I recently purchased a very clean 95 F350 Centurion duallie with a 460, AT, 2wd, 109k miles original. I bought it with a bad motor and I need some advice on where to start troubleshooting, or whether this engine is in need of a replacement.
General info on truck:
109,000 miles
Maintenence records indicate a very good history of oil changes, tune ups, etc.
I do not know anything about the specifics of how it "died". I bought it third hand and this info was really vague.

Symptoms (as known so far):
Starter will engage but engine will not turn over freely.
Water in oil pan
no water in radiator

I have a moderately high mechanical ability as well as a well equipped shop and such, but I am really at a loss on what direction to take here.
I don't have a lot of money, but for now I have plenty of time and don't mind getting my hands dirty.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I'll post here with updates as I move along in this and/or try any suggestions I receive. (good, bad, or otherwise).
If you need pics or have any questions, I'll respond as soon as I can.

Thanks.

 

Start by pouring a combo of clean motor oil and dry gas (one oz drygas to 1qt oil) in the spark plug holes until full (7.5 should take a little less than a qt per cyl at bdc, account for 6 qts) Need to lube the cylinders and get the water out. Let it sit for a day or more. Suction the mix out, replace engine oil as normal with he mix you pulled and do a compression test. Low compression and/or still unable to turn freely or easily means likely have to replace piston rings and hone the cyls.

 

Oil cooler bad? Head gasket maybe. If it has sat like that for long, the bearings and rings won't last long if you get it running.

 

A semi common failure on these engines is the oil cooler(mounted at oil filter). It cracks and allows coolant in the oil. Run it for about 30 min and you wipe the bearings in the engine ..aka, you need and engine

 

On that note Brad, what is the best way to delete the oil cooler and just put the filter on a regular adapter? Is there a part that is commonly known to be the way to do it?

 

On mine I swapped out the cooler that has coolant pass through it for an external cooler that mounts in front of the radiator.

 

Pics or more info on parts?

 

87-91 oil cooler. in 92 they went to the design you and I have

 

had to search for an image as I didn't take a pic of it. It was a stock Ford part. Came of another '89 F250. I'm not sure why the two different coolers were used.

 

That would explain it. My truck came with a blown reman engine in it, so not stock oil cooler.

 

Warp:Routie; I will look into this a bit more as it sounds like it might help with getting it to turn over.
I don't know how long it has sat for, but in the maintanence records I found a receipt for a dealership oil change in April '14. So it seems as though the truck sat for around 8 months at most.

ponykilr and Diesel_Brad: I I suspect this might be the underlying cause of the failure as well after looking into it a bit more. What is the best way to determine if this is the cause? Also, assuming this was the cause and it is behaving the way it is now, would a rebuild/replacement be my only recourse?

Thanks again for the insights.

 

You can pressurize the oil cooler(once off) and lines for leaks

And yes a FULL reman would be necessary or and different engine

 

Even if they found it and shut it down quickly, it sitting for 8 months with coolant in the pan is bad. I would plan accordingly.

 

I'll try pressurizing the cooler tomorrow if the weather isn't too bad. I'll also drop the oil pan and post pics of the contents.
I'll update as soon as I can.
Thanks a ton folks.

I'll start trying to source a used motor locally as well, but either way I need to remedy the cause. I saved this truck from a trip to the junk yard. It's worth saving in my opinion. I just hope I'm right. Lol. I'll post pics of it tomorrow. Maybe I'm in over my head. ..