Unbelievable find

Bird Freak wrote:
I have decided to let my good friend have it for what I got it for. He needs a truck for his heat and air business and its perfect for him.
He has been there to help me alot since I had the stroke last year and besides he really needs it and I don't.
I will still post pics when we go get it Wed.

That's how 2 friends treat each other.... great job. . . .

Bird Freak wrote:
I have decided to let my good friend have it for what I got it for. He needs a truck for his heat and air business and its perfect for him.
He has been there to help me alot since I had the stroke last year and besides he really needs it and I don't.
I will still post pics when we go get it Wed.

Hey, friends like that are hard to fine. Good on you! Chris

Awesome!

I know of a 1993 GMC 2wd regular cab long box with 15,000 original miles that is stored away in my uncle's garage. I think it has a gasoline engine.

This engine is one in a long line of problematic GM diesels. These units developed such a reputation for trouble that GM cancelled the diesel option altogether in 2000 and when the next GM diesel came out, it was the Izuzu engine currently in use, which by most accounts is a pretty good mill.

The 6.5 turbo was a bit peppier than some of the earlier gutless iterations of this motor, but I have repeatedly read of problems with conrods bending when the engine was used a max hp, say with a large trailer in tow.

Very nice how you are helping your friend out and at least you'll still get to see it and know it was put into good use.

Very nice of you, I'm sure he'll really appreciate that. As for the truck, remember, this is a piece of fire apparatus. It may have low road miles, but as noted prior, we don't know if this truck had a pto driven fire pump or not. If it did, ,it could have a lot of engine hours on it.

Even if it doesn't, these trucks are run very hard or spend a lot of time ideling on scene, which is not good for a diesel engine. Depending on the department, they could sit a week without turning a wheel, then get a call and be out the door and flat to the floor with no warm up time.

Typically when a fire department sells a rig, it's pretty tired. The price they were selling it for may have refelected it's condition.

I hope it's solid for your friend though.

Camper G wrote:
Very nice of you, I'm sure he'll really appreciate that. As for the truck, remember, this is a piece of fire apparatus. It may have low road miles, but as noted prior, we don't know if this truck had a pto driven fire pump or not. If it did, ,it could have a lot of engine hours on it.

Even if it doesn't, these trucks are run very hard or spend a lot of time ideling on scene, which is not good for a diesel engine. Depending on the department, they could sit a week without turning a wheel, then get a call and be out the door and flat to the floor with no warm up time.

Typically when a fire department sells a rig, it's pretty tired. The price they were selling it for may have refelected it's condition.

I hope it's solid for your friend though.

This truck was used for support at brush fires for the last 10 years, never had a pto or anything hooked to the drive line. It has been my oldest brothers job to be sure maint. was kept up on it so I know the full history behind it. I think I am more concerned for time its been sitting between monthly starts and short drives.

Well that's very generous of the OP.
Main thing with the 6.5s is they're like the weaker cousin to the 6.0 Pstroke. They like their maintenance and require a lot of tinkering. The long block is not an inherently bad design and many higher mile trucks on original engines. The devil with them is GMs poor design of the peripheral systems to control that engine. Compare to the Cummins and Ford IH diesels of the day, they are a nightmare of switches, solenoids and odd ball control systems. Learn it, sort out the bad stuff and they're a nice little motor that gets decent mileage.

I hope the new owner takes care of it. It's gone this long in such great shape ide hate to see it destined for abuse as most service vehicles see. Although I rarely see a heating and air truck in sad shape.

Good for you!