Lokking at buying a 6.5 powered truck

[vr1967]

Going this week to look at a 98 3500 SRW 4x4 truck with 6.5 and NV4500. All the trucks I have bought in the past have been from known people, but this one is from out of town. Taking a friend with me, but what do I look for engine wise? Owner said he just replaced oil cooler lines. (Said they were his fault they got messed up) Also said there were no leaks.
One thing I will look at is oil in inlet of turbo. (Truck has 134K miles) What else do I check? I did a search, but must not have used right terms.

Thanks
Virgil

[6.5 Detroit Diesel]

Check for PMD relocation. You could check turbo shaft play. Run the engine and pull the dipstick out when warm. Check IP wear. (see how smooth she runs up to 2,000)

Sounds like a nice combo. Wouldn't mind finding a stick in that late a year.

[trbankii]

Pay attention to how smoothly the clutch operates. Although, that is best judged from having experience with one that does operate smoothly...

When I bought mine, I just figured that the heavy clutch went with the territory. Unfortunately, it was a sign that the clutch, fork, master, slave, etc. needed replacing.

Once replaced, I could not believe how easily it shifted! :D

[Lightyear]

Here's another tip I learned when buying my '99 Burb. Take the oil filler cap off with the engine at idle, and cover the filler with your hand. There should be some vacuum, and no blowback. Good luck, sounds like a nice rig.

[jerry598]

Bought my 95 k3500 6.5 with 94 K miles from a dealer 300 miles away. Thought he gave me a deal I could not refuse at $12.5k. It was giving an intermittent check engine light signal during the test drive, but the light would go back off quickly. I figured it was something trivial and I bought it 'as is'. The code would not go away, and eventually it turned out to be the injection pump. Stupid me, but at least the IP was later replaced by GM under warranty.

Since I was unfamiliar with how a 6.5 should start, sound and run, I did not hear the NV 4500 bearing noise (about 6 mos. later it had to be rebuilt). I also did not recognize that the truck had original injectors and glow plugs that needed to be replaced, and there was visible blowby crackcase fumes coming from the oil filler tube. It always used too much oil (1 qt per 400 miles), but I assumed that was normal also.

I've driven my 6.5 some 30,000 miles to date, and it is now torn down for a complete rebuild. I like the truck and have too much money and sweat in it now to part with it. If I were to do it over again, I would do several things different knowing what I do now. If going through a dealer, I would buy an extended warranty. I don't believe in extended warranties for anything except used diesel trucks. If I had taken out the extended warranty on my truck, I would have gotten my money back more than 3 times over. If going through a private party, I would ask for a week or more to test-drive it, and also do a really good mechanical inspection, and that would probably include paying for a compression check.

Good luck!