A friend of mine has a 2 wheel drive 1992 D250 12 valve for sale. Has 376,000kms on it. The body is in not bad shape, has some rust and a few dents etc and the interior for the most part is pretty good on it. Has P/W, P/L, cruise, air conditioning. Truck runs superb, pretty sure it has 4.10's cuz it tops out at 130kph. Has an auto tranny in it that seems mechanically sound and shifts firm yet. The truck was leaking oil out the valve covers a tiny bit. My question is should i buy it? He wants $3000cdn for it. I noticed this truck isn't intercooled either, is that a big deal or should I hold out for one that is? What else should I be looking at on this truck that could be a problem in the future?

 

Sounds like a pretty solid truck. I'm wondering why you want to buy it though. Just to have it, or do you have a job in mind for it? This will define if it is suitable for what you want or not. If you want it just to have it, yep, I'd buy it. A'course, I'd try and get it cheaper but even for $3k CAD it's probably a good deal, (hard to say without physically seeing/driving it.)
There are plenty of guys running hot-rodded non-I/C trucks, but again it depends on what you want to do with the truck as to whether you would want/need to install one. Putting an I/C in to a non-I/C truck is not too big of a deal, if you don't mind a little fab work. There's one or two sticky articles on this forum, and probably a bunch of threads.
Other things to look out for; rust of course. Panels are getting harder to find . The tranny, if it hasn't been rebuilt, a rebuild with an upgraded TC would be in order if you want to increase HP. If you're going to keep it stock, there's no need for that until it starts going bad. Which it may not do for ages yet!

 

I was actually thinking of putting a slip tank in this truck as a fuel truck for operating machinery around our area in the oilfield, i don't like the idea of it lacking 4x4 but they are really hard to find and if there are any they are in really poor shape or asking a butt load for them. This truck is actually a 91 because in 92 they went to the I/C setup so it can't be a 92. I do want to tinker with it and get some more HP out of it of course. Straight pipe and BHAF would be the first things I would do right off the bat. It needs body work real badly before anything I would honestly say. I really want to be a part of the 1st gen class, I love 12 valves!

 

stock non i/c injectors have been known to make around 400hp. they are significantly larger than stock i/c injectors. non i/c injectors are 4x.012 and i/c injectors are 6x.009. you'd have enough fun with the stockers until they either give up or the bug bites you hard and you wanna upgrade to larger.

 

What are the automatic trannies like in these years of trucks are they pretty durable and what not? I'd like to know what the model number would be of this auto tranny to search it a little better?

 

non i/c have the TF727 3-speed. i/c have the a518 3-speed with OD. with a good converter they're both pretty stout. you can adjust the bands a little tighter for firmer shifts, put a good valve body in it, etc. of course like any, putting more than stock power through them will wear them out faster. if you can afford it and you think it may need one, start with a good converter. when it comes to autos, it's always a recommendation from others here than you put the money into the trans as soon as you can. especially if you have plans for more power.