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I am looking at an 01' excursion 4x4 with 230000 miles and the owner has a chip, air intake, and 4" exhaust installed on it. Should I stay away from it? I just got the auto enginuity scanner, is there anything I could look for on a test drive to tell if its been beat to death? Thanks
i dont think ae can do that. look for blowby hard starting how dose the filters look look at other junk they have in there yard to see how they use it.
that is something you will just have to look and see.
some times it just screams that it has been run hard.
With AE , read the codes write them down and then clear them. Then do an injector buzz test before driving it while cold ,and then after a test drive , do a buzz test again,to hear the injectors cold then warm. Then do koer test and see what comes up. Also after a test drive go back and check your codes again and see if any come back. That's where I would start. I'm no pro with my AE I'm still learning. Others here may have more opinions and knowledge.
Personally I would never buy a truck with all those mods. It's probably been driven hard and is in ok shape. If he used all that to tow with no guages or way to monitor the truck walk away. Any pics or link? FWIW I bought my ex with 270,000 miles on it, owned since new by a retired couple. No chip, no hot rodding in it nothing, just as stock as can be. Unless its cheap I would walk. Nothing agenst modded trucks I just prefer to start with a clean stock truck then build off that. Theres no telling what the owner did, just my opinion.
What chip is in it? Does the owner seem to have a clue about EGTs and understand the 7.3?
You might pull the intake hose and shine a flashlight down onto the turbo fins to look for dusting or excess wear. If it runs well, develops decent boost, the turbo looks good, and the blowby is ok, you might be ok. Just don't pay so much for it that you can't afford to fix what goes wrong. Assume the worst so that you're not horrified when it happens.
Also, be prepared for 11 year old truck issues. Inspect the front end and brakes as those can get expensive fast. Sure 230k might not be much for a 7.3 provided it was maintained and not baked to death by high EGTs. As for the blowby a whispy light smoke is normal. As long as there's no pressure behiend it it's usually fine. If you are un sure about anything take it to a diesel shop, even if they charge 100.00 to look at it.
I paid $9,500.00 for mine in March and it only had 148,000 miles on it.
my sister got hers for 13,500.00 in February with 110,000 miles on it.
there are still some low mileage excursions out there for a decent price if you don't get in a hurry.
Did anyone else notice it is nearly fall and the pics for the ad were taken in the winter? The interior pics show heavy snow on the windows. Weird. Of course, it could have been for sale earlier in the year, then pulled because it didn't sell then. Just a thought.
At least go take a look at the thing, if your close enough to the area? From the pictures it looks pretty clean, maybe he did the mods trying to get better mpg's and didn't really hod rod the truck?