ocnorb
IDIT
Ok- most of you know me from the '57 International S-112 onto an E-350 chassis project (6.9L IDI). I am still making progress, but the single digit temperatures have slowed progress significantly. I don't remember a winter this cold here as long as I've lived here (20 yrs).
So I have been without a truck with the intention being to have the '57 done before Christmas. Thats not gonna happen with these temps. I ran accross a local ad for a 1986 F-350 crew cab dually 2-wd with a 6.9L motor and a gear vendor overdrive for $3100. Normally I would not have looked twice at this truck, but I planned to install an overdrive in my '57 anyways, so I went to look at it.
The body is in pretty good shape for its age. The paint is chipped in a few places. The interior is worn, but livable. The woman selling it claims she bought it 6 months ago for her husband to use as a hot-shot truck instead of the semi that was parked in the driveway (to lower his expenses???) but he refused to give up the full size semi truck and is still using it. She claimed that the pump and injectors were all new, and indeed looked to be upon inspection (very clean and obviously a new set of return lines) The ad did not state that it had an ATS turbo, but it did. One oddity- the stereo had been removed and in its place was a set of gauges- pyro, boost and tranny temp.
I decided to take it for a drive- unfortunatley she had started it before I got there. She told me that she plugged the block heater in about an hour before I told her I would be there. It ran out real good. I took it easy while it was cold, as getting on it much put up a nice white cloud. After it warmed up I played with the overdrive. It made quite a difference in engine speed (this truck has the factory tach). The trans shifted really hard. Not sure if that is good or bad??? Getting on it while warmed up left a good cloud of black smoke. It made more power than any IDI I have ever driven. (Not many) One problem was the speedometer was way off. We took it up on the freeway to see how it ran at speed. Following a semi truck that was prob doing 70-75 the Ford speedo was buried past 90.
When I returned to the sellers house I asked her about the speedometer and she did not realize that it was wrong. She showed me a receipt she had for having a local shop replace the speedometer cable and a gear that had to come from Gear Vendors. Other than the heater not blowing very hard and a few lug-nuts missing I couldn't find anything major wrong with the truck. She claims that it has 136,000 miles on it; but she has no way to know if has turned over twice; this is just based on what the previous owner told her. She called her husband when my questions got too much for her and I chatted with him. From the sounds of it, he maintains his own truck in their shop. My guess is that he replaced the pump and injectors. He told me that fuel may be turned up a tad too much and I may want to back it down. He said the rear end had 4:10 gears, new brakes and seals.
I asked him if he had checked the SCA's of the coolant- he had not. He did know what they were (first guy I've talked to who did).
She showed me the receipt for the tires (brand new last month) $1139. She had also just had the steering rag joint replaced.
My intent is to drive it until the '57 is close to being done, then swap the overdrive and tires onto the '57 and sell it. Since I was looking for an overdrive anyway, I could sell the truck for substantially less than the $3000 I am paying and not feel too bad about it.
I'm really on the fence with this and can't decide if it would be a good interim plan or just a waste of precious resource$ that our family could use for the holidays.
Pros-
Runs good
New tires
Gear Vendors Overdrive
Fair condition paint/interior
New pump and injectors
Not rust bucket
Cons-
Long
Possibly just being "flipped" by seller
transmission shifts very hard
Unknown mileage
unknown SCA's
$$$
Front end felt loose at freeway speeds- small vibration in front
Speedo issue
Any insight guys?
So I have been without a truck with the intention being to have the '57 done before Christmas. Thats not gonna happen with these temps. I ran accross a local ad for a 1986 F-350 crew cab dually 2-wd with a 6.9L motor and a gear vendor overdrive for $3100. Normally I would not have looked twice at this truck, but I planned to install an overdrive in my '57 anyways, so I went to look at it.
The body is in pretty good shape for its age. The paint is chipped in a few places. The interior is worn, but livable. The woman selling it claims she bought it 6 months ago for her husband to use as a hot-shot truck instead of the semi that was parked in the driveway (to lower his expenses???) but he refused to give up the full size semi truck and is still using it. She claimed that the pump and injectors were all new, and indeed looked to be upon inspection (very clean and obviously a new set of return lines) The ad did not state that it had an ATS turbo, but it did. One oddity- the stereo had been removed and in its place was a set of gauges- pyro, boost and tranny temp.
I decided to take it for a drive- unfortunatley she had started it before I got there. She told me that she plugged the block heater in about an hour before I told her I would be there. It ran out real good. I took it easy while it was cold, as getting on it much put up a nice white cloud. After it warmed up I played with the overdrive. It made quite a difference in engine speed (this truck has the factory tach). The trans shifted really hard. Not sure if that is good or bad??? Getting on it while warmed up left a good cloud of black smoke. It made more power than any IDI I have ever driven. (Not many) One problem was the speedometer was way off. We took it up on the freeway to see how it ran at speed. Following a semi truck that was prob doing 70-75 the Ford speedo was buried past 90.
When I returned to the sellers house I asked her about the speedometer and she did not realize that it was wrong. She showed me a receipt she had for having a local shop replace the speedometer cable and a gear that had to come from Gear Vendors. Other than the heater not blowing very hard and a few lug-nuts missing I couldn't find anything major wrong with the truck. She claims that it has 136,000 miles on it; but she has no way to know if has turned over twice; this is just based on what the previous owner told her. She called her husband when my questions got too much for her and I chatted with him. From the sounds of it, he maintains his own truck in their shop. My guess is that he replaced the pump and injectors. He told me that fuel may be turned up a tad too much and I may want to back it down. He said the rear end had 4:10 gears, new brakes and seals.
I asked him if he had checked the SCA's of the coolant- he had not. He did know what they were (first guy I've talked to who did).
She showed me the receipt for the tires (brand new last month) $1139. She had also just had the steering rag joint replaced.
My intent is to drive it until the '57 is close to being done, then swap the overdrive and tires onto the '57 and sell it. Since I was looking for an overdrive anyway, I could sell the truck for substantially less than the $3000 I am paying and not feel too bad about it.
I'm really on the fence with this and can't decide if it would be a good interim plan or just a waste of precious resource$ that our family could use for the holidays.
Pros-
Runs good
New tires
Gear Vendors Overdrive
Fair condition paint/interior
New pump and injectors
Not rust bucket
Cons-
Long
Possibly just being "flipped" by seller
transmission shifts very hard
Unknown mileage
unknown SCA's
$$$
Front end felt loose at freeway speeds- small vibration in front
Speedo issue
Any insight guys?
