On idle there was barely any smoke and the idle sounded fine but when throttle was applied it smoked like mad and had nearly no power. It would barely pull up on the trailer when I picked it up.

 

Lucky to find that at 4k I would have scored that up just to toy with and learn a few things before venturing into my DD. Good Luck will follow and hope you find that GEM!

 

I understand the frugal mentality, but if it were me and I had the money, I'd spend it to get the truck as close to "bulletproof" as possible. But that's just me. I'd rather have little money and a dependable truck than money saved waiting for the next problem, but I use my truck quite a bit. I don't own 6.0, but it's more the mentality of which I speak. It sounds like you have the $$ to cover all the weak points found in the 2003. I'd run the full gamut if it were me.

 

EGR valve!!!

 

Update: So I got the truck back from the shop a couple days ago. On cold start is blows white smoke on idle and when I head down the road it pours it out. I mean like other cars pulling off the side of the road its so bad. It does that for about a couple miles then clears up and stops smoking constantly but about every 10 or 15 miles it will smoke for a mile or two. It does not seem to be caused by pulling hills or running at a certain rpm, it just seems random. The shop says there was a LOT of water in places it shouldn't have been and that is is normal for the first couple of tanks of fuel that I put through it. I really have no reason to doubt them and I think they know what they are doing but that amount of smoke worries me.

Any thoughts or opinions?

Thanks,

Mike

 

Flood vehicle. Drain the water separater and see how much comes out. Make sure to have oem fuel filters in it. Most shops use aftermarket. Only oem filters have the water separating membrane.

 

What all did you have done?? Those prices you posted above are very questionable. We spend 3500 on parts alone doing studs. But we also don't,, or should I say haven't,, ever had a stud job warranty issue.