Anyone have one of these? I'm shopping around for a plow truck and this ford has this motor. Any personal experiences? Also, power modifications...what have you all done?

Thanks

 

I had an 86 with the 6.9 and was not a rocket of a motor but has plenty of torque. The only thing I did with the motor is turn up the pump install a K&N filter and put some headers on it from Stan's Headers. Better motor than the 7.3 due to the thinner cyclinder walls. They eat up glow plugs about once a year or every 6 months, but will make a good plow truck

 

6.9s are great. There are some mods such as swiss cheesing the air cleaner housing that is reported to help.

Try these guys, lots of good reading there. www.thedieselstop.com

http://www.thedieselstop.com/contents/index.php3

Check out the forums too.

 

i got a 91 7.3 international so far mods are just pyro gauge and 5" stack iv got the fuel turned up but when i did it just melted the transmission so i had a heavy duty torque converter put in it and it runs great now i like it

 

I bought a new 6.9 in '86. At first I loved it, but.............

By the time it hit 100,000 miles I had put in two or three water pumps, two cylinder heads and a rebuilt injection pump. The glow plugs were bad but I could still get it started.

That was only the engine! It broke a tooth off the ring gear, the automatic tranny was ready to be rebuilt the second time and it had at least the 6th set of front brakes on it. The windshield leaked and the fuel gauge only worked above 1/2 tank. It smoked so bad that I got looks all the time from other people and got turned in to the DMV for smoking, so I learned to not give it full throttle on hills.

I spent at least $5000. in repairs to get that far and dumped it.

A buddy bought one used a few years after I got mine and his injection pump went out too.


John

 

Sounds like yours was a lemon Raspy.

A buddy of mine had a nice 86 or 87 extended cab long bed with a manual trans. He used it to haul around his tractors to pulls. It wasn't the fastest thing by a long shot, but it always got there.

It never had any problems except for the glow plugs. He replaced his a couple times and I believe he eventually put in a manual push button to control them. Even so he kept a can of ether in the tool box just in case.

All that was about 7 years ago. He eventually sold it and now drives a 3rd gen Cummins. The guy that bought it though pulls a horse trailer around and I see it just about every year at a local fair.

 

I bought a new 6.9 pickup in 83 and a Class C motorhome with 6.9 in 84. Both were good engines. In these early year models the injection pumps were only good for about 50k untill they upgraded some of the internal parts and then they lasted much longer. Glow plugs can be a problem but stated earlier just keep a can of ether with you and you can get it started. They are naturaly aspirated so no intercooler fouling problems when you use a free flow air filter like K&N which is definetly needed on this engine. It is like giving the truck another gear. I ran stock filter for several years before I finaly got around to putting in a K&N filter and the hills that used to pull my motorhome down to 45 in 2nd gear (auto) I pulled at 55 in drive (3rd) and the only thing I had changed was the air filter.

 

yea raspy is right about the transmissions being weak or bad, at 170k the previous owner rebuilt the transmission in mine then when i got it it kicked hard into the gears and turning the pump up just made it worst so i had to rebuild it again at 328k which if you do the math is 158k miles that the trans lasted and the fuel gauges go out too if you let them get to about 1/4 of a tank low then they will die on you easily

 

I've had several of these before seeing the light. Glow plugs are'nt as much of an issue if you install a push button and top quality plugs but they still need replacing now and then. Put a Hypertec turbo on it and it will be pretty decent power wise. But as stated above other things will need up keep.

 

I drove a 1990 with a 7.3 and it had 566,000 miles on it. I talk to the customer of the truck and he has owned it since new. Not sure on how much it broke but it had a 4sp.

 

Dad bought a '85 in 1986 with 19K on the clock, 4x4 4 spd, new clutch. When it burned up in 1996, we estimated the mileage at 350K. 1 bad go-round with the fuel pump, regular clutch replacement (about every 60K, it had 3.55 gears) and 1 bell housing. It had dual exhaust with glass packs out in front of hind wheels. It was a beast in its day, woudl outpull any other 6.9 in the neighborhood and got respectable mileage. Replaced it 2 years before its demise with a '94 Powerstroke that I still drive. All in all, a basic diesel that won't keep up to recent offerings but a good engine. I'd try to find a 1 ton to avoid the TTB front end.

 

If you're going ot use it as a plow truck, install a manual glow plug switch - as you'll be using it a lot. Also make sure to plug it in (coolant heater or block heater on these?) as it will grealty help getting it started on chilly mornings. Honestly, if you don't HAVE to have a diesel, I'd give some serious thought to a little newer 3/4 Ton Chevy with a 350, fairly bulletproof except for some transmissions, and very cheap to run and repair overall. Just my $.02.

 

My dad has had about four of them around 89 and he haules round half ton bails of hay with them got at least 500,000 on all of them but the rest of the truck fell apart 2 of them frame cracked in half real tough trucks.

 

They are pretty good trucks. Dont run bad at all to be N/A. I have driven them, and i swear they run better than my boss's turbo 6.5 chevy does. They dont start that great. The ones i was around didnt anyways, but they are smooth motors.

Eric

 

I have an 86F250 4X4 std cab with a Banks Turbo, C6 and a 5 inch exhaust.

With 4.10 gears this thing is a real stump puller, but a pig as far as on hwy driving (72 mph top speed and 12 mpg).

Very reliable truck, you need to upgrade to a manual glowplug switch and a cheap universal electric fuel pump (needs 5psi max) to replace the stock mechanical lift pump.

Gauges in these old trucks are not reliable at all, get real gauges for Temp and Oil Pressure, use the trip gauge on the odometer as a fuel gauge, I start looking for fuel when the odometer shows over 150 miles on a tank of fuel.

Although I recently purchased a 97 F250 4X4 SCab Shorty with a 12V Cummins, I am hanging on to the old 86 to be my real workhorse.

Good luck


big jake