Engine Health Help

Greetings all,

I’m pretty new here, but was hoping somebody might be able to help me out with some possible engine troubles. It’s in a truck I’m hoping to buy, but haven’t been able to go see in person, due to living 2500 miles away. The current owner has been very accommodating though, sharing plenty of pictures and videos of everything from the undercarriage to the interior to all the paperwork and registration. And it’s a pretty rare old truck, and one I’ve been looking for for years, so I’m more than willing to deal with most mechanical issues it may have. I just don’t want to end up with a truck that needs a whole new engine.

The reason I’m concerned is due to the start-up video the owner sent me. With his permission, I’ve attached the link to it below, but here’s the consensus anyway: In it, it seems to start okay, then revs okay, but when left to idle, there’s a bit of white smoke and it stalls and dies. It doesn’t seem to want to start again after this. I’ve a couple people on another truck forum suggest that there may be air in the fuel lines. But unfortunately, I’m not engine-savvy enough myself to confirm this.

Here’s the background: It’s a 1975 Diamond Reo with a 350 Cummins. Exact mileage is unknown, but it’s believed to be less than 300,000. It was well taken care of by it’s previous operator, but after he passed away, the truck was left sitting for about 5 years before being purchased by the current owner in an estate sale 6 months ago. The current owner says he’s not really done anything with it in that time, and all lines, filters, fuel, and oil have not been changed in at least the 5 or 6 years that it was stored. The batteries are supposedly old too. And if it helps, the temperature was about 50 - 55 degrees during filming. And I was told that it had started and run fine once or twice prior to the video as well.



So, again, I fully expect to throw some money into it; I just don’t want to spend $5500 (plus $4000 shipping) on a truck just to find out the engine’s shot. Maybe this is normal for a truck that’s been sitting this long? I can’t imagine the old fuel’s doing it any favors either. But either way, any smaller issues are fine, I just need to know where to start and what to look out for, because I really don’t have a whole lot of experience with these older engines.

Thank you all in advance,
Sean

 

Thank you all, I appreciate the help! Sounds like the general consensus is that it’s not getting enough fuel. I’ll see if I can get the owner to replace the filters and put a few gallons of fresh diesel in the tanks before I get it shipped over here. Not really in the mood to rent a loader to pull it off of the trailer! And though I already had a couple picked out, do you guys have any recommendations for good fuel and oil filters?
-Sean