1987 Ford F-250 Diesel

Several years ago I bought this truck. Has a little more than 100,000 miles on it. The body and interior are in excellent condition. Drove it for a couple months and she developed a knock low in the engine. She has been sitting in the equipment yard several years. Now I am ready to get her running. I want to do a restoration. Not just get her going. This will include new paint, tires etc until she is almost showroom. She will be used as a camper truck and to tow a 16 ft 7,000 car hauler with my restored 860. She is equipped with a four speed manual. Just a very basic standard cab with a/c. My question is what should I do with the engine. Total rebuild? Repair and run? Buy a used motor? Do not want to step up with $5,000.00 plus for a new motor. however I do want reliability. When I was driving her the fuel mileage was great. 20+ town and country. Would like to retain this if possible.

if the bottom end on yours is bad, id get me a reman short block [ cheapest way to renew the reciprocating assembly and get a warranty on it] then use your upper end stuff after you have the heads checked and valves ground if the need it, if your mechanicly inclined you can rebuild it, but then you got to dissassemble it, clean it, then you need micrometers to measure all the rods, and the crank and cam, cylinder bore and taper, ect to see what condition there in and if you need machine work to true them up so they will hold a bearing and thats a lot of time consuming work,and machine work is expensive, and most engines will need some, did you price a short block?

That is fairly low mileage for a diesel. First thing I would do is pull the oil pan off and see if you can determine what specifically caused the knocking. Maybe the oil pump went bad? In most cases you are better off rebuilding what you already have.
Finding a reliable used diesel engine for that vintage of truck is going to be a real shot in the dark.
I hope that you have good machine shop in your area. I would start talking with those guys after you have pulled the pan off.

seems to me that i heard once that the flywheel good cause a knock if it was coming apart. chuck

i dont know if it would fit but i have a good 90 ford diesel rebuilt with 20k or so, still in the pickup, for sale its in MI

I'm with "Chucksoliver" on making sure what the knock really is first. Modern era engines just don't seem to have "bearing" knocks like the old stuff did. I'd bet it is something else simpler and easier to fix. Unless you know for a fact that it has been run out of oil or hot then do some more diagnosing first.

First of all do what the one gentleman said. Check the flywheel . It should be a dual mass set up with springs. If one let's go it would sound like a knock. You have low miles. The motor should be in good shape throughout. I rebuilt one out of my 90. All the machine work( new pistons, heads redone, and short blocked) cost me around 2100. It's a simple engine to work on and the other parts are cheap. Had rebuilt injection pump for 185. Injectors were around 25/ pc. After everything did a complete rebuild for under 2500. Hopefully you should be able to fix your problem for alot less. Good luck.

Thank everyone for the replies. First thing is to check the clutch. The information has been very helpful. Know it may sound strange however the wife and I want to see some of the country in this truck. A couple 2-3,000 mile trips. If I can get her in great shape I am going to do some serious sound deadening. If I can get the noise level down then a topper and off we go to the Natchez Trace and possibly west Texas. Camp a night or so then a motel. My business is shot due to the recession. May as well do something we enjoy.

Overall, they are a good truck. Before the Powerstroke era, Ford used 6.9L engines from International, so you might find its difficult to get the oil pan off without dropping the axle or lifting the engine (my peeve is the oil filter - its above the front left leaf spring, so you always get it running down your arm). The engines were also used extensively in school buses, and parts are widely available. DieselStop.com is a good source for information. Some of these engines are also hard on engine oil; some of the worse ones need a quart every 50 gallons of fuel; get to know its oil habits to avoid running it dry. All I would do is evaluate the source of the knock and give it a good once-over (hose, belt, regular maintenence, etc) and you should be good to go for a long time.

I have an '86 automatic with approx. 300k and its major service was an IP at approximately 75k. I use it to occassionally haul a Ford 5000. Those older trucks didn't have stock turbos, so its slow on the start and with the large engine displacement needs good batteries in the winter. My gas mileage is similar to yours, though with the manual you'll find heavy towing a lot better than with a stock automatic.

Skunkskinner thank you and everyone for the replies. Is it necessary to pull the transmission to check the flywheel? I knew the previous owner well. Can not believe he ran it hot. Know I never did. Hope the flywheel is the problem. If not, I hope a new crank kit and oil pump will get her going. Or am I just dreaming? Again thank you.