Oh of coarse. Pre matiance is the best matiance. Two of my best friends are mechanics. I hear that all the time. I know a cummins is reliable. I dont plan on heavily heavily modding it. But it will be not close to stock at all. I plan on doing all the free mods, injectors, delievery valves, exhaust, intake and maybe a bigger turbo one day. A daily driver, but a bad daily driver none the less.

 

being a professional mechanic, any used car i buy, weather it was replaced already or not, if i have any doubt, i'll go and replace it ASAP. It's taken me 2 years to finish that list, but still, the truck has never left me anywhere in the last 50K miles. It's been drag raced, sled pulled, car hauler, long haul trips. I made that last post to show how poorly it had been treated, and 20* btdc is no good on headgaskets, but she held together. I have every bit of faith in this motor/trans to take me to siberia and back.

 

Yes, and the truck is close to cheap enough to do so sorta. I love to do that. However having some cash in the bank would be nice. Literally every dime I have except for a few hundred is in my Truck and my bike. My bike has been for sale for only two weeks. It will be gone soon. If I get good money out of the bike, I could make an reasonable offer on that truck if I play my cards right and have alot of cash to play with once the other truck sells. I just dont know if thats a good plan to take a truck with 280k on her and throw a couple grand for matiance and a built tranny. If it was 150k area, I probably wouldnt think twice about it.

 

It's probably one of the better vehicles to modify and not get SOL'd with. I don't have a lot of automatic experience, I only end up driving one a few times in a year now, but that'd be the first thing I'd beef up to hell. After that, keep your running gear in good shape and you should be good to go.

 

Yeah,
Even if it is a money pit, after you have done everything its still cheaper than new and makes you smile everyday!

I love my Cummins!!!

 

I hope so. I wish it had half the miles it did on it.

 

I'd say pass on it.... get a lower mileage CTD to start with. look for one with extra cab and 5sp. 4x has higher resale value.

loads of reasonably priced 12v second gen with 150k miles. what's hard is to find one under 100k miles.

how much are they asking? even if it's priced super low. I'd still pass.
what would make a difference is if truck has documented maintenance. with all the major repairs that been done recently. current owner may have decided he's had enough.

note it's completely different taking a truck to 250k + miles and knowing it's dead reliable. vs starting with 250k+ and not knowing where maintenance is really at.

 

FBX22 or anyone else,
I had a question. What is the advantages of having the valve adjustments done?? I just purchased my 97 with 184k miles on it, the original owner advised me that he never had the valves adjusted. Everything sounded fine in regards to the engine but, I went ahead and had the valves adjusted right after I bought her but, never really got an explanation from the shop as to what the benefits of doing it was.
Thanks,
Steve

 

valve adjustment is part of long term maintenance. All mechanicals wear.

it's no different from getting your oil changed. only valve adjustment falls under long term maintenance instead of short term.

at 185K miles some other items that will be coming if it's not done yet.

1. water pump
2. idler bearings
3. tie rod ends and ball joint
4. wheel bearings
5. U joints
6. Frt brake pads and rear shoes
7. fan belts
8. radiator hoses including small bypass hoses

and so fort...

valves will wear into valve seat, changing valve train lash or amount of play designed into valve train. this changes the efficiency of your motor by slightly changing the timing of when valve open or close.

when you adjust valves, lash is set back to factory spec's in a specific sequence. Cummins valves have a long service interval compared to other motors.

 

i did free mods to my 94 around 235000 i now have 247000 not many miles since mods but still no problems yet other than stupid general wear and tare items i love my cummins. have a friend with a 97 f250 took him his gooseneck 2 pallets of sod 1 yard of dirt for 100 mile round trip this morning he loved it i think he is going to look for a cummins when he get his truck back from the body shop.

 

Well to answer all... He wants 6500 for it. He sounds desperate and has another truck (3500 cummins) he pulls with and has no use to it. Wants it out of his driveway.

 

do a search on autotraders to get an idea on national pricing. here's a search for up to $7,500. loads of choices

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/search...=&keywordsfyc=

 

Ive been searching for awhile for one and its cheap, alot of miles but cheap. I want an 12v Long bed, I like single cabs so I wont be as long as a bus. And most definately 4x4. I would sort of prefer a manual, Im used to it. And drivetrain work is cheaper. However, I could put up with an auto if it was cheap enough. Im looking to spend under 8ish for the truck itself. I could go higher but Id like to have the money to build the drive train up quickly so it wont be in the shop soon. Another member on here (Taucion) got his 94, 12v ,4x4 sittin 4inches up on 35s for 7500 with only 149 on her. Great deal, practiaclly stole that truck and I wish I had bought it before him ha
I guess my search goes on and I keep reading up on these trucks. I may still go look at it, he might have all the matiance records or something. I bet I could give him 5500 for it and drive away before he knew what hit him however...

 

betcha you can do better than $5500... most folks are not in the know about cummins are good for 500k+.

so when vehicles get much over 220k miles, it get really hard to sell.

 

I offered him my bike (05 Kawasaki 750) for it and he doesnt ride...