Engine Question(s) long,......

[Copperhead]

OK guys,.....

Here the deal & little history.

I bought a 95 2wd reg cab PSD (5-speed) back a couple of years ago off Ebay to mainly tow my race car. (actually it's a race truck, but that's another story). It had 185k on it at the time and I've put roughly 10k on it since then. The truck has been flawless performance wise. No leaks, drips or anything. The body is rough, but it pulls my trailer like a champ.

Well back in the spring of this year, I reallized that I enjoyed driving a diesel so much, that I made the decesion to sell my gasser 93 Lightning truck and find me a bigger truck to serve both as my daily driver and tow-pig all in one package . I wanted to find something that would be able to haul me, my wife and my son to the races comfortably,...... so a crew cab PSD (in an OBS) was the obvious answer . I ended up picking up a 97 2wd crew-cab fairly cheap. It had a brand new built E4OD tranny in it and was in overall good shape. The only thing is, it had 285k on it.

Well,......I never can leave well enough alone, as I didn't like the exterior color and I'm somewhat of a perfectionist, so I tore into this truck like there was no tomorrow. I've been in the process of giving the 97 CC the "overhaulin" treatment the last few months with new paint, Intercooler, 4" exhaust, DIY Filter, new carpet, seats out of a 95 Lightning, lowering it down about 3", custom wheels & tires and etc. Long story short, I ended up going a little father with this project than I originally intended, but I'm too far in depth to start taking short cuts now.


Now for the dilema & questions,.......

Once I get the 97 CC road worthy again, my intentions are to sell the 95 reg cab. I've been tossing the idea around of swapping engines prior to me putting it up for sale. Do you guys think it's worth the trouble to put an engine in with 90k less miles or am I just crazy for thinking it? Keep in mind, I know very little about the history on either truck, but I've put over 10k on the 95 engine to know that's it's strong and dependable. The 97 on the other hand I've put less than 1k on it. AND,....to top it off, it has an annoying leak dripping out of the hole on the dust cover hole for the tranny and it's coming from somewhere other than the mech lift pump (I replaced it) and I've yet to locate it. It appears to be be more like fuel than oil, but I can't tell for sure? I would really like to fix this problem, as I absolutely HATE leaks,.....especially on my driveway and garage floor.

Any advice or opinions would surely be appreciated.

[Harohunter]

Im not sure on you problem but here is a good video on leaks.
YouTube - 7.3L LONGEVITY LEAKS 1 OF 2

Hope you get it figured out. The 97s gonna be sweet

[ridiculously_necessary]

there are better people than me to answer this, but i would do an oil analysis. blackstone labs or something, get an idea of what the engines are doing. maybe inspect the injectors as well, see what condition they are in.

[Maintain]

well the link posted covers most of the stuff bud.