A buddy of mine is giving me an early 80s bullnose truck, with a service bed on it and a 6.9l IDI. Only condition is I gotta get it running and she's mine.
As far as I know it was running when it was parked, but I have no idea when that was. I know for a fact it's been sitting for 5 years at minimum.
I'm not 100% sure where to start on it... I know the old rule is to change the fuel filter, oil, drain the old diesel, and put fresh stuff in.
Just how important is an oil change? I'm not going to be running the truck for long; 30 seconds just to make sure it runs. Also how would I have to drain the fuel from this gen. of truck without dropping the whole tank (not something I wanna do the trucks in a muddy field, lol)
Anything else I should take into consideration? thanks

 

make sure it has oil in it , if it looks and feels ok then i would leave it in for the initial start !
check the water !
on the injection pump there is a wire for the fuel shut off solenoid , pull it off !
crank it over to get the oil pumped through it !
HAVE TO HAVE GOOD BATTERIES and dont crank the starter for more than 30 seconds then wait a few seconds then do it again , dont burn the starter up !
if after cranking some check the water and oil again , if the oil gets water mixed with it then it need changing , water can sit at the bottom of the pan !
you could pull the plug and see if water comes out !
after all this put that wire back on the fuel solenoid and turn it over and see what happens , some times i have used WD40 to spray in the engine to start it !

 

If after having done all that, and it still doesn't want to start, rather than use ether based "starting fluid" spray some brake cleaner into the air intake. Much easier on the engine internals than ether, and tends to start easier than WD40.
Sounds crazy, but it does work. I've seen a buddy run a cummins 6BT on brake cleaner, with no fuel supply hooked up to it. He works on plenty of diesels, and uses nothing else for starting up the "problem child" engines, gas or diesel.

 

Thanks I'll give it a shot.
Forgive my ignorance, I've never worked on a diesel before ever.
Where could I find this wire?

Other than that, it sounds pretty simple, I have an old battery to throw in, and boost it with my 79 f150...

What would be the easiest way to drain the old diesel out, do these trucks have a drain plug on the tank, or am I going to be dropping the whole tank?

Even if she don't run, I'm still taking the nice big air compressor on the service bed, and CB.