7.3L Ford Diesel
I friend of mine has a 2003 F-250 with the 7.3L Diesel for sale that I am going to look at tomorrow. It has 75,000 miles on it, and I know it has had meticulous care (he is a retired heavy diesel mech...
Forum Discussion
majorgator wrote:up2nogood wrote:
No they don't do just fine ,they do okay. 10K empty maybe, but doubtful.
I thought maybe after owning a truck for nearly 16 years ( Early 99 Superduty 7.3 ) I would get a new one.
Somehow you guys ,and your nostalgic view of the 7.3 overshadow the facts . One of the worst transmissions ever built ( 4R100 ) CPS issues, wire harness problems, crappy OEM ball joints, and I could continue ,but its obvious its falling on deaf ears. Oh ! ya the 7.3 is a solid motor, thats been proven, but beyond that ,please don't try to tell me how great they are. They were great in their time, and it has passed. Get over it its a fact :S
Your opinion is apparently based upon your limited experience with your vehicle. That's OK, but there are countless others on this thread that have countered your opinion with their own/our own experiences. That's OK too. Nearly all the common problems that plagued the 7.3's are easy fixes that a driveway wannabe mechanic can fix inespensivley and fairly quickly. Nobody is debating that it has the same power as the newer diesels, but since most of us aren't looking to haul 18k lbs across steep grades, the 7.3 does JUST FINE. And as already mentioned, the 7.3 takes just a little bit of tweaking to get drastically more power out of it. That's a fact...
Limited experience 16 years :h Lets see ,I replaced the ball joints at 60K, I replaced the transmission cooler with the 6.0 ,the intercooler with the 6.0, replaced the exhaust with 4" turbo back, replaced stock air intake with the AIS air intake. Ran the Superchip for a few years ( remember now we are talking the 16 inexperienced years ) Switched to the DP tuner, finally started to run half decent for towing . Added gauges to monitor transmission ,boost, and ETG's. The early 99 had to run the conventional coolant with SCA, because injector cups etc. would not tolerate the extended life coolant, some tried without problems, I chose to flush ,and run the conventional every 30K. These thing were all done by this wannabe driveway mechanic.
Yes mine accelerated better with the upgrades, but towing was a different animal.The limiting factor with all the upgrades was ETG's , unless you replaced the intercooler with something that would let it run ,the 7.3 intercooler would not allow the power that was there. The 6.0 helped ,but still wouldn't let it run like it could. We can debate this all day, I know how they perform.
