I'm daily driving a 1980 Mercedes 300SD (5 cylinder, turbo diesel, OM617) and looking to add an IDI to my garage.
I want to sleep in the truck bed under a camper shell while on the road or camping. I'd like it to be as off-road capable as possible although I'm not looking to go rock crawling with it - just want the flexibility. I'd also like to use it as a work truck down the line if I get a piece of property I want to personally develop (build a small cabin). I may need to use it to tow a small "tiny house" to the property so I can live out of that while I build.
I found a 1985 6.9 IDI (naturally aspirated), long bed, Explorer (4x4), F-250 single cab, automatic transmission, 73k miles - one owner - no rust that I could see anywhere and has a bunch of recent work. Owner has all the service records which show brand new tires, brakes, rims, shocks, air compressor, batteries, stereo system, etc. It's also got a 5 year old paint job on it that is probably one of the better paint jobs I've seen - I looked for overspray and couldn't find any. I spent about two hours checking everything out so it wasn't just a once over.
When talking to him it sounds like it was mostly his brother's truck but they shared it a bit and his reason for selling is he is "crazy." I asked him when the last time he changed out the glow plugs as a baseline and he said he didn't know, if it isn't broken why fix it. Looking at the engine bay though it looked like pretty much new rubber everywhere I could see so he must believe in some sort of preventative maintenance OR his brother did. He's also running synthetic diesel oil. I asked him if there was a block heater on it because in my research I found that the 85' head can crack with a block heater (true or not?) and he said he didn't know BUT that on cold days he has to "plug something in" near the grille. Not sure what it is or if it's aftermarket or original.
I took a ton of pictures of the engine bay and underneath the vehicle but unfortunately my phone needed to be reset a couple days later and I lost them all. I only have this guy's phone number - it was listed for sale off the street.
He says he towed his personal sedan and while towing he still managed to get 20 MPG.
I cold-started the truck and it sounded really strong and started right up. Before buying, I would pay a mechanic to check the compression and make sure the engine is within factory specs. During the test drive the temperature gauge didn't seem to move - I wanted to make sure it didn't lean toward overheating. I couldn't find a nearby enough hill to test the engine under load.
He's asking 15.9k for it which I think it a very high price for an IDI but since I'm just getting into it I'm not sure. He said he originally had it listed for close to 20k because of all the recent work but no bites. Someone offered him 13k and he turned it down. He said he'd be "losing" money. Not sure how you lose money on a truck that's probably been paid off for thirty years...
Is this a crazy price or is the market just nuts right now? I could probably go to 14.5k if I had to but wouldn't leave much wiggle room for improvements.
That's everything I can think of - hoping for feedback so I can make a decision soon.
I want to sleep in the truck bed under a camper shell while on the road or camping. I'd like it to be as off-road capable as possible although I'm not looking to go rock crawling with it - just want the flexibility. I'd also like to use it as a work truck down the line if I get a piece of property I want to personally develop (build a small cabin). I may need to use it to tow a small "tiny house" to the property so I can live out of that while I build.
I found a 1985 6.9 IDI (naturally aspirated), long bed, Explorer (4x4), F-250 single cab, automatic transmission, 73k miles - one owner - no rust that I could see anywhere and has a bunch of recent work. Owner has all the service records which show brand new tires, brakes, rims, shocks, air compressor, batteries, stereo system, etc. It's also got a 5 year old paint job on it that is probably one of the better paint jobs I've seen - I looked for overspray and couldn't find any. I spent about two hours checking everything out so it wasn't just a once over.
When talking to him it sounds like it was mostly his brother's truck but they shared it a bit and his reason for selling is he is "crazy." I asked him when the last time he changed out the glow plugs as a baseline and he said he didn't know, if it isn't broken why fix it. Looking at the engine bay though it looked like pretty much new rubber everywhere I could see so he must believe in some sort of preventative maintenance OR his brother did. He's also running synthetic diesel oil. I asked him if there was a block heater on it because in my research I found that the 85' head can crack with a block heater (true or not?) and he said he didn't know BUT that on cold days he has to "plug something in" near the grille. Not sure what it is or if it's aftermarket or original.
I took a ton of pictures of the engine bay and underneath the vehicle but unfortunately my phone needed to be reset a couple days later and I lost them all. I only have this guy's phone number - it was listed for sale off the street.
He says he towed his personal sedan and while towing he still managed to get 20 MPG.
I cold-started the truck and it sounded really strong and started right up. Before buying, I would pay a mechanic to check the compression and make sure the engine is within factory specs. During the test drive the temperature gauge didn't seem to move - I wanted to make sure it didn't lean toward overheating. I couldn't find a nearby enough hill to test the engine under load.
He's asking 15.9k for it which I think it a very high price for an IDI but since I'm just getting into it I'm not sure. He said he originally had it listed for close to 20k because of all the recent work but no bites. Someone offered him 13k and he turned it down. He said he'd be "losing" money. Not sure how you lose money on a truck that's probably been paid off for thirty years...
Is this a crazy price or is the market just nuts right now? I could probably go to 14.5k if I had to but wouldn't leave much wiggle room for improvements.
That's everything I can think of - hoping for feedback so I can make a decision soon.
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I saw them in my side mirror rush up behind me but then they sat back there forever. 
