Thanks for your reply. I went out and bought a 90 Dodge Cummins truck instead. MUCH better motor. I love this truck already. 400ft/lb. torque at about 1850 rpm!

I realize you already bought a cummins TD. I've never owned one but I've heard a lot of good about them. I have an '82 GMC half ton PU with the 6.2L diesel. I bought it in '91 with 148K miles on it for $2500. Best money I ever spent. It now has 321K miles on it without any serious problems. It did blow a head gasket at about 210K miles but it was my fault, not the engine's. The block heater, which takes the place of one of the freeze plugs is sealed by an O-ring. The O-ring dried out and leaked away the coolant. Engine overheated slightly and the head gasket blew. I pulled the heads myself, cleaned them up, and found the valves still sealed well so I did just a minor hand lapping on them with a suction cup type hand lapping tool. The new gasket kit contained valve seals, valve cover gaskets etc. so I replaced all gaskets as I reassembled the engine. I replaced all head bolts too. I understand the bolts shouldn't be reused because they are designed to stretch when installed. I replaced the block heater with a rubber expansion type freeze plug since a block heater isn't really necessary in this part of Texas.

So other than the blown head gasket, I've had no engine problems whatsoever, unless you call a water pump replacement at 175K miles an engine problem, I don't. The engine has been super reliable but pretty low powered compared to some of the newer turbodiesels. I think the rated horsepower on this old engine is about 120hp. At this time, it uses about 2 quarts of oil between filter changes every 3K miles. I noticed the oil consumption occurs mostly during highway driving. A few months back I noticed the oil consumption dropped to almost zero and realized the problem is mainly due to the old dried up factory original oil pan gasket. Oil consumption had dropped so much because I happened not to have taken it on the highway during that oil change interval. I think when driven faster, the crankshaft stirs up the oil enough to cause a lot of leakage at the old pan gasket but around town, the leakage is almost zero. When time permits, I'll pull the engine, clean it up and replace the pan gasket, front and rear main bearing seals, and the seals for the oil cooler hoses. These are all areas these poor old factory installed gaskets are leaking.

Best of all, I get a consistent 22 mpg at 70 miles per hour on the highway. On my 30 mile (15 each direction) daily commute to work when I cruise about 50 mph It gets a consistent 27 to 29 mpg depending upon the season. A little better in summer. All in all, I still love the old beast. It's been good to me.