The truck has 131,000 miles on it and it is mint. Its a longbed regular cab, the dealer wants $9,200.00. I've heard all the problems with the 6.5 and some people think I'm nuts to want to buy this truck, but I can work on anything on this truck so I'm not worried.

Is it a light duty 2500 (six lug) or heavy duty (eight lug). $9200 would be a little high for a heavy and way too much for a light. 98 is a year with oil cooling which is good for the piston's but bad for the block. So it realy depends on how hard you plan on using it. Thousands and thousands of trucks including fleets use and abuse this engine daily without problem, so go for it if you like the truck. Knock on wood my 95' has given me no problems except for the accesory pulley and I just passed 196K miles.

Every engine has it's shortcummins. (Sorry had to be funny). It has it's hick-ups, but not too bad if you can do your own work. Dealers like to get every last undeserved dollar. Kick the tires, and do some reading on these boards, and see what you think. If they were really that bad, none of us would own them.

Really want some info, I'll PM ya to get the whole scoop on this rig.

Look that block over good. How clean is it? Is it coated in oil or pristine? how old is the rubber on the fuel lines and oil lines? Pull the tranny dip stick and smell the fluid for varnish. For nearly 10,000 this puppy would have to be spotless under the hood like gmctd's or TD's rides.

Even if it were spotless, I would offer $2,000 less than the asking price. At 131k miles I guarantee you will be spending at least that much in maintenance for the truck in the very near future. The fact of the matter is these trucks require a good deal of maintenance. However, once you get everything fixed, they last a long time.

Hay guys thanks for the replies, I looked the truck over well today. It is an 8 lug, truck was definitly hit in the front as the bumper is slightly tweaked upward on the driver side, and scratched like hell. I started it this morning, temp was around 18 degrees F and the dealer just opened, truck took about 30 cranks to start, smoked like hell, but once it warmed the motor quieted down about 50% and smoke was gone. I was unaware that asking price was too high, anyhow we ran into a roadblock as far as price goes with my trade in car, 1999 Nissan Altima SE 37,000 mi, he only would offer me $5700 trade in. And would'nt come below $9000 for the truck, his excuse was "its a diesel", "this will run forever". So I will look for a better truck, and be patient, I'm not a Ford man so I refuse to buy a Ford product, even though they don't even use there own diesel.

Run forever huh? you should have asked for that in writing. These are fine trucks but there's limits.

If by run forever, he means roughly 200k miles then he would be right. As for Fords, what's wrong with a diesel Ford, or even a diesel Dodge for that matter? I owned a '96 F-250 Powerstroke, and it was 10 times the diesel my current '95 6.5TD is. GM, Ford and Daimler-Chrysler all make pretty decent diesel rigs now.

the only good thing ford sells is a powerstroke truck. nothing else can hold a candle to a gm. and the only reason most people buy dodge trucks is for the cummins motor.