05 cummins 04 build date advise

[Robkiller]

I am going to buy an 05 volvo 670 with a 450hp cummins. Its has 640k miles.

Is that a horrible mistake?
What should i look for or test before buying it?
What should i do right away after i buy to help it last?

Thanks all

[Squish099]

How many hrs? Maybe it doesn't have miles but it idled it's life away.. Pull valve cover and check cams for pitting. There's literally 100s of things that need to be gone over.

[Robkiller]

(07-10-2021 )Squish099 Wrote:  How many hrs? Maybe it doesn't have miles but it idled it's life away.. Pull valve cover and check cams for pitting. There's literally 100s of things that need to be gone over.

Waiting for hours. Good question. What would you go over if you had a good day before the trip home? Then what would you check after you make it home and have time to inspect or modify to insure a long life.

[Rawze]

(07-11-2021 )Robkiller Wrote:  

(07-10-2021 )Squish099 Wrote:  How many hrs? Maybe it doesn't have miles but it idled it's life away.. Pull valve cover and check cams for pitting. There's literally 100s of things that need to be gone over.

Waiting for hours. Good question. What would you go over if you had a good day before the trip home? Then what would you check after you make it home and have time to inspect or modify to insure a long life.

Yank that getting-a-new-truck glee out of your head and educate yourself first...
http://rawze.com/forums/showthread.php?t...1#pid31741

The paint job and how clean it is will tell you nothing about how big of a money pit an '06 is ... guarantee its a huge money pit at this point and you should plan on about $3000-$4000 the day you get it home ... that is doing all the work yourself to it... so that you can get it at least somewhat reliable again.... especially for a 15+ years old truck. - Crawling under it, pulling valve cover off it, and all sorts of other inspections .. and a LOT of maintenance that has been severely neglected is what to expect.

- I hope your not paying more than about $20k for that thing is all I will say.

NEXT:: What rear ratio? .. what other specs?, tranny? etc... and what type of freight you going to haul with it?


-- and you do realize that its a Volvo... it will be about 0.6 mpg less fuel efficient than any other Aero truck on the highways .. that is an extra $3,000-$4,000 bucks sucked out of your wallet every year, and more if fuel prices spike ... and it being a CM870... you might be able to get it into the low 7'ws if you hyper-mile it (drive it slow, by boost gauge and all the other tricks to do) ... otherwise, its going to be a fuel pig.. and the older Volvo trucks had only 3" intake and other piping and somewhat restrictive air flow under the hood .. making the engine less efficient than other brands of trucks with that same exact engine.

Lastly.. if it is deleted.. then I would not give more than $10k for it .. as it likely needs an inframe from all the "delete" file abuse it likely has in it.

just the beer talkin'

[Robkiller]

So the truck was converted about 10 years ago to an RV. It had a custom 17k bed put on with a non commercial fifth wheel hitch. The owner passed but from what i can find from the shop that did some work for him and his friend selling it for his widowed wife it was his baby. He did everything it needed before it needed it. Take that for what its worth. I will be using it for the same to haul a fifth wheel travel trailer toy hauler around the US. I am giving him 23k for it.

The trans is an alison auto
I hear old trucks suck new trucks suck man leaves no options. I thought keeping away from def and piss in my engine was better so i went older. Maybe that was not smart.

[tree98]

Not trying to be a smart ass here or sound like a Democrat but if your buying it to pull a toy hauler rv around the US as you say then you have enough money to deal with whatever comes. If the truck was maintained as meticulously as you say what are you so worried about? And yes new trucks suck and old trucks suck that is a very true statement.
If I were you I would drive it down to Georgia and have Haggai look it over top to bottom.

[Rawze]

(07-11-2021 )Robkiller Wrote:  So the truck was converted about 10 years ago to an RV.
...
The trans is an alison auto

./..

RV folks with converted class-8 trucks are almost always completely ignorant and could mostly care less about getting their hands dirty and doing things correctly with regards to any kind of proper maintenance. OYu can also bet that if it is deleted, its a bad delete too... <- I would not give you 1 damn red cent more than the chassis is worth .. and most trucks converted to RV's are horribly done too.. even the high-end ones are mostly a half-arsse conversion once you look past the paint job and shiny interrior!. -- Last one i looked at it was a garbage mess of half-arsse, mostly unprotected wiring underneath it, and all sorts of other "cheap-ass-and-in-a-hurry" put together mess as far as I was concerned.


an allison auto-shitter in it is a complete f%ucking joke Too, especially if your going to haul s%it around with it <- I would not give a damn red cent for it!

[Chamberpains]

My approach at this would be to join a Volvo truck forum so you can get a start on what you're dealing with in the Volvo truck side of this thing. They are very over engineered vehicles. So there is a learning curve and a need to have inside sources on what, how and maybe why they have some of the features they have and how to go about diagnosing and repairing them.

But while your here you can have a search of what we so gracefully call Lot Rot. It's what gonna be your biggest enemy with taking a commercial vehicle and turning it to a weekend play thing. Working equipment is designed to be worked. Because with that work comes constant up keep. Having things just sit allows for a lot of rust, dry rot, moisture build up and a pile if other issues that are kept at bay because the equipment is being used and parts are being lubricated during that use. A lot of moving parts on trucks are lubricated by a process of oil bath. Without movement the oil settles and exposes the bare metals to the elements. So your engine internally, rear ends, transmission, air compressor, air tanks and wheel ends all are very large half or more empty spaces that will get exposed to moisture if they aren't used.

I just left a truck of mine unused for a year and I made it a point to go out and run and move it once every 2 weeks. Even though I did this I still ended up replacing the batteries, had a tire dry crack on the side wall, had a wheel seal leak and now have a funky oder that got stuck in the soft interior parts. I'm sure there are other things that I didn't catch but it's up for sale and will be the next owners problems as they arise.

This is why it's way more practical to buy a smaller vehicle with less auxiliary necessities than one that has an entire air system for the air brakes, range selector, cab and main suspension, fan cycling, sometimes wiper system... these all have moving parts that need to be moved periodically to keep them from rusting fast or rotting apart.

Hopefully for your sake this thing will be used year round or your gonna find that lack of use is a much bigger problem than actually using it as it was designed.

[Robkiller]

So the reason a semi hauler.

My thought was longer lasting, over build means not working it so hard it shortens the truck life. A new or newer 3500 is at least 2 times the money and is not build as well in my opinion. Room for the family to be comfortable and safer theoretically as it is a larger vehicle with more stopping power.

I do have a class A CDL even thought i have not done a large amount of OTR trucking i am not new to it with just a normal DL driving a big truck.

I have no issues working on engines or vehicles. I have rebuild smaller non commercial cummins engines so i am not going to be subject to giving money to a volvo dealer in most situations.

Personally i would rather find an older engine and put some money and time into it. It has sat and may need a lot of maintenance catchup more so then a newer one but newer has a lot of smog trouble causing crap on it.

I plan on checking for blow-by, leaks, bubbles in the coolant reservoir, taking the cover off the top end and checking for pitting and how much build up of crap it has.

After i get it home i will to a top end adjustment and get more into cleaning EGR system and all.

Anything else to check before i drive it home?

Thanks for the input i am sure no one has a perfect solution but if i had money i would by a class B hauler or new semi to haul but i feel this has a middle ground of cost and effort vs all cost. Sounds like i could easily be wrong.

I want to give my kids the ability to see the USA and travel. Something i could never do growing up and still not go crazy into debt.