Hello all,
Any input on strengths or weaknesses of a 85 F350 6.9 L Diesel Crew Cab. I'm considering buying one. What things should I look for or check on this vehicle. The current owner says runs great & no leaks anywhere.

Appreciate your help.
Mark

 

Check the frost plug over the starter for crack/leaks/repairs......

 

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The 86's did not yet have overdrive tranny's so you fuel milage on the F350 will probably by in the 10-12 mpg range, maybe worse if you are towing or hauling.

On the postive side the tranny's that came with those early truck were quite reliable.

 

but you can easily swap a OD tranny into it for little money... thats what I did to my '84.

Bowedup

 

How little money?

Which tranny would swap into an 86 F350 with the 6.9 Diesel? How much of a mileage increase would be reasonable to expect?

Thanks!

Mark

 

I bought an '86 F350 dually crewcab w/ 008215 on the odo, (probably the second time around). It chugged along until I put in new injector seals, did a rudimentary cleaning of the injectors, changed the oil and filters. After a bottle of injector cleaner and a long drive w/ a heavy load it gets at least 18mpg

 

and thats with the 6.9IDI, C6 trans and 4.10 rearend

 

I would say you could expect anywhere from 2 to 5 mpg depending on your city/hwy driving.

The E4OD is not a cheap tranny either in my experience, plus you have to put up with all the electronics. So to do a swap you really need a donor truck.

Lastly, from a reliability standpoint the C6 is a much better tranny than the E4OD.

I would much rather look into a "GearVendor" or "USGear Splitter" O.D. unit instead of converting to an E4OD.

Either way it will set you back a few thousand $ by the time you are done.


Sebastian.

 

Yeah like the other guys said I would also reccomend avoiding the E40D auto, it is known to be unreliable.

But the ZF 5 speed is an easy swap. All you need is either a dual mass flywheel and clutch or a Luk 12" solid flywheel and clutch kit (what I used). The Luk has a good reputation around here and you can get one brand new with the clutch kit for around $650. As far as the tranny, any ZF 5 speed will work as long as it came off of another pre-1994 IDI diesel (6.9L or 7.3L). You can look around the wrecking yards and find these for around $500 or get a reman ready to go for around $1,000. The wrecking yard will be by far the cheapest. Then all you need is the clutch master cylinder and slave cylinder, any year will work but if you get them for an '84 F350 at Orielly's, they are both metal instead of plastic as the early '90s were. Oh and a crossmember, but the old 4 speed one will work as well as the tranny mount.

If you decide to do it shoot me an email and I can line you out on a short cut to putting it in versus swapping columns....
Bowedup