I found a 1991 E350 4x4 club wagon with a 7.3 and e40OD tranny. The guy said it ran and drove just fine, it has a bigger alternator for the auxilary heater he installed and some off-road lights, it has a nice roof rack, heavy duty bumper. The only problems he said was that the Tcase chain needs replaced cause he thinks its stretched so Im assuming its a BW1356, easy fix really. Also he has no idea of the true mileage. Hes owned it for 2 years and he said its been rock solid reliable for him. Asking price is only $1500.00 OBO so the price is right. Only thing Im concerned about it of coarse cavitation. Owner did say he had an issue with oil and coolant mixing but he replaced a bunch of O rings and stuff, he flushed the radiator 15,000 miles ago and he said no problems with that again. Should I pull the trigger? I got 4 boys and we love to camp, this seems like an awesome rig for us.

 

Cavitation will happen on a 7.3 usually around 150k miles if NOT maintained.


But you say you have no idea on mileage, so that's a tough one.





Cavitation isn't reversible, but it is stoppable. For 1500$ Diesel 4x4 van, if the body is nice, I'd jump on it! Cavitated or not! Buy a coolant test kit and see what it says.

If nothing, then take a chance, go for it, as soon as you get it, dump 2 bottles of SCA's in it!

 

sounds good from here, but i would want to take it for a test drive before jumping on it.
for the oil/water mixing, it sounds like the oil cooler o-rings had gone bad and that was the entire problem, which appears to have been fixed.
for concerns of cavitation, if you make sure its taken care of from now on, you should be ok.
i would jump on it

 

All right so I gotta know---what is cavitation and why is it not reversible or repairable?

 

Have a read through this.

Cavitation Article

 

Okay I'm up to speed now John---thanks!!