I have been out the Diesel game longer than I want. Been around the block a time or two with a 6.0L PowerStroke, 6.7L Cummins, and a LML Duramax.

I am looking for a 03-07 Common rail 5.9L Cummins to to be a more or less toy. Being the truck are expensive enough to begin with, what are your all's thoughts on purchasing a Ram 2500 with 300K miles to begin a project with?

I have found a couple quad cab 2500's in the $9-10k range. Not perfect trucks by any means but running and driving project quality rigs none the less. Then there are the $20k plus range truck with lower miles (150k-200k) and occasionally having some installed aftermarket components.

I am up for opinions.

 

If it doesn't have blow by and front end is tight I say go for it. If it's going to be a toy you'll be upgrading injectors, trans, and fuel system anyway so it won't matter how long it's got left

 

That's pretty much what I was thinking. Id love to find a Quad Cab roller cheap. Wishful thinking. I figure a cheap High mileage truck is as close as I am gonna get.

 

Or a truck with a bad motor!

 

I have also been out of the diesel game a while but I just got a 2006 2500 big horn short bed with 110k on the dial. The guy I bought it from put it on Craig's list for 14k said the Trans was bad the TC heat exchanger failed and sent ATF INTO THE RADIATOR and water into the transmission. I just got done removing the radiator drain plug and the bad heat exchanger I am going to bypass the heat exchanger and put a new stage 1 ATS Trans and 5 star TC. Will be flushing everything out tomorrow with the exception of the Trans. I ended up only paying $9500 for the truck. I thought it was a smokin deal

 

you might wanna research other transmissions and look into getting something better then an ATS.