Hey guys , I am new to your site and I was a gm diehard but after being a dissatisfied owner of the lethargic 6.5td and getting no satisfaction from gm, I am ready to switch to a psd. My neighbor has a truck for sale, a 95 f250 4wd excab, that I drove today. I have been all over the truck and with the exception of a few little things, it looks pretty good. I gotta go through the front axle, steering column is loose, gearshifter is wobbly, I can handle this, I am a mechanic by trade. He wants 6000 for it, is this too much? The part I dont know about is the characteristics of the psd.
I drove it about 20 miles today and I could hold my hand on the rad hose, seemed to be running too cool. I am thinking thermostat?
Another problem is it is blowing white smoke at idle, more when cold then when I returned from the drive but still white smoke. Lots of white smoke after a cold start. owner says he just had injectors and glowplugs replaced, engine has 216k on it, but this doesnt look like oil smoke. Mash on it and the smoke goes away and absolutly no black smoke which I thought was strange. Should I pass this one up and just get me another chevy?

 

The white smoke when an engine is cold is unburnt fuel and is typical of most PSD's when you first crank them up on a nice cold day. The newer 7.3L (99 and up) have an air intake heater plug that comes on to reduce white smoke, but it doesn't eliminate it completely. However, if it continues after driving it, that doesn't sound quite right. You think the thermostat is out, then the engine isn't warming up enough and might continue to smoke after a short drive. Did the gauge move at all or just a little bit? On most of these trucks the gauge pegs pretty close to the middle when it's warmed up fully.

Also as far as black smoke is concerned, these trucks don't smoke as much as you think. Get the old 7.3L IDI engines (pre powerstroke) and those belch out a nice bit of smoke. Ahhhhh I remember the good times driving my dad's 89 F-250. I couldn't kill that truck, it was a tank.

216K can be a lot of miles if it wasn't maintained, or if it was babied it could be still in it's prime. Check it out completely, as a mechanic, I'm sure you've got a few tools laying around

 

The thermo needle just moved a little after it should have been at normal temp. And everytime I came to a traffic light, it started puffing white smoke again. I have read about a butterfly in the exhaust, could this be stuck? Other than that, the truck seems to run fine although it is the first time I have driven a psd.

 

Blowing white smoke at idle while warmed up is not good. Think about it: diesels run on compression ignition. It's getting too much fuel just to stay running. I'd give him $1000.00 max for the truck as it is.