Yooperpete, turbomax is corect about the converters. Some of the early 99's did have converter failures that involved the vanes blowing apart. Quite a few of them in fact. The tranny still worked, but the converter made a hell of a lot of noise.
They corrected the problem in the 99.5 model year, one of the reasons why there are early 99 and 99.9 models of the same truck. Many of the problems that were stated are from the ealy 99 models which were made between beginning of 98 to around 11 or 12 of 98. Some of which were the air box design which allowed dirt to enter, those are identified by the location of the intake which is drawn from the wheel well. That was corrected by a new air box which draws air from the front next to the battery. The front axle was redesigned with larger rotors and bearings. The turbo was redesigned, larger intake piping and a different turbo. There are also some items added to the engine management. You can spot an early 99 by either looking underneath for a cat, or see if it has the original airbox.

I have an 06/98 model that has the early turbo, but the later airbox. The front axle is also the later model. Some people prefer the early turbo to the later model, it spools up faster. I love my truck, it performs quite well for a diesel. So far I have replaced the exhaust with a Hypermax 5" turbo back unit(performance related, didnt need to be replaced), installed new ball joints with grease fittings, that eliminated the wander, a new waterpump, the previous owners did not flush the cooling system properly, so the seals leaked. Aside from normal maintenance, there is one other common thing that so far every model year has had an issue with, the rear pinion seal leaks. I have also heard of the drive line vibrating due to the center bearing angle, and shims correct that, but have not encountered it.

One last thing, check the KB retail price, you may find it right in line with what you are seeing at the dealers. Diesels really do have a high resale value, I got very lucky with mine, I paid 25K for it two years ago, and I still see them selling for close to that for my year, provided I see them at all. If you see one, and like it, be prepared to buy it, if you wait too long someone else will take it from you. Thankfully the person who tried to buy the one I got could not finance it.

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