Who’s still using a 7.3 diesel truck

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.

:):)

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!

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

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.

Do consider changing to a stock air filter. K&Ns aren’t the best filter for a turbo due to potential dirt getting by the filter compared to stock (it gets higher flow by not filtering as much), and you probably for sure are getting air filter noise.

Do you have the hood liner and are you running synthetic already? Rotella synthetic is just a bit more than Dino at Walmart.

I knew very little about TC’s when I bought my truck I knew that TC’s were heavy and that often times suspension adds were required on lighter trucks. I found a great deal on my 2000 F350 and purchased it fast without further research on TC’s.

Once I had the truck I began to worry about safety because my rig is lifted and has larger tires. That’s why I joined RV net; I got a lot of pushback about my setup being dangerous. So far I’ve logged 4.5 hours of driving with a Lance 865, lightly loaded. I only have an oral description to compare the way my rig handles versus on a stock 3/4 ton GMC and it seems like my truck handles great based on the prior TC owner’s oral description.

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,

Drive train mods:
LSDifferential with 4:10 gears; shift kit and heat sink on automatic trans.

7.3 Engine mods are:
Banks chip; Banks waste gate; Banks 4” exhaust with a Banks muffler; K&N air filter; after market Red hat(?) steering gear

Gauges:
Boost gauge; trans temperature; exhaust gas temperature

I think all of these items are overkill for a 2000 lbs Lance 865, but the prior truck owner towed a large fifth wheel with this rig. It’s reassuring going over steep passes knowing my 3 extra gauge measurements, particularly, the exhaust gas temperatures. Hopefully, that gauge will prolong the life of the engine.

I have some bone growth in my ear canals as well as the tiny bones ion my inner ear from surfing cold water most of my life and the hearing damage from engine noise adds a lot of insult to this condition, I had not thought about this problem. I think in my engine it’s the turbocharger, at low boost it’s a tolerable noise level. Above 7psi it sounds like I’m working on the tarmac at an airport without ear muffs. I’ll experiment with putting some insulation over the air filter and along the firewall and post if there is any difference.

Marcela wrote:
With fuel prices going up those older trucks might look a little more attractive.

Not sure about it.
Been to Yellowstone last fall, when fuel prices were low and observing what's on the road, I counted about 5 TC and 500 Sprinter conversions.
The 25 mpg Sprinters sure own the market.
I heard $7 prediction for fuel price, so that sure will put old fuel guzzlers into parking lots.

With fuel prices going up those older trucks might look a little more attractive.

Grit dog wrote:

JRJR wrote:
1999 F-250 7.3 PSD.

Hit 74,000 miles last week.
I now have a new 2021 on order that should be here this month.

You have a valuable old truck on your hands sir!

Indeed, don't sell to anyone who doesn't know what they are getting...

JRJR wrote:
1999 F-250 7.3 PSD.

Hit 74,000 miles last week.
I now have a new 2021 on order that should be here this month.

You have a valuable old truck on your hands sir!