1986 Ford F250 questions

jscusmcvet

Adventurist
I am in search of some opinion on pricing for this vehicle. It is up for bid locally in a sealed bid from a local fire department.

1986 Ford F250
22,xxx miles (yes, twenty two thousand...)
351
C6 auto
4wd
looks like some surface rust on inside of bed, covered with a bad version of a home grown pray in bed liner
Evidence of some leaking... looks to be from bell housing/engine... perhaps main seal, although it is not a lot
Factory A/C
No radio
manual windows and door locks
minimum bid is $1500

As a sealed bid it is a one shot deal. Any thoughts or recommendations?

Thanks,

John
 
you sure that mileage hasn't rolled over.. I'd be scared of it... even if its only 22,000 maybe esp. even.. stuff goes bad in a hurry when it sits that much. And fire depts aren't easy on vehicles...
 
you sure that mileage hasn't rolled over.. I'd be scared of it... even if its only 22,000 maybe esp. even.. stuff goes bad in a hurry when it sits that much. And fire depts aren't easy on vehicles...
You know the truck I am speaking of, any inside scoop?
 
Keep in mind that even if it is just 22,000 miles, the drivetrain went from sitting cold to emergency response with virtually zero warm up time.
 
Keep in mind that even if it is just 22,000 miles, the drivetrain went from sitting cold to emergency response with virtually zero warm up time.
help me understand this for the engines of that era (maybe any era)... What is the potential damage...
 
I used to be an Allison Transmission Field Service Tech, so I have some experience with heavy duty emergency equipment.

Typically, more wear on oil lubricated parts than you might expect to see. The vehicles generally have extended "down time" so the oil has time to drain off of lubricated parts into the oil pan. This leaves the parts essentially dry. After engine start up, it usually takes the oil pump a second or two to build pressure and start delivering oil to all of the parts that need it. Meanwhile, the driver is in, garage doors are going up, and a healthy dose of throttle gets them on their way.

Having said all of that, most of the heavy duty equipment is "plugged in" when sitting idle. The engines will have oil pan heaters and/or coolant heaters, essentially keeping them warmed up and ready to go, warm oil flows a lot faster than cold oil, reducing the wear, it's possible this truck is similarly equipped/maintained. If it truly only has 22,000 miles on the clock, it may have only had 4-5 oil changes since new. Fire Dept's maintain their vehicles, but they still have budgets and maintenance schedules. If there is an hour meter in the truck it may have been maintained by engine hours rather than miles.
 
There is a reason you don't see too many mid 1980,s vehicles on the road at least here in California and especially Fords.
Keeping them smog legal is a real challenge and as I remember Ford had these junky electric carbs on them and there early
fuel injection systems were nothing to great. If you don't have to worry about passing smog it might be OK. If I had to have something
from that era get a GM K20 or K30 so much easier to keep running and hey I own a Ford F250. A guy could build up a GM square
body truck up from just the spare parts that are out there. If you can get the Ford cheep enough it may turn out to be just fine.
Good luck.
 
Thanks Glenn. No smog here in NC for something that old... I think 1996 is as old as it is required. Still has to have a safety inspection. I did not know that about the ford early fuel injection, so I will dig into it a bit. I do not "need" this truck, but it seems on the surface to be a good opportunity.
 
Well, put a bid in on it today. They are supposed to let us know tomorrow. I put in less than Ann's opinion and more than mine, so that seems like if it works out we'll both be happy. Plans would be to do a complete baseline maintenance/tune up and then see where we are.
 
Well... we bid $2550. I thought we were a bit high, Ann thought we were a bit low... she was right. It went to a young guy who bid $3550. I would not have paid that much so I guess it worked out as it should have. While we are not really searching... we are keeping our eyes open so to speak. Thanks to everyone who chimed in here to help out on our thinking.
 
I am a 1980-1997 Ford Truck enthusiast. Those 80-97 Ford are climbing in value. Especially the 94-97 diesels because of the lack of OEM emission systems.
The clean trucks can sell for double blue book value in the rust belt states. That is where I am... Rusty trucks are plentiful here meaning lots of used parts are available. As all old trucks would, they require maintenance. Up here, maintenance can be done on the cheap with the abundance of used parts. y

I recently sold a clean 2wd, yes 2wd, 1997 crew cab dually with the diesel for $11,500. It had 160k on it. I bought it for $6800 4 years prior. The values are climbing. I have seen clean, lower mile (100k or less) sell for $16-22k. Not list, but sell. This is referring to the Ohio / New England region. They are way less in Texas and SW states since the supply is higher.

The 87-91 are less desirable but have EFI gas engines. Only the F-350s got the solid front axle.
80-86 4WDs generally do not have the live front axle. But they do exist. I bet the fire truck (assuming F-350) had the solid front axle. 1986 was the first year for EFI with the 302ci V8 engine only.
 
I think we would have loved that truck if we had won the bidding. I keep my eyes open for another opportunity, but have not stumbled across anything yet.
 
My first 4WD vehicle was a 1984 F-250 4x4, 351, carburetor, with four on the floor, bench seat, 2" lift and a shell. First gear was like 4WL so I never used it unless I was on the trail. It was very finicky but it never broke down on the trail or stranded me. The engine finally exploded going over the Cajon Pass on I-15 at 165K mi. I sold it for $700 about seven years ago. I loved that truck! It was big and mean and people on the highway just let me pass. It would go anywhere I pointed it.

It also had manually locking hubs which I really miss!

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Cam
 
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