New member to the IDI fold

[TronDD]

What kinda of rear gears in it? With 3.55's it may be a good idea to keep it out of overdrive when towing heavy until your sure the trans is working well.

4.10s, 4.11's, whatever the number is. I'll be towing somewhere around 5-6,000lbs. Just my rally car on an open car hauler.

Tim.

 

[sle2115]

Yeah, the transmission would suck...having supposed to have been rebuilt and all, but as Travis said...they are dependable and not too expensive to operate once you work out all the bugs. I just hooked up a two horse trailer to mine and drove about 4 hours to pickup a horse for my daughter. Drove home and all told used about 10 gallons of fuel. Wasn't the fastest thing on the road, but ran up a couple WVA "hills" pulling right in line with a 6.0 pulling a much lighter trailer with a UTV on it (I didn't have the horse yet!). So, while I couldn't out run him, when I got to the top of the hill, he didn't have but a couple car lengths on me, well that, and when I stopped to check out the fuel and such, he was still paying for his truck, so he not only had a few car lengths, he had a heck of a payment too!

Welcome to the site and very nice looking truck. I someday hope to get a crew cab 4x4 F350 (probably 92-94) and fix it up, I can now drive one to work daily since I'm so much closer to home and I know I can probably do it for about free using WVO/WMO.

 

[sle2115]

4.10s, 4.11's, whatever the number is. I'll be towing somewhere around 5-6,000lbs. Just my rally car on an open car hauler.

Tim.

I'm 3.73's no turbo and don't know 5000 lbs is behind me when towing it! Hardly slows me at all.

 

[argve]

Yeah the stock gauge reads low. It moves around between the center of the gauge and the line at the low end. I haven't found the place to screw in a real gauge to get an actual number. On the oil cooler I guess? Unless I just yank the stock sending unit.

Tim.

On your version of the engine the oil pressure gauge gets it's information from a SWITCH that turns on at 7psi or it should in stock form so if it's moving the needle around then connection is loose or not up to par or someone has actually swapped it over to a SENDER. With the stock pressure switch if the pressure drops below 7psi the needle will fall to nothing and the check engine light will turn on. So as you already know if you really want to know what the oil pressure is reading then get a real gauge. I would suggest contacting agnem (Mel Agne with Conestoga Diesel) as he had a ton of really nice gauges for sale from the shop at this years IDI Weekend and they are GOOD GAUGES they are ISSPRO and in my opinion there is nothing better. He had the Enhanced Vision line which I ran in First Enterprise where they use an amp to run the gauge this means it's EXTREMELY ACCURATE. Yes they cost a bit more than the cheapies from the parts store but they are super accurate. Can't say enough good about the ISSPRO gauges. I loved mine. And ISSPRO stands behind their product like you would not believe. Mel made a good choice in offering that brand of gauges. You won't go wrong with them or him.

 

[Agnem]

Welcome to the site! That's a rough start, but you banged out a lot of good troubleshooting and good repair in a hurry. Congrats!

 

[opusd2]

Well, welcome! Nice truck!

Your troubles remind me of an 89 GMC I have. When I first bought it the tranny went to crap in just over a month. The rebuilt they "gave me a deal on" lasted only a couple of years and OD was never used. I then went for a Goodwrench and the "Parts Replacement Specialist" didn't bother to replace or even blow out the lines or cooler on the tranny, so it lasted a few months. Turns out Auto trannies with OD need to be cooled and/or lubricated. Imagine that. So after moving to a different city and tired of losing gears I had the Goodwrench changed out of warranty with a NEW 700R4. They did a quick job and I showed up to pick u[ the truck, and the shifting quadrant was all f**ked up. They never adjusted the shifting rod. I went to the service desk to tell them I wanted it fixed but the guy who worked on it was gone for the day and I would have to wait until tomorrow to get it. Screw that, I was pissed. So even though it was raining buckets outside I crawled underneath the truck and set it right. Oh, and also attached the little TV cable that must have been unnecessary. Drove home, never had a tranny issue again and I put well over 200K on that tranny hauling cross country and moving back and forth from Wyoming to Wisconsin for the Air Force, as well as a lot of winter driving in 4 wheel Paw.

My point is, a used truck brings surprises and many learning experiences. You've gotten more than your fair share already. But it's a beautiful truck to enjoy the labor of love.

 

[TronDD]

On your version of the engine the oil pressure gauge gets it's information from a SWITCH that turns on at 7psi or it should in stock form so if it's moving the needle around then connection is loose or not up to par or someone has actually swapped it over to a SENDER.

The needle does move around. Doesn't seem to correspond to RPM or temperature or anything, though. I wouldn't be surprised if a real sender was swapped in with the turbo kit or something. I know I need a real gauge on it to know what's going on for sure.

Tim.