All,

I've been looking for a little while for a truck to replace my 1990 F250 standard cab. I want an extended or crew cab long bed 250 or 350 diesel 5/6 speed 4x4. Looking at everything from 1990 to 2003 or so (though newer stuff is generally well out of my price range, and I have a real soft spot for the 90-91 body style).

My perfect truck would be a 90 or 91 F350 extended cab long bed diesel 5 speed 4x4, Lariat. Haven't found any for sale so I widened my net.

Pretty much anything in this age range has 200k miles or more, which doesn't concern me too much.

But I found what looks like a really nice 1996 powerstroke ext cab 4x4 5 speed truck with 389k. It's at a pretty attractive price and looks nice from what I can see in the ad. But is this something worth pursuing? I know people say the 7.3 "lasts forever" but what about the rest of the truck? And will I likely be looking at a rebuild of that engine soon, or is it pretty much good to go as long as all service is done?

Thanks!

 

It depends on how it was treated during those 389K miles. I have seen some trucks that were totally beat with less than 150K miles. It's all about trading price for miles/condition.

 

Well assuming that it is in good condition, and appears to have most service information, is 389k still reasonable to expect some good life from the truck?

Of course I have been preferring the pre 92 body style which only has a 5 digit odometer. My current truck has about 3,000 miles on it (103k? 203k? 303k?? no idea, though the only time I've had a mechanic look at it he said it drove way too nice to have 200k on it lol).

 

my 88 has 496,000 + miles on it and has never been opened up.
i would not hesitate one second taking it on a cross country trip after i get the new cab on the frame.

 

How many miles are on the rest of the drivetrain? If nothing has been opened up and rebuilt then everything's going to be worn out and in need of repairs in short order.

 

there is a very easy to tell.test drive it,then test drive a new truck.you'll notice the difference.if it's stupidly drastic,as opposed to simply updated,modern and nice,then you've got your answer.
my old man has an '08 with a bit over 100k miles,and iv got my '93 w/ just over 100k.when i hop in his truck it's clearly much more truck all the way around.however it doesn't make mine feel as if it's an old worn out beater either if you can follow this.
work the two trucks side by side,and they both get the job done just the same and at the same rate of speed due to local speed limits.
if after test driving the old truck and the steering is all over the place,the power is low,it's riding real firm due to worn shocks,she's too rusty,and leaks a lot of fluids and the truck looks like it's been through the ringer,then it probably has.
my main point here is,that just because they run,and may run fairly issue free with minimal brake downs,doesn't mean it's an efficient vehicle any longer.as time goes on,all the items ware out slowly,so we don't notice them.that's why it's not a bad idea to hop in something newer once in a while.it can help you feel issues on your old truck and address them before the item wares way out and fails,and keeps her in prime shape.

all this said,it's highly unlikely i would purchase a truck (short of a medium duty or a full pickup resto) with 400k miles on it.psd engine or not.main reason being; there's simply too many of them out there readily available still,reasonably priced with half the miles.if that's all that was left,then i would be on the hunt for one owned by an old timer with a 5ver in the bed,that was used as a hwy tower and priced well enough to replace everything on the truck (full resto.) aka-near free lol.since it's not,just keep looking.