The story:
My FIL bought a crew cab F350 4x4 a little over six years ago. It's either a 92 or 93, depending on the paperwork I look at, he's still looking for the title. Anyway...it has just shy of 200,000 mi, a fresh white paint job (six years ago), a rebuilt 460, and the A/C was replaced front to back. He drove it for a couple of months before blowing a head gasket, at least that's what he thinks. So, he parked it in the pasture and it sat, and sat, and sat. I've asked him if he would sell it to me several times, but he always had plans of fixing it and driving it himself. I dropped by to pick up a trailer a couple of weeks ago and out of nowhere he asked if I still wanted it. I told him that I did and asked how much he wanted for it. He said "it's yours". SCORE!
I went and dragged it out of the field today and looked it over, everything looked to be in good shape. I was afraid to pop the hood and see what the mice had done to the wiring, but knew I had to eventually. To my surprise, nothing was chewed up and it only took a second to see why; there were snake skins all over the engine bay. I don't particularly care for snakes, but I'm happy they were around. After checking the fluids and spraying off the engine I figured what the hell, why not try to start her up? So after hooking her up to my other rig, and much cajoling, to my surprise she fired up! I only ran it for about a minute because the radiator was dry, the gas was old, and I didn't want to screw anything up.
Now my questions:
Where in the VIN can I find what year this rig is?
He swears it's the right head gasket that went, I couldn't hear it myself but...should i replace both gaskets while I'm in there or just do the right side and hope he's right?
What else do I need to do fluids wise besides oil and coolant? Can I get away with what's in the diffs, power steering, tranny? It was, after all, only driven for about 1000 miles since the rebuild.
Anything else I may be missing?
Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance for any replies!
My FIL bought a crew cab F350 4x4 a little over six years ago. It's either a 92 or 93, depending on the paperwork I look at, he's still looking for the title. Anyway...it has just shy of 200,000 mi, a fresh white paint job (six years ago), a rebuilt 460, and the A/C was replaced front to back. He drove it for a couple of months before blowing a head gasket, at least that's what he thinks. So, he parked it in the pasture and it sat, and sat, and sat. I've asked him if he would sell it to me several times, but he always had plans of fixing it and driving it himself. I dropped by to pick up a trailer a couple of weeks ago and out of nowhere he asked if I still wanted it. I told him that I did and asked how much he wanted for it. He said "it's yours". SCORE!
I went and dragged it out of the field today and looked it over, everything looked to be in good shape. I was afraid to pop the hood and see what the mice had done to the wiring, but knew I had to eventually. To my surprise, nothing was chewed up and it only took a second to see why; there were snake skins all over the engine bay. I don't particularly care for snakes, but I'm happy they were around. After checking the fluids and spraying off the engine I figured what the hell, why not try to start her up? So after hooking her up to my other rig, and much cajoling, to my surprise she fired up! I only ran it for about a minute because the radiator was dry, the gas was old, and I didn't want to screw anything up.
Now my questions:
Where in the VIN can I find what year this rig is?
He swears it's the right head gasket that went, I couldn't hear it myself but...should i replace both gaskets while I'm in there or just do the right side and hope he's right?
What else do I need to do fluids wise besides oil and coolant? Can I get away with what's in the diffs, power steering, tranny? It was, after all, only driven for about 1000 miles since the rebuild.
Anything else I may be missing?
Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance for any replies!
