Then I'm betting what you're hearing is what they call gear rollover. It's basically just sounds made in the transmission and clutch by the vibrations of the engine. It is pretty common in these trucks.

 

Well everyone, she's gone. I sold her on Friday for 3 times what I paid for it. She will be missed other than all the problems she was starting to develop. However, I just got back from a 6 hour round trip drive to South Carolina to pick up this AWESOME F-350


97 F-350
7.3
Zf5
4x4
Crew Cab
Dana 60 front
Flatbed
Super chip with some kind of hand held programmer/code reader? (not too sure about it)
Got it for a pretty good deal. Just needs tires. However, I'd like to put an exhaust on it, new tires, possibly a SMF (should I wait until this one breaks?), and it needs the brakes bled. Other than that, my questions are, what exhaust should I go with? Is the Superchip enough? Or should I buy another TS 6 position? Any other upgrades y'all would suggest? And, last but not least, what tires do y'all recommend? I had Dynapro All-terrains on my blue truck and loved them so I may get those again.

 

Good looking truck!!

Yes, SMF; NO, don't wait until the DMF lets loose (assuming it still has a DMF) because they can ruin a lot of things when they go.
No, Superchips, YES TS chip.
For the exhaust, I like Diamondeye, but there are others out there that will work too.
Only other upgrade I would suggest right off the bat is a 6637 and some gauges.
For tires, that's up to your personal preference. I really like my Nittos but they're not available in 16" sizes for some inexplicable reason.

 

Ordered a good bit today from Thoroughbred Diesel (Haven't heard much about them, but haven't heard anything bad). I bought a new Valair clutch/SMF, Diamondeye turbo back exhaust kit, and a TS chip. Going to be tire shopping soon and buying the 6637. Not sure about gauges yet. I think I'm going to wait until the new TS monitor comes out and try that out. Have any of y'all swapped the old bench seats out for something maybe from a newer SD? The bench seat in the front is pretty bad. Also, I'll post some more pics later once I get home

 

Nice find. Yeah, tires are a personal preference. It just depends on what you want to do with the truck.

 

Sounds good! You did well with Thoroughbred, in my opinion. They're not bad to deal with.

As for the seats, there are a number of ways you can go. SD seats, Newer F-150 seats (my current project) or even brand new seats. There is at least one guy that I know of that has the brand new F series seats in his OBS and has a connection where he can get them pretty readily. All in all it's a doable thing and there are a bunch of options, just decide what you want and what you can get a hold of and you'll figure out how to make it work.

 

What size tires do y'all recommend? I had 265's on the blue one and this one has 285's which look good on it, but discount tire says 285's won't fit the wheel properly or some bs

 

^^^^ What profile are your existing tires, and the tires you're considering? What rims do you have on the truck now?

 

I like 285s on these trucks because they seem to fill out the wheel wells better than anything smaller does. They also look proportionally right for the 16" wheels that these came stock with. Discount tire probably doesn't like them because they're about as wide as you would want to go on the stock rims. That's my guess, anyway. You can go wider than that but you're going to start seeing some funky wear on the treads.

 

I have 285 durtrac and love them. They have worn like iron.

 

That is a good looking truck! 4x4 cc flat bed is one of my favorite configs.

I'm no help on tires. I have 12.5" aftermarket rims (came with my first truck) with 33" BFG at's on them and love them. Good traction and great wear. Not sure how the narrower ones do though.

Nate - do you have a write up on those new 150 seats you're working on? I wouldn't mind putting new seats in the cc build I'm working on now. Pm if you like.

And to the OP, def get an egt gauge on there ASAP with any sort of chip setup. Especially if you're towing/hauling at all.

And good luck with it!

 

No, not really. I may put a little something together once I'm all finished, but I don't have much yet. I've been told they're seats out of a 2003 F-150 and they have the Lariat designation embroidered into them. They were out of a 4 door truck so I have the full rear seats, not like the little narrow "butt shelf" that's in the extended cab trucks.

What I can say is that the fronts are pretty straight forward. I mounted them to the existing front seat pan with a few modifications. I had to drill new holes in the pan for the seats to bolt through, trim one corner off and I went overboard and tunneled the front of the pan so I could retain the use of the front slider handle that was with the seats.

The rears, are not so easy. You either have to drill 14 holes in your floor and bolt them to the seat pan or get creative with your fabrication skills and build a custom rear pan. I'll be sure and post in more detail in the truck's build thread once I get the details sorted out. I was out working on this til about 10:00 last night, but I'm over-comitted on other things so I'm not getting a lot of time to work on this. I'm getting close though.

 

Just ordered some Cooper Discoverer ATP's in a 285/75r16 fashion. Friday I have a full day off so I'm going to get some work done on the new truck. All parts came in. Question, can I keep the Superchip thing so I can see codes and still install the TS chip? And 2 more questions.

1. Has anyone ever broken the parking brake cable? Because I did...
2. Theres a fuel leak coming from the front tank I believe. Any known problems to check before I dive in too far?

 

I think you'll like those Coopers. I've heard some really good things about them and the AT3's.

Yes, you can keep the superchip tuner and use it to pull and reset codes (provided it does that for you now). It won't interfere with your chip, just don't try and upload a tune with the chip in there. I doubt that would cause an issue either, but I wouldn't tempt fate...

Nope, I've never broken the e-brake cable on one of these trucks (though I have on another vehicle). Was it the one between the brake pedal and the point where it splits to the wheels or was it one of the wheel cables?

Fuel leak from the front tank is probably rust holes in the tank in my experience, but you'll know soon enough.

 

I've broken the rear parking brake cables. They're susceptible to internal rust, esp if you DON'T use them. Forward of that, there are two cables. One shrouded cable coming from the pedal ("front cable"), goes to a fixed point under the cab. Then an open cable ("intermediate cable") from that point to the rear cable splitter. The intermediate cable differs in length based on cab/bed. The other cables are the same for all models (except ambulance).

It's actually the cables that run inside the housings, the front one at the pedal and the rear ones at the wheels, because they rust inside the housings, then fray, then bind up from fraying, and eventually break.

Worst case is when a rear cable sticks in the "applied" position, because it's dragging the brake the whole time. And if it's just one, the pedal still returns (from the spring action of the other side), so you don't necessarily notice it. And the truck is so strong, you may not notice it in coasting or launching. It'll fairly quickly run the shoes on that side down to metal. Take a guess how I know this.... Takeaway - if one cable is broken, the others are probably not far behind. Might be the right time to take care of them all, or at least the shrouded ones.

Fuel tanks rust notoriously on our trucks. Amazon usu. has the best prices on replacements (Spectra), shipped free. I got a new open box front tank for $60-ish coupla years ago. Comes with a replacement lock ring. You'll probably need new straps. Prime/paint EVERYTHING. Turns out Jeff's Bronco Graveyard has plastics for both the rear and long bed (19-gallon) front, but they're $$$'y.