Who’s still using a 7.3 diesel truck

[Jtime]

Who’s still using a 7.3 diesel for there TC? How long have you had it? What TC do you have? What’s are some of the must haves to keep it chugging along happily with TC on top?

Cheers

[mellow]

Others are reporting that switching over to Triax 5w40 oil helps to quiet down the HEUI system, I will be switching over to it next weekend if I get a chance, also installing a fumoto drain while at it. That should cure my weeping drain plug issue.

[Marcela]

Americamper wrote:
I should have been able to at least figure out the AIS. By the way I have 2000 F250 7.3 163K Been hauling a Northstar Laredo very well since 2008. Truck is built to F350 spec, came with camper package. Made four trips out west from AL. plus many trips on the east coast. Had two water pumps one glow plug relay and one overdrive actuator.

Re the water pump, there is a lot of casting material in the coolant passages of the engine that eats the seal or bearings. I had one go out about 60k miles, put a coolant filter on with the new pump. After a period changed the filter, the stuff that came out of the filter was beyond my expectations.

[Americamper]

I should have been able to at least figure out the AIS. By the way I have 2000 F250 7.3 163K Been hauling a Northstar Laredo very well since 2008. Truck is built to F350 spec, came with camper package. Made four trips out west from AL. plus many trips on the east coast. Had two water pumps one glow plug relay and one overdrive actuator.

[AnEv942]

air intake system
cam position sensor
few more https://www.allacronyms.com/CPS/ford

We have an 01 7.3 about 180k. I'm not sure about the noise referred to, ours isn't that loud inside?

[Americamper]

I would enjoy this thread a lot more if I knew what a lot of the abbreviations were. CPS,AIS etc.

[Grit_dog]

F-350shortBed wrote:


I think I’m just going to wear ear pro on trips. Purchasing the stock air intake will cost too much from the factory.

Keep your eyes peeled, someone is tossing a "stock" air box in favor of a "high performance" one every day.

Heck, probably gat some kid or performance dude to pay you a few bucks to trade.
I would not run a K&N on a turbo vehicle ever, in the first place and would look to swap it out in the future if I had your truck.

[Marcela]

Fix the fuel system via 'harpoon' the tank and modify for fuel return and install oil pressure crossover. Did all this to mine and don't get the clatter, sounds like a smooth diesel. Also have the AIS installed. Had this on previous truck with 100k+ miles on the setup and never changed the filter and the filter minder only pulled a vacuum once when pulling a big load at max rpm in 2nd gear, but was still serviceable.

[mellow]

Steering box is a Red-head.

I got rid of the K&N filter on my truck and deleted the stock setup and put in an 6637 air filter, you can get the kit at riffraff or you can go with the AIS air filter. Short of really sound damping the cab the noise is going to be there.

[F-350shortBed]

sonuvabug wrote:

F-350shortBed wrote:
... snipped ... Hopefully, that gauge (EGT) will prolong the life of the engine.

That gauge and all of the other mods will not prolong the life of your engine as much as your driving habits will.

I should have added: the gauge allows you to adapt your driving habits to prolong engine life. It really comes in handy when you climbing over passes. When there is something is giving you objective information to drive 45 because your approaching maximum engine temperature your more likely to change your behaviors.

I think I’m just going to wear ear pro on trips. Purchasing the stock air intake will cost too much from the factory.

[Marcela]

You guys using the gauze and oil air filters, if you run your hand around the inside of the filter tube every once in a while it'll show you how much dirt and grit gets through the filter and sucked into the engine. You'll feel it with your fingers.

[NRALIFR]

If the turbo noise is bothering your hearing, which I fully understand, you should look into putting the OEM intake and filter box back on it.

Part of the stock intake filter hardware’s job was to help reduce the sound resonance from the intake. Intake noise, injector noise, combustion noise, transmission noise, exhaust noise are all components of what the design engineers called NVH (noise, vibration, harshness). Making a modern Diesel engine as quiet as they are takes a lot of incremental engineering changes, and having replaced the OEM intake on my ‘95 I can tell you there was a very noticeable increase in the noise coming from under the hood with the intake filter mod I put on.

Some people like the noise, some don’t. Since you clearly don’t, it would be worth a trip to the salvage yard or even buying new parts to restore it to stock.

:):)

[Grit_dog]

F-350shortBed wrote:

My suspension mods to my F350 are:
4” lift leveling kit (prior owner advertised 6”) Air bags, 6 leaf 3600# rear springs, rear sway bar.

You have pretty much the ultimate dream truck 7.3 Superduty! I edited out to suspension for reply but the rest of those mods are 99% increased power, durability, and stability. Heck of a find!

You also have about the best suspension you could have for hauling a top heavy camper, with only a slight disadvantage to being lifted, but better than most with OE springs and suspension.
First, you don’t have a leveling kit, not with a 4” lift. You have lifted front springs. Most of which are ultra stiff compared to OE springs. Presuming the PO didn’t use super flexy off road springs in that setup to pull his 5ver.
Second you mention leveled. By the look of the truck, the rear probably only has 2” taller blocks under the heavy duty leafs, so less “lift”.
3600lb springs are STOUT.
Last you have leafs at all 4 corners, compared to front coils under every Dodge and Ford since the mid 2000s. Stout Leafs at all 4 corners, while sacrificing comfort, absolutely shine at resisting body roll, which is the most prevalent undesirable handling characteristic when loaded too heavy.
And last, it’s not that heavy of a camper, comparatively speaking, and there’s no doubt that it probably handles as well as any rig out there when loaded.

Save for the noise, great truck, couldn’t have spec’d one better for hauling a TC!

[Grit_dog]

sonuvabug wrote:

F-350shortBed wrote:
... snipped ... Hopefully, that gauge (EGT) will prolong the life of the engine.

That gauge and all of the other mods will not prolong the life of your engine as much as your driving habits will.

You’re right, the gauge doesn’t protect anything...very astute observation.....
However it’s generally implied that one would “use” said gauge to keep from operating the engine at higher than safe egts. Lol

[sonuvabug]

F-350shortBed wrote:
... snipped ... Hopefully, that gauge (EGT) will prolong the life of the engine.

That gauge and all of the other mods will not prolong the life of your engine as much as your driving habits will.