Hi guys,

Just wanted to introduce myself. I’m the newb as of tonight. Been a Ford guy since the latter part of my teens having owned a couple of Fairlane sedans and coupes, Rancheros, and a Fairlane wagon.

Miss my big block wagon the most though. Top-loader, sleeper. I’m sure cops hated me but they never caught me!

20 years and a couple of Ford pickups later I find myself with a 2000 F250 SD, Super Cab, 7.3 PSD, long bed, automatic.

Since it’s my first Diesel I’m learning a lot quickly. I have good personal technical connections but they have mostly Cummins experience.

My 2000 only has 136k miles and generally seems to run fine but I want to do a few mods next spring. I’m thinking Hutch and Harpoon mods as well as gauges, 6637 air filter and cold air intake. I’ve heard tell of a cross over hose for the high pressure oil system to help even out pressure on both banks of the injection system.

Driving-wise, it’s kind of a daily driver during the winter but will mainly be used to tow my camper during summer and I’ll drive one of my Jeeps as a daily driver.

Happy to be here, thank you Chris for moderating here.

 

Welcome to the Oregon Chapter.
I can't help with the diesel my rig is gas and I don't work on the company trucks.

 

Thanks 892504x4!

I forgot to mention that my truck is a 4x4 also. Electric transfer case switching, not the mechanical shifter.

 

Welcome to the forum. I had a 2000 7.3 for 15 years. I did the high flow intake (big round airfliter) , downpipe and 4" exhaust. After these mods I needed to change out the turbo impeller to a wicked wheel to take care of turbo stall under loads. Had the pyro, boost and tranny temps gauges which are a must IMO, Added a 20K tranny cooler because the tranny would get too hot as the stall speed of the TC is way too high so seeing temps over 240 at slow speed was normal. It still got hot but cooled down faster. The tranny is known to be weak. I managed 176K on the original tranny when I sold it tho. Had a superchips programmer (which is for sale since I kept it for the code reading ability) then went to a DP tuner which was awesome. Had a lot of power but based on the pyro I could never do more than 55 up any grade loaded because the temps would get too hot.

Guess the moral of the story is be prepared to open you wallet. haha. And you might not get the results you want with out spending even more.

Check your vacuum lines to the hubs. I went through 2 sets. They crack and then the "auto" setting on the hubs won't engage so you'll have to "lock" them manually.

I loved my 2000 and thought I'd keep it forever. Last couple years it just $1000-1500 dollared me to death. Had it long enough that I was starting to change or rebuild things I had done before. Not being a Debbie downer just my experience and you can see in my signature what I replaced it with. Engine is solid tho. Good luck.

 

I know what you mean about spending cash to keep things up to snuff or get more from the vehicle. I own three Jeeps which means Just Empty Every Pocket x3.

Thanks for the trans advice. I've been looking everything over pretty well and haven't found any problems yet, though I do suspect that my vacuum line to one of the hubs is leaking based on the one wheel locking up when the hubs are in AUTO mode but both working as advertised in LOCK mode.

I bought the rig just before the weather started turning so I didn't get a chance to go underneath it with a fine tooth comb. I did give it a general inspection and everything looked good so I'm hoping it can make it through the winter with no issues then I can start working on things next year.

Right now I looking for a service manual set that doesn't break the bank and some sort of scanner setup.And I'm trying to figure out which gauges to get. I've read some things about going with a EGT and fuel pressure gauges and then displaying trans temp and boost through the scanner setup. Still learning. And at $200+ for the gauges you mentioned I want to make sure I'm getting everything right.

Thanks again for the info

Todd

 

Welcome...….I'm in Prineville.....

 

A belated howdy and welcome aboard. I've been on a trip down the coast and just getting back so I'm a little late to the party.

I've got a 96 F250 7.3 that is pretty much stock engine wise. Had the tranny rebuilt and beefed up at 236,500 miles. It was a little tired, but still good. Since we had been hauling very heavy and overweight I decided to go ahead and have it refreshed and 'bullet proofed', although I don't believe anything is really bullet proof. After the rebuild, and at the recommendation of my transmission man, I installed a
Long Tru-Cool LPD Transmission Oil Cooler 4590 28,000 GVW. It does a much better job at keeping the transmission cool than the 10 line heavy duty Haynes we had on there. We pulled Willamette and Santiam passes rather regularly and in June of this year with our new 1062 Lance Camper on board, went up to Wallowa Lake and Hells Canyon - Buckhorn Springs Lookout as well as several other points of interest.
One load with the Camper on board and towing 6000 lbs. of boat with a 500 lb. tongue weight, and a couple of hundred pounds of fish, we went across the scales at 16,400.
Usually and most normally we are around 13,500 with the camper on board. I still have this pickup and use it regularly, but as of the end of July have gotten it some relief.

I've picked up a 2011 F350 dually with the 6.7 PSD in it to do the heavy hauling now. I figured after 244,000 my 96 7.3 deserved a bit of a break.

Again, welcome aboard.

 

Thank you Seabiscuit! I’m guessing from your handle you were P3 Orion crew, air or ground crew doesn’t matter. Not a Navy guy myself, Air Force, but much respect to you guys. I work with a couple of P3 guys and it’s always fun hearing the stories. I’m an F16 and FB111 crew chief myself. Lots of good and bad times as you probably know.
Anyway, thank you again for the welcome!

 

Sorry it took two days to get back to you trailhead. Over in Newport celebrating our 41st anniversary and between Wi-Fi connectivity and time to play on the lap top...…

Yes, P3 Orion, Flight Engineer, West Pac. R&R in Australia was fantastic and New Zealand was beyond fantastic!. Very good times. Pages in the bad times book have been burned.

 

No worries Seabiscuit-P3, we all have lives! I work with a guy who was engines on P3s and associate with another guy who was an FE. Not sure how long ago for either of them.

I was Air Force myself. F16 and FB111 crew chief. Great job, lots of fun and I learned a lot from it. Currently working for a company in Bend the is aerospace related. Good work!

Thank you for your service!

 

Falcons are one thing to live with...the could be something else entirely!

That's O.K., the P-3 was often referred to as the pregnant bumble bee.

 

Bwahahahahaha!

 

You ought to stop by our BS thread. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post19012078 You'd fit right in!