Hello everyone, i'm just getting my first diesel and I had a question.

I'm getting my hands on a 1991 F250 that has sat for about the last 5 years or so. It only has about 30,000 original miles on it. What do I need to do to get it going again, I haven't seen the truck for about 15 years but my aunt that I'm getting it from said the belts have rotted off of it. Its about 3 hours from me in a small town where parts will be hard to get so i am trying to put a list together and get the parts and tools together before I go. So far my plan is to replace all the engine belts, fuel filter, battery, air filter. I've heard conflicting stories about how long diesel will last in a tank, some guys say put a battery in and run it, others say change the fuel, remove the glow plugs and soak the pistons in marvel, crack the injector lines open to reprime, and some others. Anyone ever got one going again after sitting for this long, if so what did you do or what do you guys think should be done to get it going without ruining anything or making it harder than it needs to be?

Thanks

 

On the Fuel drain some of it into a glass jar if it is clear and nothing floating around in it you should be ok. On parts Check on Ebay a lot of the time you can find stuff pretty cheap and ship to your door! before getting in to replacing you injectors or Glow plugs check the injector pump make sure it is ok Just crack a line and crank it that is a very expensive part it runs about $590 rebuilt. For used parts try Car-parts.com you can search all over the US

 

Update: Seems that it has sat for about 10 years. Saturday I changed the batteries, cleaned out the mice nests in the engine compartment and air intake, changed fuel filter filling it with fresh diesel, put some powerservice biocide and cetane booster in the tank with about 4 gallons fresh diesel, pulled the air filter off and shot some WD40 down the intake, had to short the starter relay since it was dead and then rumble rumble, rip van winkle woke up from his sleep. It smoked white for a second and blew the guts of the muffler out the tailpipe but it did sound really good and ran really smooth. I then noticed fuel spilling all over the intake manifold from the o-rings on the injectors as they were all dry rotted so I had to buy a whole kit just to get the o-rings so I replaced all the hoses to. I then went to back up and check the brakes and the right rear is locked up tight. I drug it about 5' across pavement hoping it would break free but it wasn't happening.

Does anyone have some suggestions on how to get the wheel freed up?

 

try back and forth a few times

 

also, make sure emergency brake release isn't hanging on braking

 

If none of the other suggestion work you will need to get under the truck and back off the self adjuster you will nee some thing to push the lock off the star wheel you may need to spray some WD-40 or other penetrating oil on to the self adjuster and using a screw driver or a Brake adjusting tool back it off and use a hammer to hit the drum a few time to help the shoe release. You can also see if you can find a Brake drum puller and use that you have the truck on good jack stands as you will need to remove the wheel.