Hey guys I ended up buying an abandoned 2003 Ford F-350. The guy whose place it was abandoned on said that the truck came into his place in a huge cloud of grey smoke. Two years go by and the guy did not pick up the truck. I paid the storage lien on it and it is now in my posession. The turbine in the front of the turbo has about 3/16" of play (up and down). There is oil dripping out where they put a piece of straight pipe to replace the muffler. Also i pulled the dipstick and there is no oil showing. My first question, is it the turbo where the main problem lies? Second question what should I do next? I am waiting for ford to make me a key and i have to get batteries. Should I put oil in it and go ahead and start it? I can put my edge evolution programmer on it to read codes. What codes might I look for and I guess what all should I look for and expect out of this truck? Thanks for all of the help guys and I hope to hear fromm you!

 

I suggest you tear the motor down, rebuild/replace what it needs and go from there. You are opening Pandora's box on a vehicle that isn't running and you have no historical information.

 

The 6.0 diesel has a very good protection mechanism against serious damage to the motor due to running low on oil. Since the injectors need oil to function, if the oil gets low, the truck stops running.
I would first fill the oil til it's above the add line...don't fill it to the full line, since this is a full hot level. Then try to start it. The truck may have a lot of other issues, but, I would guess the reason why the truck eventually died is because the owner ran it low on oil.....not out of oil, just low on oil.
Your going to have to take the batteries out of the truck and charge them, then test them first. If they test good, put them back in, add the oil, then try to start it.
This is a cheap way to find out something about the condition of the motor without dumping a lot of money into it.

 

Good advice,, I would pull all the glow plugs and crank the engine over for a little bit to make sure there isn't any coolant or fuel in the cylinders, this will prevent a hydrolock and possibly a broken rod, this will also let the engine spin faster to get the oil pressure up. Once you see the oil pressure guage go up and there is no liquid comong out of the glow plugs go ahead reinstall them and fire her up. If you want to be real safe then take the hose/boot/ off of the intake elbo so if there is a problem with the turbo then it won't be pouring oil down the intake. If it was steaming when the guy last drove it hen it might just be a EGR cooler so a simple Delete will fix that, so just unplug the EGR valve to start off with and see what happens. Oh yeah, definately add oil after you pull the oil filter to make sure it isn't all slimed up.