Looking at a work truck, found an 85 F250 with an international harvester heavy duty deisel, 4x4 xlt lariet, super clean and straight, with 248K on the clock. My understanding is deisels run forever with proper maintenance, and this guy has all the records and is original owner. 2,250$ Any ideas or experience with deisel motors and trucks?

 

i know nothing about them other than what you've said above......but if its an '85 and has that many miles on it, idk......what he's asking isnt TOO much to drop on it! sounds like a good deal.

 

ya they can run for a long time, but they are pricey to have overhauled. Plus thats just the motor. How about the transfer case and uv joints. What kind of miles are they. Highway or farm use. did he pull a camper or cattle trailers. This link is to nada on as close of a truck as i could get. http://www.nadaguides.com/usedcars.a...da=-1&nx=1

 

New starter, new alternator, new glow-plugs. U-joints changed recently, on it's 3rd clutch, maybe 50K on it. Dude seems really up front on his maintenance and kept it up. The truck is cleaner than most I've seen around her 10yrs younger and more $$$$

 

Diesels used to run forever, but that's been changing in the recent years.... at least for Ford (International, rather). The old skool diesels like in the '85 will run damn near forever! That was back when the diesels were actually good! But nowadays, as far as Fords go, the last good diesel motor they had was Internationals 7.3L DIT. Last year was midyear 2003. Then the 6.0L came out (still International) and it's the absolute biggest piece of **** EVAR!![:@] Trust me I know, I work as a diesel tech for Ford. The diesels were fine until they started adding emissions crap and electronic controls. They've also become much MUCH smoother, cleaner, quieter, and a hell of alot faster! The 6.0's are ****** fast even completely stock.... way faster than a comparable gas model! But the reliablity is ****. Always blowing headgaskets, EGR valves clog up, oil coolers plug and restrict coolant flow to the EGR cooler, burns up EGR cooler and burns coolant, overheats. High pressure oil leaks cause either intermittent or complete crank no start, injectors go out, sometimes get stuck and hydrolock the motor on fuel. Quick connect fittings on the high pressure oil pump blow off and put a hole in the rear cover, high pressure oil branch tubes leak, and the dinky little a/c size o-rings they use to hold 2000 psi oil pressure blow out, high pressure oil pumps blow up and spread metal bits throughout system, rear main seals leak, turbo unison rings gets stuck due to coking deposits or corrosion, CAC tubes blow off turbo, ICP sensors leak oil into electrical connector and make engine go haywire, exhaust Y-pipes leak, exhaust manifolds leak....AAAHHHHHHH the list goes on!! I think you get the idea though, lol


Oops.... sorry bout the rant, heh. But back to your original question, go look at the truck and if it seems solid, and the tranny feels good (check the fluid color), then it might not be bad! I'd try and work the price down a lil bit, but those old box trucks were good solid trucks!

 

So your saying the 1985 heavy duty international was a good one right? Truck looks about as good for a truck of it's age, perhaps better. Engine bay is pretty clean, a little oil build-up under the power steering pump, nothing serious, a little gunk here and there, but nothing that screams at you or begs for attention. The truck started up fine, a little choppy the first few seconds but warmed up really really quick, Gears feel pretty tight, it's a 4sp manual, good clutch pressure, I think 3.55's out back in the pumpkin. Says he gets 18-20mpg at 60mph, and not much less with a decent load in tow. My honest opinion is that it's a truck that was well cared for by an individual who had an appreciation for his truck, and kept it up accordingly. He did the maintenance he was supposed to do and took pride in his truck. Like mentioned, looking around, I see 1995's that are thrashed and all going for more when they're **** boxes. I'm not looking for a perfect rig, just a solid dependable truck to work, tow, camp, hunt, and make the occassional cross country trip when I get stationed elsewhere. So long as I don't have to go dumping tons of money into it. He says brakes will need doin about 15-20K from now, other than that, everythings on the up and up.

 

Yup, good solid motor on an '85! Sounds like the truck is in pretty good shape! Just make sure all the radiator and coolant hoses are in good shape, and the brake hoses are good. Personally I would go ahead and replace them just for safetys sake cuz of the age (if they haven't been replaced already). But that's just me (<--- had brake lines burst on another car I had once... slightly paranoid, lol). I'd say go for it!

 

Yea man, new hoses and belts throughout the motor. Didn't check the brake lines though. Ehh, brake lines arent that big of a deal. Are deisel motors stupid expensive to work on?

 

Ehhh... some stuff is more expensive, some stuff isn't. On the older ones though they're much MUCH more simple than the newer diesels, so it really shoulnd't be that much more. The newer ones there's so much crap shoehorned in there pretty much anything you do is a project[:@] Hell just a serpantine belt on a 6.0L pays 1.9 hr WARRANTY time!! (warranty time is usually rediculously low, and pays less time than it takes to actually do the job). You'd just have to find somebody to work on it, cuz not everybody does diesels! That is unless you plan on doing stuff yourself, which really isn't that hard. Oil changes are always more expensive on a diesel just becaue they use alot more oil... usually 15 quarts for most

 

I turn my own wrenches within reason. Axles and clutches, bearings and so on are pretty simple. Just a tad nervous cause I've never owned a deisel and really know little to nothing about them other than the basics. BUT.....the truck comes with a service manual......probably enough information to get me in trouble so I can tow it to a guy like you who knows what the hell he is doing!