What started you burning oil?

[Diesel JD]

Well my grandfather had one of the infamous 5.7 Olds diesels...a 1978 I think...still love to restore one...but anywhow, I loved my grandfather and he loved that old Delta 88, and he drove it like a truck...hauling tools, firewood, and his boats. I loved watching the lights change as the glow plugs cycled, loved that it rattlled and burned something else. Unfortunately my grandfather passed away in 1989 when I was 8 and the car pretty much died with him, and I was not that interested in mechanical things yet and many years from vehicle ownership so I did nothing to forestall its demise sadly. Fast forward to 1993 when we moved to my current house, the foreman's son and SIL had an IDI and one of the first PSD trucks respectively. They were so loud it was unnerving but interesting...well when I did start to want a truck I more and more loved that diesel sound. Then I found out about biodiesel, and then I got a chance to inherit Grandad's boat, so in 2003 I went diesel shopping for serious. After some good trucks here got sold out from under me and I was blessed not to buy some bad trucks I was frustrated and put out the call on the old forum about if anyone had an IDI they wanted to sell. Well I got a hit from a guy in Texas that wanted to sell his 86, his price was right and PhilD checked it over for me and it was good. I bought that thing and never regretted it. It initiated me pretty soon with head gaskets and I've had to do some other minor repairs but all the big projects have been my doing(upgrades/mods) and the truck is a blessing and does everything I ask it to do.

 

[opusd2]

I grew up with diesels on the farm, my uncle drove otr and always owned something with a 5.7 diesel in it since they came out, and my dad bought a 4x4 Suburban in '81 with a 6.2 in it to replace the 68 Chevelle that my mom hauled all 5 of us kids in. Well, he always bragged that the Suburban could go through anything, and one very snowy day he took it out in the field to prove it. Well, as we all shoveled the tank out of the snowbank that the stock Wrangler tires left us sitting in, I fell in love with that thing. And now I own it after years of waiting for my dad to part with it.

But I started out with my first diesel back in 90 with my 81 Grand Prix with the 5.7 Olds in it. That thing was incredible! It had a reman Goodwrench in it, and would start anytime I needed it to whether I plugged it or not. But she was a cold beast. One rollover later, and I owned an 82 with a 5.7 in it. I swapped out the diesel after I got a wild hair to drop the 327/Powerglide from the Chevelle. That was a screaming ride.

Then I got the Ford diesel for the farm in the mids 90s from a friend whose dad owned it and died. Drove it until I moved away for a few years and when I returned from a stint out in WY I bought it during my divorce to work on since my brother had parked it since he couldn't get it running after messing with the tank selector valve and tranny, and I needed something to keep my mind busy. It's rough looking, desperately needs the front end tightened up, and the return lines and ORings needs replacing but she's my work/hunting ride right now.

 

[sootman73]

well i was and wasn't searching for my first vehicle to be a diesel. i had the diesel power mag in my hand and said forget the 460s i was looking at(did have to be a ford). then started to look for a diesel..... way above my price range.

well my dad was talking to a guy at work and he said hey i got GMC 1500 diesel truck i'd sell. so we went and looked at it. and of course i was only thinking cubic inch at the time and figured 389ci! i want it. it was a 2wd, NV4500 6.2l NA. we took it down the road and it rode real good(113K on it). well that was $3000 that my parents put forth to me. i used and abused that truck for two years before selling it to by my 94 ford.

probably the best thing that ever happened to me to was to get that truck. now i know i wont ever buy a gas truck(except my s10) the real funny thing is that i'm the only one to drive a real truck in the family even extended family! and noone drives a diesel. but this winter i'm gonne teach my cousin how to snow wheel his jeep. that should be intersting(never been out of the city)

though i am going to test drive a first gen cummins this afternoon. i can't overlook it they only want $600!

 

[69oiler]

my boss had bought a tractor to use on job sites and needed a truck to tow it. i found this truck along the road for sale.

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'86 F250 4x4 straight out of CA. the PO was a Mormon missionary and was staying in Kirtland which is a Mormon hub nearby. i fell in love with it and talked my boss into buying it. he owned it for a couple months until the water separator started acting up (he pulled the ring). well the PO was a diesel mechanic so he came out and rebuilt the water separator (nice guy). my boss had had enough so he sold the truck to me. i drove it as a daily driver work truck for 7 years. i had the trans out of it twice for input shaft and clutch, rebuilt the front end myself, replaced the rear leaf springs...in 7 years the truck never saw a mechanic, except one time, to get the new front end aligned.

i sold that truck in 2008.

then Darrin gave me the heads up on this truck for sale in CA

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it so happened my brother was getting married in LA in April 08, and i flew out to Los Angeles, rented a car, drove from LAX to the truck, bought it, and then carted my family around LA for the wedding, even picking up a load of chairs for the outdoor wedding, before driving it home to Ohio.

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money got tight after the economy crashed so i sold that truck to hesutton, an OB member.

then Mel found my current truck and PMed me to see if i wanted a cheap IDI. long story short

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oh yeah..my current daily drive is a '99 PSD i bought over the phone form a dealer in MI. it's been a good truck.

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i also had an '03 VW Jetta TDI that i bought new. i loved that car but couldnt use it enough (i work in the trades) so i sold that and made $5500 over what i owed on the note

 

[JesterPgh]

I've long time been into Ford. Having owned 6 Bronco IIs, a Ranger, an F150 supercab, and 2 previous F250s (all gassers), I still loved Ford. What I didn't like was the emissions laws where I live. If it's 1976 or newer, it has to pass emissions. I had 2 Bronco IIs that just would not pass, even with all new sensors, plugs, wires, converters, they could not pass. The Ranger never even made it home before the transmission squealed to a shuddering stop. The F150 was a "get me through" vehicle and had a ton of rust, and was 2 wheel drive. My first F250, four wheel drive, was great. I drove the crap out of it, it was a 351/C6 4x4, but I could not get it to pass emissions. Previous owner had removed all emissions equipment, and after not being able to get it inspected, I got rid of it. I then found my next F250 4x4, another 351 truck that I converted to a 460. I put more money into dropping the 460 in it than I paid for the truck. Had more power than I needed, but drank gasoline like crazy, 7-9mpg tops. Then I came across this poorly advertised "1987 Ford truck" on Craigslist, he said he had pics he could send, so I emailed him. The pics were about as good as the ad on Craigslist, but I went and looked at it. Needed a clutch, spring hanger, and windshield. I made an offer after having it fire up (it was the dead of last winter, and had been sitting, and was coated in about an inch of ice). I later discovered it needed the turbo rebuilt, but that's another story. My first thought was "I won't have to get emissions on this." (PA, diesel vehicles exempt, at least up to a certain year). Anyways, the guy took my offer of $850, and I brought home my first IDI. I've surely put more into it than I paid for it by now, but it's been well worth it. I get the same if not better pulling power as my 460 truck had, although the 460 truck was faster, better fuel mileage, and don't have to worry about emissions testing. I plan to keep this truck forever, so hopefully that works out.

 

[DeepRoots]

I run diesels because I don't understand carbuerators.
I was poor for a really long time, so I got good at working on diesels.

 

[Pearl_Diesel]

I guess, for me, it started when Dad bought a 92 460 gas truck. He used it for pulling a 24' cattle trailer, but was definitely not impressed, thought it didn't pull a whole lot better than his 351W truck he had before. So, he went and sold the 460, and knew guy that rebuilds Ford Powerstroke Diesel trucks. They found a recently wrecked truck, put a new frame under it, new body, front and rear ends, and everything else except the motor and transmission. When they got it done, he bought the truck off of the rebuilder for 12,000. This was around 1998-1999, and it was a 97 short bed extended cab. He run it for years, and was really impressed with how it pulled a trailer. And he's pulled trailers for years. He's been through every gas make and model of Ford and Chevy 3/4 ton trucks (he's put as many as 6 motors in a truck -wich still has the last motor, and it's a 76-, and as many as 3 trannies). He never knew he could pull a trailer that easy until he had a Ford Diesel.
Wellll...then flashback to a time closer to the present. We start lookin for me a truck to drive, and we see the neighbor's wanting to sell his 90 F-250 diesel. I didn't know anything about trucks/motors/anything at the time, and thought it would be great, and if I didn't like it, dad could use it as a farm truck. And, according to the odometer, it looked like it only had 169,000 miles (yeah right...how naive were we?)
The bed was dented, so I built a flatbed. The paint was faded, so me and dad painted it.
I spent countless hours working on it, learning how it worked, learning how to fix it.
And Dad's threatened to burn that thing quite a bit too...


And...I've been hooked ever since.

 

[ghunt]

Well....let's see if I can summarize this into the fewest words possible.

In high school I wanted either a fast car, or a big truck. My dad wouldn't let me get either one. I was mostly into gassers at that point, I just wanted something with a good V8

In '03 I got my fast car (My thunderbird), but up til that point I still never had a 4x4. A few years prior to that I had really started to get into diesels and I REALLY wanted one. I figured fullsize 4x4 + diesel = exactly what I want.

In '07 I finally had a few bucks and got approved for a loan so I started looking around at trucks. I actually originally wanted either Powerstroke or Cummins with a stick behind them, but couldn't find an example of either that was decently affordable for me and wasn't clapped out or just plain not what I wanted. Example, went to look at a '98 Dodge quad cab 4x4, 12V cummins, 5 speed. It was kinda rough and needed a lot of front end work and the guy wouldn't budge from $12000. Also looked at a '97 F250 4x4, PSD, 5 speed, reg cab "stripper" truck (no options whatsoever except AC). It was actually a pretty nice truck with exactly 100K on it , but it was $10K and the interior was a little rough. In retrospect I probably should have bought it but I didn't think it was worth that much at the time. I think the guy sold it in less than two weeks.

Anyway I found my truck for $5000, it had been sitting awhile and had 96K on it, it was a factory turbo and I also heard how easy these are to work on, so I thought it was just great and I bought it. Since then I have had a love/hate relationship with the truck, because of the numerous problems I've had due to it sitting and other things (like, I've had to replace ALL the brakes, the front fuel tank, all the glow plugs, the rear fender arches were poorly repaired and the fronts are starting to rust, and it has a lot of rust on the frame and running gear). I am also now wishing that I would have looked a little longer and found an extended cab. This truck just feels like it has no room in it sometimes.

It's still a neat truck, it's nice to have a diesel, but yeah some days I do wish I had a powerstroke or cummins so I could make easy power! And I also wish my mileage didn't suck.

 

[Titojeep]

I began my quest at first because I liked the sound, and the look of a dually truck. I'm 38 years old, an Engineer by background, and Operations / Plant Manager by trade so I've always been into technical things especially when it makes sense. I haul stuff all the time (RV, jeep on trailer, motorcycles, etc.) and haven't owned a truck since 97. We use our family SUV (dodge durango HEMI) for our towing needs, but I became particularly interested when I started hearing about how simple the IDI is, and how if taken care of could last a long time. My towing needs are for below 14,000lbs so the IDI in a dually made sense. I commute everyday on a BMW R1200RT motorcycle with a boxer engine that while advanced in terms technology, is simple in that it's the same fundamental design that BMW mastered over 50 years ago (boxer engine). After seeing an IDI up close I realized it's so simple, I couldn't go wrong so I decided to get one. Just didn't think I'd get mine for free in a CNC machine trade deal. My truck is a 93 F350 with one of those conversion packages, you know the leather, wood, rope lights, fender flairs, etc. It had 199K on the Odometer when I got it. The previous owner put a new trans, master cylinder, and tires. I could have easily purchased a new truck but like everyone else in the world, I too am on a budget and besides what fun would it be to have something go wrong on the new truck, and have to take it in every time the computer gives you a light or something. Don't get me wrong, I know technology well, but maybe that's the issue. I'm around it so much that maybe I just need simple to break away from the day to day issues associated with work. An IDI is , compression, fuel, and air, and everything is easy access. Check the oil, coolant, and trans, and I should be good for a while. I also have intentions of running either veggie or wast oil in the near future. I'm a newbi to the forum, and have a thread that's still open titled 7.3 IDI newbie. Great question, and great input from all so far.

 

[typ4]

Well ,being a diesel mechanic???? My Dad gave me a 79 ford F250 x cab 2wd, beautiful cali truck, then they moved to the Oregon coast , 3 years later when the roof rotted off, I found the 91, put the built 460 in it, NO fuel mileage. The wife doesnt care for diesel fumes but when I told her she had to buy all the gas for vacations, at 6 mpg loaded she changed her mind.

Then I decided to find a cummins for a swap, could not score one anywhere so bought a core 7.3 for 100.00 and rebuilt the truck back to front, the rest is history. I just left an early PS towing a small trailer in the dust and I have the camper on so I think it is running pretty good.

 

[Alex S]

I have always been an International Harvester fan (1st truck was a 68 international and still have it) and i needed a daily driver that could hull my bike and get respectable millage. Not to mention i was getting tired of the unpredictability of a gas engine. So i came across my 91 CC and it was cheap so i snaged it

 

[Agnem]

I got the Moose Truck because I wanted a locomotive, but knew I would never be able to get one in the driveway.

 

[dyoung14]

I got the Moose Truck because I wanted a locomotive, but knew I would never be able to get one in the driveway.

 

[sootman73]

I got the Moose Truck because I wanted a locomotive, but knew I would never be able to get one in the driveway.

 

[Goofyexponent]

What got me into the diesel market, specifically the IDI's was the pure luck. I had a gasser 1996 F150, and it was a tough old truck. When the thing died, I KNEW right away I wanted another 1992 - 1996 F series truck. I posted an ad on the local Kijiji.ca and my truck was brought to my attention by it's owner at the time. His wife kept re-cycling the glow plugs when she tried to start it and it ruined the glow plugs EVERY time. He wanted $1500 for it. I mentioned it to BigRigTech, my part time employer and local source of knowlegde on these rigs, and he said if it runs, and isn't falling apart...go for it. I haven't looked back since. As mentioned a million times before, these things run on ANYTHING and seem to last forever. Not big power houses, but tough as an old biker and easier to fix than playing with lego!