|
Small update on the red truck, I found why the power didn't seem quite right. The passenger side exhaust manifold to pipe bolts are rusted out so a massive boost leak. Had a chance to do a true cold start on it to get an idea how healthy the injectors are and such and once the glow plugs got some heat into the head it fired right up.
There's an interesting thing I never knew about on these engines, there's some sort of valve for the exhaust back pressure while cold. With it activated and reving the engine ~1500rpm it closes as much as it can and you can hear the boot leak like crazy. The guy I bought it from was a bit shady and hard to work with, so I wouldn't doubt he had the engine warmed up before I got there.
Also he mentioned front u joint is bad the first time I called him, second time he said rear u joint is bad, then while I was there he said he thinks a tire is out of balance with no mention of the u joints (he seems to have bad memory). Anyway, all but like 1 u joint is shot, two are about to come apart they are so bad and the drive shaft vibrates pretty bad while driving so it's a fix right away type of thing. Looks like new u joints are about $4.50 each, and it looks to take about 5. Front axle u joints wouldn't be a bad idea too, front wheel bearing seals, etc. Oddly, the transfer case looks extra clean like it was just worked on or replaced, yet u joints are trashed.
I also looked into some videos on intercoolers and the 99+ intercooler can be made to mount into the older trucks. The intake plenum is two different sizes, the older one being smaller and there's 1/2 year model that had the same size as my truck and also had an intercooler, early 1999. Just about everything for that year is double priced so doing some research, it looks like I could swap out the intake plenums on my truck to the larger style and use the more common and cheaper 99.5+ parts. Not a cheap upgrade, looking like around $200-500. Short term I'm not going to focus on that too much, but I'll keep an eye out for an extra parts truck that's super cheap, maybe blown engine, trans, etc where it's like $500-800 for the whole truck. The 2001 is an option too since it has the parts, but I want to check what all it needs to get going again. Might be able to flip it for ~$2000 profit, or my dad might end up wanting it to actually drive. Hate to disable a machine that has potential to go down the road again within a reasonable price. I think I did pretty good on it though, $1300 for that truck and the intercooler stuff is say $300, front axle is around $800, running 7.3L seems to value around $2000, and a good transmission seems to run around $1000. Just about makes it sound more logical to part it out than get it going. No clue how well the parts actually sell though. It seems like I got quite a good deal on the red truck, the parts are easily worth the price I paid for it, one of those things where the machine as parts is worth more than the whole machine.
Also, confirmed, the red truck has a 3.55 gear ratio, open rear end. The white 2001 truck is 3.73 limited slip, and my dad's automatic 96 is 4.10 limited slip. Kind of crazy we have a set of 4x4 axles for all gear ratios these trucks came with (I think), my truck having the highest plus being the only manual (with creeper gear). Pretty happy about that.
Anyway, got some work to do on it, probably going to change all of the fluids and hopefully get to drive it some to get some base line figures.
|