To buy or not to buy that is the ?

[cornbinder 84]

The local bank just repo-ed a 92 F350 crew dualie 2wd, 7.3, 5 speed. I am good friends with the repo officer and he called me last Saturday to come start the truck and move it on the bank lot. The glow plugs were dead on the truck. It has been put on a push button but the WTS light still come on when the key is cycled. I tested the plugs and they showed dead though. I put a pair of fresh Group 31 batteries on it. Disconnected the glow plugs for saftey and give a small whiff of ether. It started after about 6 or 7 revolutions with no smoke. The starter did not crank very fast ethier. The truck is showing 130,*** miles on the clock. All the return caps are wet. The oil looked and smelled o.k. The only really bad problem is that I couldn't see any antifreeze in the radiator. I drove around the lot real quick and everything seemed to work good and power seemed good. It has 6 new 10 ply tires. The body is in fair shape and the roof needs paint.

The thing that really bothers me is the antifreeze being low. I could not find a leak in the short time I had, but I didn't have any antifreeze to top it off and really don't know how much was in it if there even was any. Since there was no smoke in the exhaust and no evidence of antifreeze in the oil what else could it be besides a leak.

I know the truck will need two new batteries, a new starter, return lines, and glow plugs. What would be a fair price for the truck. I thought if I could get it for $1000 to $1200 it wouldn't be a bad deal. It probably won't bring much at the auction especially when they see someone ether it to start it. The bank didn't want to sink any money into the truck to make it start to sell it. They are also selling two enclosed race car trailers, a 24 ft. camper, and a ski boat. All including the truck was repo-ed from the same guy. He used the truck to pull the race car trailers.

Any help with this decision is greatly appreciated. Acutually my wife is wanting this truck for her daily driver.

Thnaks,

Jack

 

[mahatma171]

I wouldn't be afraid of it. $1000 would be a sweet price for it I think. You already know what to do with it. You mentioned no antifreeze in the oil, but I would just do one more thing- check the coolant reservoir for any evidence of engine oil. Probably sounds dumb. But when my father's 89 7.3 IDI blew the head gasket, that is what we found first. It then blew the coolant out of the reservoir, then started hydrolocking, and then it steamed from the tailpipe, in that order. But no antifreeze ever made it to the crankcase (lucky for us). We ended up taking it out and completely rebuilding it.

One thing we did see was that the dual mass flywheel and clutch setup on the ZF 5-speeder was on a wing and a prayer. Two more busted springs and it would have been down for the 8-count. I remember hearing a little jingle down in there when it was together, that may have been the only warning sign. We replaced it with a kit that converted it to regular flywheel and clutch, drove much better too in my opinion after that. I guess if she shifted and sounded OK that you don't have too much to worry about.

 

[Shadetreemechanic]

It sounds like a deal. Check to make sure there are no exhaust gasses coming out of the radiator and then grab it.