service truck??

[RLDSL]

Use the Beru plugs, listen to the collective wosdom, you wont go wrong.
These engines are great. I used to take care of a fleet of busses with these engines in them when they were brand new. if maintained on a fleet service schedule these things can be basically trouble free ( as my truck has been since I went through the thing) make teh old new and drive the thing, keep recipts for the tax man.

The LAST thing you want is a V10. I had to rent a Uhaul with one of those things to get one of my cars home from NY when it blew an engine, yea it had power, LOTS of power, it would pass anything but a gas station I think on the best stretch I was getting almost 4 mpg. and the thing only had 10k miles on it and was inhaling oil like fat chick in a candy store ( and I wasnt driving it hard ) ( hey Towcat, I can sure understand why youve run into lubrication issues on those things, man what a heap. When I picked it up from Uhaul the darn thing was WAY low on oil before I even started... and that was after having waited 4 hours for them to "prep' the truck )

 

[itsacrazyasian]

You could call my truck a service truck. Its the truck that rescues everyone else. Its the truck i use to jump start customers, lock outs sometimes and usually hauling parts.

I chose the IDI because at the end of the day, its the EASIEST truck to fix and get back up ASAP while being very reliable.

I just built a 6.7 stroker road service truck for a customer. He came to me and asked me what platform to choose. Told him find a IDI. Didn't want anything that old, even a superduty with a 7.3 stroke. The 6.7 is a bad ****. But I know i'll be hauling him back to the shop sooner or later.

 

[oregon96psd]

i dont exactly know what you are meaning by service truck, but my f550 with a imt service body loaded with my tools parts oil supplies crane welder ect weighs between 19,800 lbs and 21k lbs. the chipped six liter thats in it does a very good job of moving it but it still works very ******* the bigger passes (8-10 miles of 6-7%). i cant imagine it being powered by an idi. sure i get paid by the hour but still, it would take all day to get anywhere.

 

[90ididoorguy]

Well I use it for repairing residential garage doors. I might end up trading it for a 24 valve cummins. It's a hood truck it might just not be very good for what I do

 

[90ididoorguy]

Well I use it for repairing residential garage doors. I might end up trading it for a 24 valve cummins. It's a hood truck it might just not be very good for what I do by the way just bought zd9 plugs I'm putting them in tommorow

 

[dgr]

I read in your original post that your truck was in the shop three times in a short period of time. But it was really in the shop one time with two follow ups because of that initial trip to the shop. Maybe you're just frustrated with the situation but you would have had the same result with a 2013 truck and it would have been much, much more money to get it resolved.

I've paid for a few garage doors and I don't see a lot of weight on the trucks doing this job. Seems like most of the guys are running 1/2 or 1/4 ton (imports, haha) trucks. The guys doing carpet for me load their 1/2 ton trucks way heavier. Are you really carrying 1500 lbs? That's like 5 to 10 garage doors isn't it? Point being, maybe you don't need anything more than an F150 and if it's a straight right off for you, what home owner doesn't like to see a nice shiny truck sitting in their driveway?

There are plenty of trucks that are going to get you from point a to point b in more comfort than what you are driving and are not going to have the problems inherent in any 20 year old vehicle. BUT, if you like the styling and enjoy working on the little bugs, you can buy a lot of glow plugs for $10k. You can pay someone to put a rebuilt engine and transmission in it for less than that. All vehicles have their problems. My 5.4L F150 gave me zero problems in 150k miles except for a cracked ring that necessitated a rebuilt motor under warranty. I certainly wouldn't shy away from owning another because of that experience. I also think I was very fortunate to never have to do anything but change an idler arm and put a set of tires on it. Poke around in the other sub-forums and see what kind of problems other trucks have.

You can buy a rebuilt injection pump for $400 or so and a set of injectors for $240. You will have to double or triple those prices on a 24V cummins. Buy a newer truck and those prices are going to be five to 10 times as much.

I changed my injection pump ($275), lift pump ($50 with sealant and stuff), my return lines ($55ish) and my injectors ($150) and two GPs I broke ($20). For less than $600 I should be good for another 50k miles on my fuel system.

There's another angle on the simplicity that some people don't get or don't want to get. I lost my ignition switch one night. I knew it was going out and shut the engine off. That was it. In any other truck, I probably would have been calling a tow truck and not having my vehicle the next day. I was able to scavenge a wire for the fuel solenoid, bump the starter solenoid and drive it home and go about my life until I could get to it on the weekend. That could happen to anyone like it did with my friend and his PSD.

A 3/8" or 10 mm deep socket 1/4" drive will be your friend when changing those glow plugs. I think you should ask around on your exhaust temperatures. That doesn't seem right to me. I would be checking my timing and maybe turning down the fuel screw

good luck

 

[Fordsandguns]

It's an older truck so you are going to have some bugs to work out. Once you do it will be a reliable truck. Unless you buy a new truck or one that has been gone through recently you are going to have a few issues. Doesn't matter what brand or engine type you choose.
These trucks and engine are reliable and easy to work on once you learn them.
Read the tech section on this forum and ask questions. After having your turbo rebuilt and getting it timed with the guy's here on ob to help you learn, you should have a reliable ride for years.
Don't let it's age or the fact that it doesn't make the power the new trucks do discourage you, it will make you a good service truck.

 

[opusd2]

My 86 F250 2wd started out on a farm, was bought used by a once-girlfriend's dad for his farm and used for many years, then my folks bought it for the farm where my brother worked the crap out of it and bounced it off of just about every imaginable immovable objects (as well as more than a few cows), hauled some overloaded goose-necks, then I ended up buying it from them after that. Other than the front end being looser than a 3/8" bolt in a 3/4" nut, shocks all gone along with the bald tires that took the shocks, and a front hub which wandered off the truck while my brother was driving it down the highway in the above mentioned condition (along with other numerous issues) the truck is still running and nothing has really been done to the engine. And my brother is not known for maintaining anything, rather running stuff until it breaks and then parking it in the weeds and moving on. Which is the condition in which I purchased it.

After some aggressive maintenance and a few repairs later, I started using the truck which still included some heavy hauling on the farm and highway. It still does all that. In fact I have been looking for excuses to retire it and pull the engine/C6 combo and transplant it into something else, but the damn thing won't quit. It spends a LOT of time idling, will burn just about any oil dropped into the fuel tanks, and manages 20 mpg on the highway loaded or unloaded with 4:10s and a C6 (as long as you don't mind keeping the speed a little slower than the rest of the pack, and I like 52-55 mph). So my opinion is that these IDIs work great as service trucks.

 

[GOOSE]

Well, It's a hood truck

What the heck does that mean? I have been keeping tabs on this thread and wondering if the OP is going to give up on the rig or not. I would take an IDI with a utility body on it any day. Dollar for dollar, I would put it against any truck over the course of 500,000 miles or so.

 

[Black dawg]

Good news they ran the oil test and it came back clean. Meaning no violent in the oil. So parker diesel is going to time it adjust the ip rebuild the turbo and install it. Make sure it passes emissions. For 1700. Decided just to let them do it. They seem to know how these trucks run. Also when I get the truck bacl on Monday I'm switching out the glow plugs. Even though they were just done I have a sneaky suspicion that they are autolites they only have about 2 weeks oh use on them but don't want to mess with them. I found some Bosch plugs at napa was thinking bout useing them. But it seems you guys are mixed on if they're good or not what do you guys think

I hope I read that wrong, 1700 for that amount of work?? If you have the stock 7.3 glow system use the beru plugs.

 

[89greendiesel]

i would consider my truck a service truck. I do maintenance for an apartment management company. Sometimes my bed will be full of old appliances going to the junkyard or 25 sheets of drywall.

I bought it for 1100 and put about 2500 in it over the past three years. it has come to be pretty reliable. i have a set of glowplugs, a glowplug harness to install and a new timing meter to time it with. should be in pretty good shape to winter over. I don't have a whole lot more stuff i want to do to it mechanically. Might start on the interior. Seat is pretty rough. I do want a few more hp, so i need to decide if i want to squeeze out as much as i can from an NA or get a turbo. I really like the simplicity of the NA. But the old turbo systems are pretty easy too. Maybe i'll just buy a new to me truck. anyhow, best thing i did was replace my battery cables, they were wrecked!

 

[90ididoorguy]

So I carry 1500 to two thousand pounds worth of garage door springs in the bed. So it hauls a lot of weight I got the truck back on Wednesday and it seems to be running pretty good. I think the reason my egts are so high is because how close the pyro probe is to the turbo itself. The highest I've seen now is 1100 and I was really pushing it. Diesel repair and performance in parker maybe expensive but they did a good job on my truck. I'm getting about 16 mpg now and I like this truck more and mpre everyday.

 

[89greendiesel]

So I carry 1500 to two thousand pounds worth of garage door springs in the bed. So it hauls a lot of weight I got the truck back on Wednesday and it seems to be running pretty good. I think the reason my egts are so high is because how close the pyro probe is to the turbo itself. The highest I've seen now is 1100 and I was really pushing it. Diesel repair and performance in parker maybe expensive but they did a good job on my truck. I'm getting about 16 mpg now and I like this truck more and mpre everyday.

that is quite a bit of weight to haul around all the time. You're also in denver so having everything run properly is more important than in columbus ohio. We both use our trucks for work so it's easy to justify spending money on them to have work done.

 

[GOOSE]

So I carry 1500 to two thousand pounds worth of garage door springs in the bed. So it hauls a lot of weight I got the truck back on Wednesday and it seems to be running pretty good. I think the reason my egts are so high is because how close the pyro probe is to the turbo itself. The highest I've seen now is 1100 and I was really pushing it. Diesel repair and performance in parker maybe expensive but they did a good job on my truck. I'm getting about 16 mpg now and I like this truck more and mpre everyday.

Good to hear. 1100 deg pushing hard sounds like its in the ballpark, fuel mileage sounds good as well. Hopefully you are over the hump and your truck will become what you compare everything to when reliability is the issue.

I haven't had to deal with altitude but your performance seems good for the elevation you live at.

 

[mobilemech]

I'm trying to decide if I should cut my loses and buy a newer truck I found a 99 cc lb with a 5 spd and the v10 it has 79 k and thurs asking 10k

The V10 gasser's get terrible fuel mileage and are problem riddled, also hard to find parts for.
I have a 86 w/service box, it has a 6.9 and around 500,000 on the clock, still runs like a champ. I'm a mobile mech that serves Northern Cali, Southern Oregon and Western Nevada. I'll travel any distance the customer wants to pay for. These IDI's are very well suited for service trucks and very reliable and dependable.
Get the previous owners neglect fixed and enjoy problem free service. Just remember all engines and trucks (gas or diesel) are machines and they do need maintenance and they do have break downs, but the newer the truck the more exspencive and involved the repair.
1200? is that the temp of the pyro? if so your truck needs to be timed, or your fuel adjusted. what is your driving style? are you ******* the throttle all the time, cause more fuel equals more fire which is more heat.