I wanted to respect the forum as I fully understand that what turned me off from the deal may not bother others which is why I did not post publicly what my issues were. I figured others can go view the truck and decide for themselves. But seeing what this turned into - I will now give my side so others thinking about this truck may be more informed as a buyer. Billy I did respond to one private message only and stated all the below.
To preface the response - I have owned two 6.0s and am also on my second 7.3 over the last 12 years. Am I mechanic - no. Do I know everything about these trucks - no. Have I done most my own work when doing repairs - yes. Do I have a life outside of diesel forums which prevent me from having post counts in the thousands - yes. I have been around these sites for the better part of a decade and anyone who knows me, knows I am a solid guy and do not put up any BS.
So with that said the story with this truck:
I show up to a location which apparently is not the owner's (Lou) primary home, or at least that is what I gathered from him - even though in the weeks leading up to getting the truck he stated we would meet at his house. I am not sure why he had me meet him at a different location and the meeting point to me felt like a lousy area - so the whole start of the meet something felt a bit off. I am not from NJ so I apologize if I am off in that statement - it is what it felt like to me
Lou was one of the diesel owners you guys are trying to make me sound out to be. He didn't know, or at least claimed to not know a single thing about the truck. Every question I asked there was no answer for or I was to call Billy and ask. Lou straight up said to me "Oh you will have to change the oil, I haven't done that yet this year." He did not know a single aftermarket thing done to the truck. He did list off everything he had had serviced since he owned it. He had also disclosed prior to me coming to pick the truck up that it had a "weird noise" at only 65MPH when going over bumps, not at 63 or 67 only at 65 and that him and Billy were not able to figure out what it was. I had planned on observing it when test driving to see if it would have been a deal breaker - but I didn't even get to the test drive.
My observations:
1 - The air filter was filled with crud and was so black you couldn't tell what color the original filter fabric was - I am guessing it hadn't been changed in years. This aligns with the statement regarding the oil. These two issues while they might not bother someone else glaringly said to me Lou owned this truck and did not maintain it well. My take is when things broke they were fixed, and probably done right but regular maintenance and care was not done. I do not care if a truck is brand new or 15 years old, I am fastidious with maintenance on all my vehicles. Billy is obviously much more familiar with the truck and maintenance done so feel free to take his word over mine. Form you own opinion just as I have. I do not know either of these guys from a hole in the wall so I went off my own gut feeling.
2 - As Billy said the oil pan was rusted. To me it looked heavily corroded and to my understanding you either have to pull the motor or cut out the cross brace and re-weld if it starts to leak. That is not something I would want to deal with.
3 - The truck was already started and warmed up prior to my getting there. It was not a cold start. When it fired up it did have what I thought was excessive blue smoke, not just the typical white I am used to seeing on my current and previous 7.3. When I asked Lou if it was currently running any tune he said he didn't think so. The amount of smoke coming from the truck for a warm start was concerning to me esp. if it was on factory programming. My AE did fail the contribution on #5 as Billy stated. The oil filler cap did seem to have more blow by than what I am used to seeing - but again I am not a mechanic and do not do this every day - so it could have been normal but I was not comfortable with it. As I said to Billy maybe it is the CPS maybe not; my current 7.3 throws the code for 3&8 and I have done everything to track it down and the truck runs mint so I am familiar with the ghost code issue on this subject. That said mine does not smoke nearly as much, nor is it blue, nor does it smoke at all on warm starts, nor on a 45 degree day even if it is cold - maybe a haze for a minute. The AE came up with some other codes - I do not remember what they were for but from the descriptions none others concerned me. I did buzz test the injectors and also ran the glow plugs test and all was fine in my opinion there.
3 - As in listing tires and shocks would def. need replacement ASAP. Frame and undercarriage did have more corrosion than I was expecting. That said it is a 15 year old truck in the New England rust belt. I have seen much worse - others who are not familiar with rust belt trucks would not be happy with it IMO.
4 - There were a lot of minor blemishes etc. you would expect of a 15 yr old truck. Yes my father was there and brought up the lock mechanism on the cab not working. It did not bother me and was not a deal breaker - all that was wrong was the latch on the side of the cap was missing one screw so it was not attached and engaging the lock mechanism. Exhaust was loose. Dually fender marking lights one was popped out. Fog lights I believe were dead. Like I said there were these smaller issues that would not have made a difference to me and were not why I opted out.
If anybody looking into the truck is fine with the above then by all means go pick it up. It was more than I felt comfortable getting into. If I were a mechanic and could diagnose a bit better perhaps I would have been more comfortable with what I saw. That said the bottom line was that it just did not feel right and I was not comfortable moving forward.
