Buying 04 Pete 387?

That's a while to be sitting. The question is what is worth to you. You have to figure the money you have to put into it to get it up to working. Now compare it to the price of a working 04 Pete. I do believe you would come out better with a working 04 Pete 387. I hope all goes well for you.

 

I work for a used truck dealer and my opinion is that its not worth the money, there are a couple of reasons.
The 12 speed auto must be a ZF Meritor Freedom, they were the only ones that had 12 speed auto at the time and they were a nightmare, those trucks are worth nothing these days.
I also think with the engine you could end up spending a big amount of money to get this truck running well, it will be a money pit.

 

I agree it sounds like a money pit. Might even have a bridge motor in it.

 

Drove 2 trucks with the cat bridge motors. 1 a w900 18spd trans 3:55 rears. The T 800 10 speed unknown rear ratio. Both struggled to get 5mpg doing the same work and routes as with a previous w900 with a 60 series Detroit 10 speed, 370 rears at 6.1 mpg. So if it is a bridge motor you may have added fuel costs.

 

Expect to spend some $$$. Count on a minimum of all new tires if its been sitting outdoors. No overhaul on 1 mil count on it needing that in the next 100-200k. Autoshift = junk IMHO. I think a guy could find something better.

 

Yeah that's normal mpg's for a bridge motor. Of course $4,000 will unbridge it but who wants to spend unnecessarily right? I would look for another truck.

 

I'm with everyone else here, it sounds like a money pit. There are probably many other early 00's 387's out there with better motors (like a MBN or 6NZ) and need less work.

 

It "bridged" emission standards. They were the engine between the ones with no emission equipment and the one's that had some form of NOx reduction equipment. Cat prefix was MBN I believe. Not a terrible engine but they certainly aren't the best. I know a few guys who've had them and most of them broke at least 1 rocker arm over the lifespan they ran them. EGT's run on the high side and they had issues with them derating on hard pulls. Not sure if I'm allowed to say how the derate issue was "fixed" though.