I purchased a 94 f250 idi turbo diesel a few weeks back, it was sitting for a couple years but she cranked up after a few minutes and was drivable just didn’t have any brakes. Paid $2500 for it with 146k miles on a 4 inch lift and 33 inch tires. I had it towed to a mechanic who just recently gave me the estimate and I think I messed up big time. Here’s a break down: Injecters, electric conversion injector pump, glow plugs and module, all new fuel lines, brake lines and 2 calipers, new rear tank, battery cables and all new wire repair to the electronics ie. head lights and dash board. All comes out to $6,800 including labor…..he seemed straight forward and even offered to buy the truck for what I paid for it if I wasn’t comfortable paying for all the work. He even suggested that we could knock a few hundred off here and there with only doing some injectors that he deemed necessary and going with a mechanical pump instead of the electric conversion. I’ve called around with the diagnostic and breakdown that he gave me to other shops and they all said they’d be charging around the same give or take a few hundred. I’m honestly just shocked, I suppose I’m just looking for closure here.

 

You got a great deal! That's a 4wd too, isn't it? You're better off learning how to do all the work yourself. That's part of the fun running classic trucks. You don't have to know how to do any of it. It's easy to learn as you go. We're here to help. Auto or manual trans?

 

It is 4x4 auto trans I believe the old e40d, went into gear no problem. The guy had the receipts when he rebuilt the tranny and transfer case from about 4 years ago. It just simply sat for a while because he started working on pipelines and worked out of state most of the year.

 

You need to ask the mechanic where he would source his parts. Injectors and an injection pump should only come from one of two places:

https://moosediesel.com/

https://idiperformance.com/

Any other supplier and your just rolling the dice.

 

He mentioned he got most of his parts from idi performance. I’m not sure where else he would, considering there’s only a few shops to call for idi parts. Again I’m a noob so I’m doing my own research as it’s being done. IDI performance seems like the best option and half the estimate is based off of it. Not including the re wiring and rear tank issue.

 

So if it cranked and ran and you said it is driveable except for the brakes why are you looking at the pump and injectors right out of the gate? Did you have to use ether to start it or did it start on the glow plugs? When you went for the second or third start did you use the glow plugs and if so did it miss on start up and settle down after a couple of minutes or was it a smooth start? Front calipers but not rear cylinders, that is interesting.

So to give you an idea I bought a 94 turbo 5 speed in the fall of 23 with about 141k miles. I have gone through the brake system, rotors, calipers pads on the front. Cylinders, shoes and all park cables on the rear. The rubber brake lines and master cylinder. Both batteries both ground cables and starter. Headlamp switch, turn signal switch, fuel selector switch. Glow plugs and repaired plug ends. Block heater and all coolant hoses. All u-joints and left front axle. Shocks and tie rod ends. All those parts came to just over $3000.00.

I have not touched the fuel system with the exception of fuel filter, still has a mechanical pump and I am guessing it is the original to the truck. I am not saying changing the fuel lines, transfer pump etc. are not good things to do, but are they causing you issues at this point?
What is the issue with the rear tank?

Yes an older truck can be expensive to work on depending on how it has been treated and serviced. I am just wondering if your tech is maybe getting a little carried away. The price is not to far out of line as labor is usually about half a bill. In my case I have done all the work myself as I am an ASE certified diesel tech. But I did not do all of the above at once. In fact the first thing I did was the glow plugs as it had a miss on start up. Front brakes were next as it had a cracked rotor. The batteries and starter when they died. The owner before me had put a battery disconnect switch in the system and when I removed it I had to replace the ground cables as what was there although good cables they were to short to work. I replaced the rear brakes and related parts this winter along with the shocks which were original and tie rod ends. The last major item I have to repair is the radiator, looks like top tank may be seeping. That will be a next winter project as it is not over heating and the coolant does not disappear that fast. In it's past life it belonged to a fertilizer company so it was worked pretty hard I suspect looking at the brake system.

Do you need to have the truck on the road all the time or can you afford downtime if you were to work on it? Do you have a place to work on it? The first suggestion if you want to tackle this yourself is get the factory service manuals. You can get off EBay loaded on a thumb drive for around $35.00. It will give most of the information you will need.

 

some very good points made. if the truck start and runs, i would only address the brakes. once they are working look at other things as needed.

 

I don't know if you're at all inclined to do the work yourself but if you have a running vehicle then you probably don't have to do all that at once. Brakes are not that expensive or difficult, glow plugs are cheap and relatively easy unless they have swelled, you can drive on one tank unless you really need the range, and the IP and injectors might last another 10k-20k miles or longer. One of my trucks has 136k on the pump and injectors and it still runs great and since I only drive it about 9k miles/year I am inclined to milk that pump for all it's worth before shelling out $1600 for a new IP and injectors.
This was just my experience but 12-13 years ago I bought my first diesel, a '92 F250 non-turbo, and by reading MANY forum posts and spending some long Saturdays wrenching I managed to make my truck pretty damn reliable and when I started I knew nothing more than basic crap like oil changes and brake pads. Invest in a decent set of tools and you can perform many of the repairs yourself, plus you'll end up knowing your truck inside and out which comes in handy if you have an issue on the road or far from home. But I also understand if you just don't have the time to invest and need a reliable truck. Shop labor is what it is and some parts are pretty expensive. FWIW, every time I check the R&D IDI Performance web page the pumps and injectors are listed as 'out of stock' so you may have to look elsewhere.

 

When we got it started we did use ether, even with a brand new battery which i am assuming it not having 2 new battery’s possibly played a part in that. Like I said before it took a few minutes to finally crank over. Should’ve mentioned as well that when I tried to rev it, it didn’t want to if that makes sense. Also when it was being pulled onto the bed of the tow truck it was DUMPING fuel. Which is what got the price down to $2500, I was originally going to buy it for $3200.

i personally need it on the road asap, the truck I had took a dump on me, the tranny went out and I had a little beater I’d commute to work in that spit a rod out the engine about 2 an a half weeks after my truck died on me. Great luck huh. So now I’m sort of desperate and I genuinely don’t know anything about diesel engines, my pops and I did most of the work on my other truck which was a 99 Chevy Silverado gasser including dropping the engine and even the tranny once just to do it but I was probably 16 and I’m 27 now. After all this work is done I do plan to at least attempt to do whatever work needs to be done on her myself if possible. I don’t have a garage but I have enough space on my driveway to drop the engine if I ever needed too. I’m sure I could do most of the work it’s just that I simply need the truck done sooner than later.

also for whatever reason the guy I bought it from decided to bore a giant hole into the rear tank. We started to get into that story but then the tow truck showed up and just never got to the answer as to why the heck he did that. It is completely rusted out though so it would need to be addressed regardless, even the straps are hanging in for dear life.

 

Well in that case you have a pretty good idea what you will have to do. The price you were quoted probably is not out of line based on my experience. Nothing is cheep anymore it seems. Need to do the brakes on my Dodge Caliper, parts bill was around $1400.00 and that is just parts. Seems rather high for what it is.

 

Wow $1400 in parts for brakes. For a 1994 F250 you should be able to completely rebuild the brake system, not including the metal lines, for about $600-$700 and that includes new drums, rotors, hoses, pads, shoes, hardware, master cylinder, bleed screws, and some fluid. Might as well spend another $150 or so and get a new booster. Yeah, even parts get expensive. I found the best overall deal through RockAuto as they had the same brake hose for $8 that NAPA was charging about $30.

 

I'm in the other camp than most the guys I guess (As can be seen in my F450 log truck thread). If you want a reliable truck, the best way is bringing everything up to snuff before driving it. Otherwise, you risk breakdowns and issues on the roadside. Tows and loss of work is far more costly than making it reliable from the start. The cheap part of buying an old IDI truck is the purchase price haha.

If you don't know how to do the work and time to get it done, then you have no choice, pay the bill or part ways with it. The mechanic sounds like he knows these trucks. I like his list. It would feel like a totally different truck after he's done, than what it is now.

 

I guess I should make that a little more clear as that is also new wheel bearing hubs, all new hoses etc. And China parts are so worth putting into anything now days, but what do you do?

 

Oh I know. The NAPA front brake hose I mentioned was made in China and so was the generic Rock Auto, but the generic appeared to be the exact same manufacturer, Sunsong, and if I have to buy Chinese I would rather pay less. I suppose I will try to buy more things with the Lifetime Warranty so I can get the free replacement--I did just find a pretty good deal on a new Bosch 3g alternator through AutoZone, Lifetime Warranty.

@FORDF250HDXLT I agree it's better to go through everything at once, and the cost of missed work adds up fast, but if/when you lack time and/or budget ya' gotta' do whatcha can, especially if you only have the one truck. Plus, when you disassemble your only vehicle on Saturday morning and need it fixed by Monday morning it is very easy to stay motivated and focused on the task at hand.

 

Buy NOS from Ebay,
lots of it still out there.
My parts have shipping labels to Ford dealerships a lot.
My 1990 restoration is 90% NOS
LED lights are Chinesium, however........