Driving 2.5 hrs to look at a truck Need advice

[Earl6788]

Saturday I'm driving 2.4 hours to look at a truck. It's a 2004 F250 XLT FX4 CCSB almost 130k miles $15k. It's a dealer so it's state inspected they also put new tires on that's a plus. They said front end is good. I asked if it had any problems and the salesperson said when they got it it wasn't running right so they sent it to a diesel mechanic they know. They said he replaced the starter, did a EGR delete, replaced the O-rings on the injectors (leaking), replaced headgaskets and installed head studs. So now it's good. I think it's great because of the EGR delete, something I planned on doing and the headstuds something I would plan on doing but would probably never get to. Also it has a gooseneck in the bed. I would remove that and try to sell it.
Does this sound like a good deal or something to watch out for since it needed all that work? If I decide to get it I'll post some pics up here.Thanks

[jesilvas]

Depends on who did it. If it was done right I wouldn't hesitate as long as it was preventative maintenance.

[somthin333]

Sounds like a good deal to me. I recently got an '03 with 89xxx miles for $13k. My truck also needed headgaskets and i had the egr delete and arp studs installed as well so that was an additional $4k. I am new to diesels so i don't know if the work that was done means it will have more problems or not....but i really hope they are good after that.

[jesilvas]

Originally Posted by somthin333

Sounds like a good deal to me. I recently got an '03 with 89xxx miles for $13k. My truck also needed headgaskets and i had the egr delete and arp studs installed as well so that was an additional $4k. I am new to diesels so i don't know if the work that was done means it will have more problems or not....but i really hope they are good after that.

but you better do a WHOLE lot more reading before you rely on just that

[Earl6788]

Originally Posted by jesilvas

Depends on who did it. If it was done right I wouldn't hesitate as long as it was preventative maintenance.

I know they said the injectors were leaking. Can't remember if he said the HG blew out or not, but a used car dealer wouldn't stud heads for no reason so they probably did. Do you see that being a problem?

[Aretoo]

A couple of things I did before I went to buy my truck. First go and get yourself a CTS or a scangauge and take it with you to your test drive. There are a lot of things you can find out about the vehicle before you purchase it. If you can't buy one at least see if a friend has one they will let you borrow. You need to use it to check your ECT and EOT deltas to see the condition of the oil cooler is. You can also find out the condition of the FICM and other critical points of the truck.

I also went to NAPA and purchased a combustion gas check kit. It is a quick way to make sure the head gaskets or EGR are not leaking combustion gasses into your coolant, a sign of a bigger problem. Since the EGR is deleted that would not be a problem but even with new head gaskets they could still be an issue if they used the BO/VR gaskets.

Good luck with your possible purchase.

[Earl6788]

Originally Posted by Aretoo

A couple of things I did before I went to buy my truck. First go and get yourself a CTS or a scangauge and take it with you to your test drive. There are a lot of things you can find out about the vehicle before you purchase it. If you can't buy one at least see if a friend has one they will let you borrow. You need to use it to check your ECT and EOT deltas to see the condition of the oil cooler is. You can also find out the condition of the FICM and other critical points of the truck.

I also went to NAPA and purchased a combustion gas check kit. It is a quick way to make sure the head gaskets or EGR are not leaking combustion gasses into your coolant, a sign of a bigger problem. Since the EGR is deleted that would not be a problem but even with new head gaskets they could still be an issue if they used the BO/VR gaskets.

Good luck with your possible purchase.

Thanks. I have the Torque app on my phone and it has PIDS for the 6.0 so I should be covered in that department. I'll look into the CGCK

[somthin333]

I agree with jesilvas! i am definitely not an expert! Just putting in my 2 cents. i haven't had my headgaskets replaced long enough to have any problems with them. And this is just my experience. I would also do some reading if i was you.

[WLDHRSE]

Originally Posted by Earl6788

Thanks. I have the Torque app on my phone and it has PIDS for the 6.0 so I should be covered in that department. I'll look into the CGCK

So, what is the Torque app?

I was going to say everything Aretoo said. I'm getting ready to get a second Insight so I hav one just incase I need to test drive something.

[JIM_C]

Also ask for an OASIS report to see what else was done to the truck under warranty. If it was used to pull (you say it has a gooseneck ball setup) then it's probably been through oil/EGR coolers. Not a death knell if the fixes were done correctly but leverage you can use to lower the price.
Like Aretoo said, try to get a Scanguage II to use while driving it around and that will tell you a LOT. I did that with an '07 the other day and as far as I could tell it was clean inside and out but they wanted too much for it. I wonder if they still have it ...