So a week ago today my wife decided her Suburban was turning into a money pit and came home with this-

It's got a 160k on it now and is very clean. Didn't look like it had been abused but someone had cut the exhaust off just ahead of the cat. In addition the filter monitor was broke off and the hole taped over. My son in law has an 06 and had replaced his stock exhaust so I gathered up his old system and welded it back together and used it on this one.

The truck ran rough and seemed a little slow to "spool up" when accelerating. There's tons of pull at lower RPM's but if you hold it to the floor it gets up pretty high and seems to stagnate there, not really accelerating and not shifting. I replaced the filter monitor which turned the light off on the instrument cluster but still not performing like I think it should and certainly nothing even close to the '95 I used to have.

Monday afternoon we were sitting in front of the house with the truck idling and just like magic it burped and was idling smooth as glass. I drove it around Tuesday and it seemed to run great, smooth and plenty of pull. Any Ideas??

Another thing I noticed was there's a light film of oil in the coolant tank so I'm looking for ideas there as well??

While trying to get the stereo working I removed the after-market alarm system, got the stereo working but somewhere caused a short that keeps blowing the fuse for the clearance lights. Even when replaced the dash lights never come on. Not sure if they worked before because it was daylight when she brought it home but all the rest of the lights were operating fine. I think I may have shorted something behind the aftermarket stereo so I'll dig into that next time I'm home. (I'm being relocated to another state so right now we are living 1000 miles away from each other)

So I flew out Wednesday morning and didn't get a chance to look into it any further. I asked my wife yesterday if she had been driving it any more and she said she did drive it to work one day but on the way home it acted like it didn't want to shift, just kept holding a high RPM.

So in short, we now have this truck, the price was more than right and aside from the issues listed it's in very good shape, doesn't appear to have ever been abused and basically I (she) wants to keep it.

Where do I start to make sure this thing will last another 10 years and work well as a daily driver. I'm not interested in having more power than it came with, just reliable and drivable.

 

Seems one issue sounds like a head gasket gone.

 

First off, Welcome to FTE catalinaflyer

Take time read through our Tech Folder located at the top of this forum. I am not going to sugar coat anything but you could have possibly purchased another money pit, larger than the previous vehicle.

First thing, you need to be able to diagnose the engine correctly, read codes. Purchase a Scan Gauge 2 to see how the engine is doing which will help to repair any issues.Throwing money at an unknown will get expensive fast. Next is the oil film, it could be a left over from a previous repair. A coolant flush is in order to sort things out.

Click here for coolant flush.

 

Thanks, Actually been a member here since 2008 but never posted. I had a pair of '95 350's and the diesel started quitting when warmed up, found this site, figured out it was the crank position sensor, replaced it and drove it another 100k before selling it. Still have the 460 gasser and it just hit 104k miles and other than a broken exhaust stud it has never had a hiccup.
I have been reading all of the tech articles and have found a few things to specifically look at. I'm going to delete the EGR to start with then look to see if it has had the head studs done but honestly looking in the engine compartment it looks like the farmer in Nebraska who owned it since new didn't touch anything. It was traded in at a Ford dealer then sold to a person in Arkansas where it was for a little less than a year then it was traded at a Ford dealership where it went to auction and the used dealer my wife bought it from picked it up. Judging by the soot under the cab/bed it looked like the buyer in Arkansas cut the exhaust off as soon as they got it and that's about it.

The money pit thing I'm not so sure about, the Burb needed new shocks and the only place to get them is Chevy and they we're wanting over $1,000 each. Not to mention the climate control computer which puked Saturday night. It had 200k on it and was wore out.
Ordering a gauge and will do a flush in two weeks when I get back home.

 

Don't get too worried(by the way your wife has good taste),we will help you get it straightened out.Read the tech folder till your blue in the face,that is your friend.It will take the nightmares out of the wrenching.Only use Ford or Racor filters and the Powerstroke seems to like Rotella T6 oil(some people have different opinions but we wont go there) and it's reasonably priced at Walmart.Oil filters are there too. Scanguage is your friend or you can get a Torque app for your phone with a blue tooth adapter off E bay.....and welcome to FTE

 

You should have had a say in the new purchase. Can never go wrong with a ford, but lots of previous owners will do a ford wrong and then pawn it off, especially on a woman.

Get some gauges on that baby and make sure it's not ready to pop an oil cooler. Oil film in the degas could mean an out standing issue, or an issue that was fixed and just kept the old greasy degas bottle

 

I purchased a 2006 F250 6.0 with 65,000 on it and it had blown head gaskets when I purchased the vehicle.

I did not know such at the time as the head gaskets only failed under load. Restated, the truck ran perfect under normal driving but puked coolant under load.

Cost me an extra $4,000 to get the issue corrected and I did a few extras while the engine was apart for about $6,000.

I would guess that if you come away with less than $4,000 to get the engine right you will be lucky, in general, and much luckier than I. So if your wife got taken for a 6.0 ride, so to speak, tell her not to feel bad as she far from being alone (such is a common story - especially on vehicles purchased from auction).

Here is a good video that explains how to test your head gaskets for issue.


Oil in coolant is a very bad sign . . . perhaps a $1000+ bad sign. Perhaps a bad EGR cooler.


Here is a picture of my truck's degas bottle showing puke . . . yet another very bad sign. Note the brown looking puke spots.


Good luck.

 

I have already ordered the Scangauge II, will be doing a complete service with Rotella and OEM filters along with the coolant flush. I won't see the truck again till my next trip home on the 3rd but will have 10 days while Allied packs up our house to move it. She'll be towing her pontoon boat back to Ohio with it so as long as it will make another 900 miles then I will pull it in my shop here and do whatever it takes to get it perfect.

I did have a say, I got to tell her how nice it looks and that I liked it. It's her vehicle, she's been buying her own for more than 20 years and sure as heck doesn't need my say when buying something. I get to occasionally drive them and work on them but it's not my place to get involved when not asked. I did however call the dealer who sold it to her because he's also a family friend and without hesitation he said he would take it back, find her a different truck, give her the Suburban back or give her the cash equivalent of what she paid for the truck but she likes the truck, she wants that truck and as such I will buy the parts using the dealers cost to purchase them. She's been driving the truck all weekend and says it's running perfect.

I'm going to assume that by the $4k price tag you paid to have the work done because I've been looking all day at ARP stud kits, head gasket kits, oil coolers and unless I'm missing something major I can get all the parts for about $1k. The only thing I can't do myself is true the heads because my mill is already broke down for moving. Our new house here in Toledo doesn't have 3 phase yet so unless I spend $16k getting it or a couple grand on a converter I'm dead in the water.

I didn't see where there was any sign of coolant puking, have not seen any steam from the exhaust so it may be leftover from a previous repair. I'm going to have the local Ford shop there in town re-flash the computer to make sure it's stock as well as take care of any SB's or recalls and while I'm at it I'll get a printout of what has been done at Ford.

 

What a wife! You're a lucky man.

 

Honk on your way back to Toledo, I am in Findlay just South of you.

 

That I am, at least she finally got rid of that Chevy.

Will do. Not sure how long the company is going to keep me here. The big bosses said this is just a short term move. I wasn't sure what they meant by short term so went ahead and bought a house but now there's already talk of sending me to Red Oak (Dallas) TX. Oy Vey!

 

You're spot on there...I just replaced my oil cooler and cleaned the bottle best I could. It still has a little oily look to it. It'll get swapped out eventually.

 

Eh, I don't know. We've been nothing but happy with our '04 Tahoe. I just wish it were a diesel.

 

We ran the wheels off of our '97 Tahoe...literally...as we pulled into the lot the day we traded it in, we heard a clunk and the right front wheel laid over to the side! We swapped keys with the salesman and quickly left. I bet their trade in assessor didn't get his bonus that month!!

 

Dealers typically send something that old to auction anyway. I was surprised how little they cared about the condition of our '94 F-250 (with 330k on it) or our '96 Mercedes (225k). Their attitude was pretty much "whatever."