it does seem to be hard to track down a decent crew cab drw in my local area

 

[towcat]

I'm betting the rear bench folds flat into a bed.
it's a little pricey for a truck needing a paint job but I seriously doubt the claim of the fuel being "maxed out". just for your own education, go into the "tech articles" and look for the "turning up the fuel" and when you are done reading, you be suspicious of his claim too.

 

[jwalterus]

Mini-rant:
How in the heck can nobody seem to take a decent set of sales photos these days? Seriously, how flipping hard can it be to take a high quality photo to show the vehicle in its entirety?



I'd buy it at the $2500 range if it will cold start, it's a decent looking truck, but it needs a lot of work, from his crappy photos, I can see the following:

Broken driver's side flare, water damage above visors (clearance lights leaking), lots of paint streaking, center bottom front bumper bent out, grill guard bent forward, rear bumper bent, dents on driver's side, rust bubbles in the paint on the passenger side...... The truck looks like it was buried in mud up to the frame, and it's been sitting I'd guess a minimum of a year from the lack of grass under it....

I'd be asking for a bunch of DECENT photos before I looked at it: 4 sides straight on, picture from the rear with tailgate open, under hood shots from front and both sides, pictures of the interior from each doorway.

 

[saburai]

Quoting the CL add "I bought this truck with intentions of restoring it to it's factory self. I have put alot of effort into it and would trust it to take me across the country today if I wanted. It is a 5 speed diesel with a 100 gallon fuel tank, needs a new windshield wiper switch. If there are any questions on anything else with this vechicle just let me know and I will answer your question."

Come guy's! It just needs a new headlight switch...

 

[chillman88]

To be fair it is a few hours from me so not torn up over it. Although it does seem to be hard to track down a decent crew cab drw in my local area

Shame, I'd consider trading a my crew cab drw for a crew srw 4x4. Sadly, none to be found up here.

 

[david85]

Almost sounds like he bought it as a project and it simply sat for a while.

Who knows...maybe he just figured out how to turn the fuel up and had no time to drive it after that. If you're willing to waste a trip to 'kick tire' then you can still have a look at it. Trouble is, buying a used 7.3 IDI off someone who isn't informed about them is still a roll of the dice. If he used Starting fluid or didn't care about maintaining the coolant quality, it could still be on borrowed time.

Assuming the rest of the truck doesn't have a thick cake of bondo hidden under its skin, then it could be a good fixer upper. But if you had to swap the engine out in the near future and deal with all of the cosmetic issues already mentioned, realize you'll be sinking some money into it.

 

[david85]

Mini-rant:
How in the heck can nobody seem to take a decent set of sales photos these days? Seriously, how flipping hard can it be to take a high quality photo to show the vehicle in its entirety?

Yup

Also annoying when they don't take decent photos of the interior or bother popping the hood.

 

[towcat]

the way the framing was done, I'd say it was intentionally done to hide the issues.

 

[DrButtlet]

Thanks guys! I'm going to continue hunting, who knows maybe someone will post a decent crew cab dually closer to me sometime soon

 

[Macrobb]

If he used Starting fluid

Eh... Problems with starting fluid is overrated.
Beyond a few IDI owners who use ether injection and have for many years, I got an "ether addicted" truck a long time ago.
When my dad bought it, it would not start cold without ether.
After a few years, I ended up going over the glow plug system, making a nice manual system.
What do you know, it suddenly started up just fine. No ether needed after that... despite having been started on ether for *years*.

Now, I will agree that glow plugs and ether don't mix - you always want to disconnect your glow plugs if you want to use ether... Usually, though, people use ether because the glow plugs aren't working in the first place.

On top of that, well... I've bought 6 IDIs. 5 of them had starting issues. I've fixed them with a combination of glow plugs and fixing retarded timing due to the IP being worn out.
All I'm saying is, for the right price, don't give up just because it won't start cold. Understand why, get it for a lower price and fix it yourself.

And, for those who are thinking that hard to start is low compression... that's going to be pretty rare.
I had one 7.3 motor I pulled to have it rebuilt. It had a good .020" of bore taper, broken rings, worn bearings... It ate a quart of oil every 100 miles, easy. With working glow plugs and a good fuel system on it, it would fire up within 3 revolutions even at 20F.

It's pretty darn hard to make an IDI have little enough compression to not start, with good glow plugs.

 

[david85]

Eh... Problems with starting fluid is overrated.
Beyond a few IDI owners who use ether injection and have for many years, I got an "ether addicted" truck a long time ago.
When my dad bought it, it would not start cold without ether.
After a few years, I ended up going over the glow plug system, making a nice manual system.
What do you know, it suddenly started up just fine. No ether needed after that... despite having been started on ether for *years*.

Now, I will agree that glow plugs and ether don't mix - you always want to disconnect your glow plugs if you want to use ether... Usually, though, people use ether because the glow plugs aren't working in the first place.

On top of that, well... I've bought 6 IDIs. 5 of them had starting issues. I've fixed them with a combination of glow plugs and fixing retarded timing due to the IP being worn out.
All I'm saying is, for the right price, don't give up just because it won't start cold. Understand why, get it for a lower price and fix it yourself.

And, for those who are thinking that hard to start is low compression... that's going to be pretty rare.
I had one 7.3 motor I pulled to have it rebuilt. It had a good .020" of bore taper, broken rings, worn bearings... It ate a quart of oil every 100 miles, easy. With working glow plugs and a good fuel system on it, it would fire up within 3 revolutions even at 20F.

It's pretty darn hard to make an IDI have little enough compression to not start, with good glow plugs.

I have no doubt you might get away with it if used sparingly but I would never take that chance. Not before rebuilding my engine, and certainly not after. A heat gun down the intake worked well and best of all, there was no risk of a cracked compression ring. Would an IDI continue to start and run later on even with one or two cracked upper rings? Probably, but by then the damage has been done. High mileage engines tend to burn so much oil that you might not even notice the extra consumption and/or blowby.

Yes, you could get a better deal for a hard starting IDI. But if that same prospect also comes with several empty ether cans in the back seat area, it would have to be one heck of a bargain. You might know how to use it safely, but does the seller?

I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I'd still never use the stuff on mine.