hey there, looked at a truck to buy yesterday. '97 3500 stick. drove excellent, shifted smooth (no scratches or anyhting) looks decent. only problem is it has 310K mile son it. they were probably all highway miles seeing as it was a Barrel Racer's truck (all highway miles in texas). how much life should this engine have in it if it was well taken care of. it looks like they cared for thier truck, just drove it a LOT. any ideas?

adam

 

A truck I see up here had 670,000 on it the last time I saw the guy. Motor had never been touched and it pulls a gooseneck all the time with dog food at a gross wt. around 26000. They had put a couple of 5 sp. in it and that was about all the failures they had except for normal maintanence. It is a 97 5 sp. twd.

 

If the price is good I wouldn't be scared of it. I bought mine with 207k, got 22something thousand on it now. Nothing major gone wrong yet, runs strong, uses no oil, only colors of smoke it makes are black and a little white when it's real cold out.

 

Its a crap shoot...to be real honest you never know when they will die. Buy it only if you can afford the $$ if the worse thing could happen.
Remember new ones under 100,000 take a dump once in awhile so prceed with caution/Mine died with 111,000 on it..so you never know......

 

Bought mine with 160K working thru issues with steering, If you are handy and have time to fix things go for it. I have 260K now.
Replaced transmission prior to having trouble just to allow bombing.

 

I recently went and looked at a truck with 360k miles for friend (96 2500 5spd). The truck itself was pretty immaculate, interior spotless. Was used as a traveling salesman in the NW. Friend bought it.

 

if your gut tells you to go with it, go with it... if it runs well and everything seems to be in good order, get it!

 

I'm supposed to pick up a another 92 on Monday with 316K on it, flat bed with stake sides and lift gate to use to run back and forth to sand blasters, but for $1500.00, I can't complain, and the truck ain't in bad shape. Like was said earlier, it's a crap shoot, but for that price, if it takes a dump, I can part it out and make my money back.