Hello all, I am new to the CTD section (the 06 in the garage is my dads, I just use the same account) I have previously been hanging out inthe 1st gen section. Recently my 318 took a dump on me, and it’s not worth fixing, not to mention I really disliked the auto. So I began a search for a w250. On craigslist I found a 91 w250 intercooled 5 speed w/ 160k miles. I went to look at it Tue; it seems like a nice clean truck with little rust for the age, only starting to rust on the rockers (bit beat up though). I have a couple concerns about it. To start with the motor, there is a oil leak (or possibly fuel, I wasn’t thinking and wore nice clothes and I didn’t want to get them dirty so I tried to avoid crawling around too much) it is on the driver’s side rear, towards the bottom. It starts about a foot from the back and seems to blow up slightly when driving. The owner claims it doesn’t drip on the ground, but I don’t trust that 100%.Wondering what could possibly be the source of this, I know there wasn’t a whole lot located on this section of the motor. Other than that, it was clean,ran nice, no kdp fix that will be high priority. Secondly, the clutch felt good, but 3rd gear was funny. It didn’t seem to “pop in” like the other gears, had to wait for it to go sometimes. What might be the cause of this, bad syncro??? These trannys appear to get a bad rep, but I’ve read they’re not all that bad. Anything else I should look out for when I go back Sat, I will make sure to wear old clothes and crawl around more. Any input is appreciated, thanks in advance for the help, just got burned on 1 truck, being in high school cannot afford for it to happen again.

 

Driver's side toward the rear of the block is where the puke tube is on my 12-valve, dumps any blow-by to the ground. Also back there is the fuel filter, fuel lift pump, return line, all kinds of things that can leak.

 

Now that you say that, it makes sense, never thought of the blowby causing it. Once i crawl under there it will be easy to determine if it is fuel or oil. But, the million dollar question is how much blowby is too much? Is a bit of oil too much??

 

Meh, how much is too much indeed. I'd say a little is normal for any turbo diesel with a few miles on it.

 

yeah, its either the PCV or a leaking tappet cover.

 

How far down are the tappet covers on the 5.9, this was down on the oil pan. The oil did not run down the motor, it came from the bottom and streaked slightly up, it was only on the oil pan, nothing higher. Im pretty convinced it is the blow by, as the blow by was located in that area (The seller never called back, so im digging into last weeks memory files and its a little fuzy, thus my non specific word choice). I think he sold it because he never called back, or answered my call. From my extensive research i figured out that the third gear synchro was going out as well. The truck im currently looking into is a 91 w250 4x4. Here go my questions again, The owner has a 4wd transmission that came with it, but the internals have been taken out by the owner before the seller (crazy story), stored in a box, got dusty/dirty. The seller went out, bought a fully functioning 2wd tranny and was intending on swaping 2wd internals into 4wd housing. If i get the truck he will give me the 2wd tranny with it. How much work would it be to swap out the internals, I consider myself quite mechanically inclined, but not sure whether I trust my self with a task of this level, because of this, how much would it cost me if I brought everything to a transmission shop and paid them to do it (I would put the tranny back in the truck). Secondly, It is non intercooled. I have done tons of research, but got no definite answer. My question is, for a daily driver that will see minimal towing, a bit of farm work (hauling seed bags, maybeeeee pulling a gravity box a few miles, for the most part we would be using different truck or tractor) is the intercooler needed. I dont plan on bombing the motor, I live in MN, so no moutains. Should i be worried about excessive EGT or engine temps. Thanks for the help so far!!

 

You're talking about an a-518, right? I might be mistaken here, but I know with the newer ones (47re anyway) you can just swap the tail housing. You want to keep the shim with the tail housing it came in. That's what my trans builder told me anyway.

 

Sorry, should have specified, it the getrag 360

 

just to answer your tappet cover question...

 

Cool diagram, but it is definitly not leaking from the tapets. Where is shows the left bolt going in, the area right behind it on the oil pan is where the oil comes from