I have a 97, 7.3 CC, 4x4 long bed I bought new in 97. It has just over 88K miles on it and no rust, it don't ever see snow, it stays asleep in the winter. It's an XLT. Oxford white with grey cloth.

I use it for the farm in the summer, pulling a tandem axle goose and delivering fuel to the field and I haul my truck camper up north to my hunting spot as well.

Anyway, I've modded it somewhat. I did an the spring shackle swap in the front years ago and installed roller bearings in the pivots, all Super U's in the driveline, B&M deep sump pan on a Ford SVO built E4OD (my BIL is an engineer at Fords and at the time worked in SVO so they did the trans for me). It has a Banks trans command module and a huge Hayden trans cooler that SVO put on. Straight exhaust all the way back. Riff Raff boots and hoses. and Firestone air bags out back I have an ARB in the front and a Tru-trak in the back.

The usual maintrenance, 5K oil changes and a K&N cold air intake and a mild Banks chip. A couple crank position sensors along the way, nothing major, just normal stuff. Did the front end about 3 years into it's life with real Moog joints, not the OEM plastic crap. Everything is greaseable, even the PITA uppers.

It's 5 over stock, just about too high for my wife to climb into No big tires either. I'm an old fart.

I'm curious about whether I can clean the engine compartment and engine (covering the intake and removing the K&N of course.) and would it be advisable to delete the stock pedestal. The EBP or whatever it's called is leaking a bit and I hate oil drips.

I pulled the crankcase vent crap off years ago and ran a hose from the breather box, over the power brake can, down the inner fender and back on the frame, but I've been thinking of adding a catch can and reinstalling the breather into the turbo inlet pipe.

Need some opinions and no, it's not for sale but I will post some pictures someday, if I can figure out how the new digital camera works I got for Christmas and figure out how to upload them on here....

My rear tank float got wonky (front tank is fine) so I fill it up and go 250 miles and switch tanks. Empty I get around 21 (last time I checked which was 10 years ago).

Cannot afford a new one and I don't want DEF crap anyway. You won't find any Tier 4 final tractors on my farm....or vehicles.

Need some constructive input please....

 

I use to psi wash my engine comp on a regular basis, covering critical areas of course with no problems.. I dunno if at this point I'd advise it or not. On my current 96 I wipe everything down by hand frequently to keep it looking good so it doesnt get outta hand.

 

I did some checking on the Fluid Film stuff. Looks good. Gonna order up a gallon and get myself a small pressure pot spray gun and 'have at it' on the chassis of my Ford Focus first, the wife's Transit next and then the F350.

I have a nice drive over pit at the shop to get underneath them.

How often do you recoat?... and, do you thin it before spraying and if you do, with what?

 

I do it twice a year, dont thin it. Its designed to do what it does with its original viscosity; just mind your air psi and you'll be good.