Bought my first 12v last night! Did a test drive and everything seemed fine until I parked it. Small amounts of smoke coming from the hood, popped it up and it was coming from the top of the engine, with a slight smell of oil. Owner claimed it just hadnt run in a while and a friend of mine confirmed that his does that from time to time. Paid the piper and left.
Got about 2 miles down the road and realized that it was overheating, pulled over and found that the hose on the bottom of the radiator was disconnected. Filled it with water (that was all I could do on the side of the road) and drove it home. Overheating has gone away but it doesn't seem to have the power it should seemed to struggle to make it up my relatively steep driveway in second gear. The engine seems to be "loping" almost like not all cylinders are firing.
I am not great at diagnosing this stuff yet, any ideas on what I should be looking at first? Or have I just dumped a bunch of money down the drain? Previous owner is MIA, wont return calls or texts.
If it has low power it could also have a plugged fuel filter or the FSS ( fuel shutoff solenoid ) may not be pulling all the way up. Best thing to do is to pull up all the way on the FSS arm and tie it up and take it for a drive.
I believe it was dry when I left the seller hence the small amount of smoke and oil smell that should have tipped me off. The first time I looked at the temp gauge was after I paid and left. It was pegged out. Honestly I didn't even think to check the fluid. I know it's a novice mistake.
Well assuming all issues are good, no headgasket or anything bad like that, since this is ur first 12v, just know these trucks already are underpowered.. they are dogs until u tune them up.
Ya, that's not true.....There is certainly more power/HP to gain, some free...but even stock trucks (at least manual's) are not dogs even with factory settings....
Mistakes happen. Just trying to figure out what level of predicament you're in. If the hose popped off on the drive home you almost certainly would have smelled antifreeze and it would have left a huge wet mess under the truck. If it was bone dry down there and no antifreeze smell, it was likely dry when you left.
The oil smoke isn't necessarily a major red flag, any truck with leaky valve cover gaskets will get that on startup as the oil runs onto the exhaust runners. That said, I've never seen that result in an amount of smoke you could see with the hood closed.
It will take a long time for a dry engine to show on the gauge as overheating, as heat will only be conducted through the block to the sending unit instead of through the coolant under active circulation.
I would fill it up with coolant and drive it around a bit, see if coolant & oil are mixing, either are leaking externally, if it's consuming coolant, or if it's pressurizing the cooling system (look for bubbles in the overflow tank). Those are the 4 symptoms of a bad head gasket.
if the seller sold you a truck that was low on coolant, he probably didnt do much maintenance on it to begin with so you should go ahead and flush the system. Get your self 3 gallons or the green or yellow (mix with anything) antifreeze coolant and 3 gallons of distilled water. I would pull the thermostat and stick your water hose in the block, heater core and radiator. Get new upper and lower hoses as well since the old ones are falling off.
W/re: to it being a dog... Naturally-aspirated, the 5.9 isn't nearly enough engine for the weight of the truck, so if you're not making any boost, the truck's no fun at all. Gauges are the first step -- fuel pressure and boost, at least. If the PO left a freaking radiator hose disconnected (!!! this blows my mind a little), it wouldn't be a stretch to suggest, say, the intercooler boots aren't on right, aren't tight, are busted... or maybe aren't even there at all? The others have pretty well filled you in on possible damage, and how to detect it, from running it dry, and I hope you're in the clear on that, but I think you're gonna need to go through and inspect everything -- some outside of the normal 'beginner's thread' stuff -- that might typically be taken for granted. Nothing can be trusted until you've put a wrench on it yourself.
To be fair, most of us who didn't buy their truck new, have cursed PO's for this and that and everything else
"It's a dog" or not is an extremely subjective evaluation. Also, a stock 215 is completely different from a stock 160.
The one I have was a company tow rig, put up for sale because an employee's personally-owned truck (forget what it was, but it was a stock twenty-teens gasser) could out-tow the company truck. The company spent quite a bit of time and money with a local diesel shop trying to fix the low power complaint before giving up and putting it up for sale. I was told it was routine for it to get passed by loaded semis on grades.
This was all known to me before I looked at it, and driving it home I was both disappointed (stock power was not at all what I was expecting for a stock truck based on reading posts here and on other forums) and developed suspicions that something might actually be wrong with it. After I got it home, I found it was all stock except the starwheel was loosened a little and timing had been bumped to 16. All the tamper-proofing was in place on the pump. Wondered if the trans was smoked, but there was no abnormal debris in the pan, fluid smelled okay, bands were adjusted, and the pan bolts hadn't been recently disturbed so I know I wasn't seeing a very recent pre-sale trans service. Did basic maintenance and mods over the next year, never found a smoking gun. I basically ended up accepting that that is just how slow stock trucks are, 160s anyway.
Now, after having had the truck for 6 years, multiple turbos and sets of injectors, extensive fuel system mods, dyno events, etc etc, and especially after going through the engine over the winter (not that it ever gave me reason to suspect there was an internal engine issue) there's zero possibility that there was something obscure wrong with it that just got missed all this time. The "disappointingly slow truck" I started with is textbook normal.
How about a 93 F250 4x4 with a 7.3 IDI (no turbo)? Slow, 15 mpg, left a haze everywhere they went, and rolled coal above 3000 feet elevation. Better yet a 76 VW Rabbit Diesel at 24 seconds 0 - 60.
Adequately powered is subjective. I'm sure a Maserati driver would think the new Hemi powered 1500s are not adequately powered. There are those who think a 500 HP 12 valve is inadequate for towing when I know for a fact that 300 is more than adequate.
All this “power” talk.... you guys should drive a bone stock first gen with an auto. Foot to the floor going up a steep grade empty I couldn’t go faster than 50-55. But you could still pull a house down at slower speeds.
It's not really fair to compare a 9x truck to anything more modern. These trucks got stronger, faster and more refined with every update. A 9x anything Cummins pulled better than any of the competitors of that era. Compare a 97 even with all the free mods and basic upgrades is a dog compared to a modern diesel. Compared to anything else in the era and it's a monster.
Pretty much sums up why I bought a 12v.
Had a common rail, no way I could deal with the wiring madness.
I know the future is looking bright and we need shades but a barrel of kero/diesel and my 12v will go a long way.
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