I happen to have a Ford but I fell into it by chance and in my defense it's really only a Ford body with the good bits being made by people who actually know how to build stuff....
96 F-250 4x4 Powerstroke with a 5 speed.
Guy was the neighbor of a friend and couldn't make it run. Had a couple diesel "mechanics" out to look it over and they were clueless. He wanted a truck that worked and I jokingly offered my '88 2wd extended cab, long bed, 5 speed, 5.7 Chevy pickup that had 218k on it. He kinda laughed but wanted to look at it anyway. After a month of him talking to my buddy he decided to go ahead with the trade. I couldn't believe it! Even if I parted this Ferd out I could make money as I had only paid $1000 for the Chevy to start with.
We towed the f250 to my house with the Chevy, dude got in it and drove off. I set to work figuring out the flowerjoke. First off I put a new set of batteries in it. And just looked it over. Pulled the dipstick and it was low with just the end having oil but didn't think much about it. It would turn over but didn't try to light at all. Would actually light on ether. Pulled the dipstick again and noticed the drop at the end was smaller than before, weird. Wiped it off, put it back, pulled it again, nothing. No oil on it at all. Put a quart of oil in the engine, pulled the dipstick, nothing... Put a gallon in it, pulled the dipstick, nothing......ended up putting ten quarts in it before it was in the 'safe' area. It cranked over and sputtered to life after sitting at this guy's house for 18 months!! I couldn't believe it!!! I had been working on it for 45 minutes and had a running diesel truck! I drove it around the neighborhood, just feeling it out. It ran pretty well, didn't smoke or make any weird noises. Then after 18 miles it shut off. Refused to restart. It had lost all of the oil I put into it. No visible leaks and it wasn't smoking. I remembered the PO saying he siphoned some fuel from both tanks and that the front one was really dark. Blamed his crazy ex wife, said she probably poured something in it. I added more oil and it ran again. Finally pinned it down to the fuel injector orings. These are HUEI injector engines (use high pressure oil to run the injectors) and it was passing high pressure oil into the fuel system. The front 18ish gallon tank had something like 30 quarts of motor oil in it. $120 in new orings and it's been great for the last 6 years. Oh, it had 141k when I got it, has 154k now.
96 F-250 4x4 Powerstroke with a 5 speed.
Guy was the neighbor of a friend and couldn't make it run. Had a couple diesel "mechanics" out to look it over and they were clueless. He wanted a truck that worked and I jokingly offered my '88 2wd extended cab, long bed, 5 speed, 5.7 Chevy pickup that had 218k on it. He kinda laughed but wanted to look at it anyway. After a month of him talking to my buddy he decided to go ahead with the trade. I couldn't believe it! Even if I parted this Ferd out I could make money as I had only paid $1000 for the Chevy to start with.
We towed the f250 to my house with the Chevy, dude got in it and drove off. I set to work figuring out the flowerjoke. First off I put a new set of batteries in it. And just looked it over. Pulled the dipstick and it was low with just the end having oil but didn't think much about it. It would turn over but didn't try to light at all. Would actually light on ether. Pulled the dipstick again and noticed the drop at the end was smaller than before, weird. Wiped it off, put it back, pulled it again, nothing. No oil on it at all. Put a quart of oil in the engine, pulled the dipstick, nothing... Put a gallon in it, pulled the dipstick, nothing......ended up putting ten quarts in it before it was in the 'safe' area. It cranked over and sputtered to life after sitting at this guy's house for 18 months!! I couldn't believe it!!! I had been working on it for 45 minutes and had a running diesel truck! I drove it around the neighborhood, just feeling it out. It ran pretty well, didn't smoke or make any weird noises. Then after 18 miles it shut off. Refused to restart. It had lost all of the oil I put into it. No visible leaks and it wasn't smoking. I remembered the PO saying he siphoned some fuel from both tanks and that the front one was really dark. Blamed his crazy ex wife, said she probably poured something in it. I added more oil and it ran again. Finally pinned it down to the fuel injector orings. These are HUEI injector engines (use high pressure oil to run the injectors) and it was passing high pressure oil into the fuel system. The front 18ish gallon tank had something like 30 quarts of motor oil in it. $120 in new orings and it's been great for the last 6 years. Oh, it had 141k when I got it, has 154k now.
