I am looking at buying one. It has the turbo diesel motor with only 63,000 miles, runs great. I am going to have to do alot of body work but I think it will be worth it. I'm just wondering what are the pros and cons of this year and motor/drivetrain. I was told it has the 7.3L. Also, what would be a decent buy for one of this year and mileage and needing substantial body work, i.e. wheel wells, fenders, bedside. I'm new to buying a diesel so thought I might get some insight here. Thanks

 

Actually the engine is a 7.3..

Are you sure its not 163,000? If it's that low of mileage it would be a 'plus' for an early diesel/trucktobuild.. Is it an Auto or Manual trans?

How does it run/drive??

 

Yes it is 63,000. It's auto and runs and drives great. And yes it is a 7.3, I made a typo.

 

No 'real' Cons because the 7.3 has always been a good contender..

Age might be, but it was a good solid truck for its day.. Sounds like it still is.. Some of the things that came up over the years for me was injection pump failures (#1), some even at your mileage or close (factor in the age if it hasn't been changed already) but usuallybeyond.. Glow plug/controller issues for starting concerns.. Head gaskets on occasion but 'usually' for higher mileage engines.. Radiator/tank problems from 'racking' at the radiator support, more so for trucks used in severe conditions.. The E40D was an 'adiquate' trans but more than a few failures 'especially' in heavy/severe applications.. I could go on, and I'm really just pulling a few items outta my hat, but all'n all, probably less failure rate/s than the new trucks/diesels..

Body work can/could eat up the price of a good deal (or add on) pretty fast unless you do your own body work, (I do) and without seeing the extent of the work needed on yours an estimate of the value of a good deal would be a guess.. If I were shopping for a decent 89/7.3/4x4 I wouldn't expect to spend bunches of cash, and would probably look for one that needed work anyway since most of them at that vintage do.. Although, it always seems that any running 4x4 can bring a few K at least..

Post a few pics of the truck if you can....

 

I'll try to post some pics later today. I can get for around $2000, I will do most of the body work myself so I figure with that and paint and a tail gate I should be able to keep the total under $3500 for the finished product.

 

Personally I never recommend anything with a turbocharger or supercharger being that they can cause fires if the bearings aren't regularly serviced - especially turbos since the run off of the engines exhaust where rust and corrosion are a constant factor.

 

Going to possibly pick it up tomorrow. What is the best oil, brand and type, to use in it and what kind of mileage should I expect. I currently have a 4.0 Ranger STX 4x4 that is only getting around 14 mpg, so I figure I probably won't do any worse with the 7.3.

 

We have some newer onesthat run the city with over 200,000 miles on them. Only problems we,ve seen is crank sensors and injector module. But they seea lot of idle time. Good engine

 

Thanks for the input, but the deal fell through, it has a tranny problem, doesn't want to shift and when it does it shifts hard, don't know if its a vacuum problem or what and he won't let me have it checked out before buying.

 

It has a vacuum pump on the engine and a vacuum switch on the side of the injector pump. Could be something as simple as a bad vacuum line.