Congrats and welcome to the club. Those 7.3 are beasts!

 

Shouldn't have a problem w longevity there!

 

took the truck to jiffy lube for an oil change. took my own oil, filter and lucas stabilizer. got home and now have a coolant leak. doesn't look like the water pump maybe a sensor next to the thermostat housing?

 

Hard to say. You will have to clean the area and see if you can detect the leak.

 

At that mileage, I would go thru the starting systems real well. chaeck cables, Batts, Glow plug relay, ICP, IPR, Fuel bowl o-rings, plus more..

If you ever experience a start and die with a cold engine, I would be looking for a fuel leak or a bad o-ring. Air intrusion will keep you from starting if it is bad enough. It will also cause power and MPG issues.

 

There is an O-Ring on the lower coolant tube coming out of the pump that goes bad and can leak. Pretty easy fix if that's the problem.

 

Congrats on a nice truck!!!!!!!


I recently sold the '99 F250 SuperDuty (7.3L) that I helped my son buy. I payed cash for it.
(He didn't make the payments to the First National Bank of Dad, so, I repossessed it, drove it some, then sold it.)

That 7.3 PowerStroke is a beast. LOTS of power.


I do miss that old truck. 236,xxx miles on it.

 

think I found the coolant leak. I replaced the thermostat gasket and it seems to have stopped leaking

 

Another common issue on the 7.3, leaky up pipes and warped exhaust manifolds.

Look for black soot on the firewall behind the turbo, if they are leaking replace with Dorman bellowed up pipes. If the manifolds are leaking have them decked at a Machine shop. They don't use gaskets.

If they are leaking it won't hurt anything other than down on power and a little down on mileage (big decrease in towing mileage). And maybe pretty smokey when you get on it.

 

If I were you I spend the money and dont get the cheap dormans, buy riff raff diesel pipes

 

It don't smoke when you get on it but I checked the mileage on the last tank and it is getting about 16.9 mpg. I was thinkin that is a little low.

 

depends, what gears you have. Also, the best thing on the highway is to stay under 2000 rpm to get the best mpg. Like said above if the up pipes are leaking the could cause the lower mpg, also check you exhaust pressure sensor and tube on the front of the engine to see if its clogged. could help mpg a little too. The BEST tuners are either ts 6 or hydra, looks like people lean more to hydra. That will greatly increase the performance of your truck and get better mpg. On my 7.3 f350 I had 4.10 gears with 35x10 tires with a dp tuner, on the highway the highest I got was 18ish average was 17

 

I have 3:73 gears looks like there might be some soot on the firewall. where is the exhaust pressure sensor and tube on the front of the motor? a pic would be nice since this is my first diesel.

 

Those gears with help with higher mpg, For the soot I would take a degreaser on clean it and see if it comes back. If it does I would spend the money and get bellowed up pipes. If you have a decent amount of money I would go ahead and buy it right and get up pipes from here, international is a very good company, so is riffraff that sells them. If you need parts check this site, they have very good prices and good parts! Some people buy the china junk (dorman) up pipes they say they work, but id get the good stuff. International Bellowed Stainless Up-pipe Kit 99.5-03 - Riffraff Diesel Performance

For the sensor location. its on the front left side, this picture will help you find it. If you go on google or even here people have threads and videos on how to check and clean that sensor.

https://www.google.com/search?q=7.3+...2F%3B800%3B600

 

thanks for the pic that helps a lot. haven't got all the abbreviations yet either. is there a thread that lists them?