Howdy! Looking at buying a 2000 F350 with a 7.3 thats been tuned, and used to carry a truck camper long term.

My concern with it is there is some contamination in the coolant. Owner says that this is from an issue thats been addressed. He replaced the head gasket and fuel injector cups, and is saying the residue is left over from that issue.

Also it is leaking coolant from the thermostat housing, and easy replacement, but I'm worried that these issues are symptomatic of something else going on. Maybe there was more damage than just the head gasket and injector cups that wasnt fixed?

How worried should I be about this? Worth the risk in your opinion?

 

That's a tuff one, the only real way to check is to either do a thorough coolant flush, and drive it and see if the problem continues or remove all injectors and pressurize the coolant system and check to see if the cups are leaking.

 

What kind of contamination exactly? Injector cups do fail eventually, but head gasket failures are very rare. The thermostat housings are also a very common leak point, especially after it's disturbed. Pretty my plan on replacing the housing anytime the bolts are removed unless it's upgraded to one of the aftermarket billet units. The Motorcraft T-stats w/ their integrated gasket seem to be the best at sealing.

Should you be worried. Hard to say, how good of a deal is it, how capable do you feel you are when it comes to doing your own repairs? Are you willing to put more money into the truck after the purchase if need be?

 

Does he have a reciept for the cup replacement? If one is leaking all are suspect, I'd want to confirm that all were replaced.
Is it a super good deal? If he's asking top dollar I'd ask him to have the cooling system cleaned/flushed.

It's hard to get all the oil out after they've been compromised.

 

Welcome to FTE!

What these guys said. Documentation of those repairs would go a long way. And as said actual head gasket failure is very rare on these. Prolly another issue misdiagnosed as HG.

Coolant in 2000 should be green, unless switched to red ELC after the injector cup replacement. Also the coolant level will often settle an inch or so below the fill mark, that's not an issue.

All in all the icky coolant degas bottle is maybe #15 on the list of dire issues. Overall condition and price are king. Because most folks can actually work on a 7.3 if they want to. Different, but simple. The bits are easy to get too. Get some tools and help here and you can fix almost anything.

 

Does the owner have receipts? Even if he DIY the job there would be oarts receipts. I do 99%% of my own work and I still have receipts for parts, oil , filters, brakes etc.

The housings do go bad as they are cheap thin metal. Other than that imo anyone who goes through the trouble of changing head gasket and cups isn’t gonna ignore a leaking T-stat housing. What level is the truck as far as trim, options and add ons? Price? Top of the market….it better be pretty damn clean with no issues

 

IMO, it's better to miss a good deal than to get stuck with a bum one. I'd look into what has been posted above and expect the worst and possibly make an offer expecting the worst. I would wait until it was on the market for a while first though, so the seller doesn't get insulted, mad and just run you off.

 

Thanks for all the replies! I'll try to reply to everyone in one post here. I'm going to check it out again later today, I'll ask him for receipts for the injector cup job. He said a mechanic buddy of his did it so I don't know that he'll have any proof.

He was asking 18k for it (with 240k miles) that seemed steep to me, but he's now come down to $14.5 which seems reasonable assuming it isnt going to blow up on me as soon as I buy it. I can do minor maintenance myself, but don't have a agarage to work in so I'll be limited, especially with winter coming up fast here. Not sure how that falls on market pricing but it is a DRW, 4x4 supercab, long bed, manual trans, tuned, and has airbags on the rear suspension which is nice because I plan to put a heavy camper on it.

Per seller, new clutch, relatively new tranny, new starter, glow plugs, wiring, tires, headgasket and injector cups. There is some surface rust on the undercarriage, tie rods, leaf springs ect. He's been all over with it including some time at the beach in NC. Frame looks good.

He said he thinks the headgasket was fine all along and the injector cups were the issue, but they replaced both while they were in there. OEM head studs not aftermarket. I can put some work and money into it. I expect to with a 22 year old truck, I am really just concerned about critical failures like the 04 duramax I bought cheap that has not ran since.

the contamination in the coolant degass looked like either exhaust or oil. I dont think it was diesel fuel. I'll bring a turkey baster with me today to scoop some out and examine it more closely.

Going to take her out on the highway for a decent bit to really warm up the motor and see how it does. Anything else I should look at while I'm out there?

 

@Matt1190 , welcome to the FTE!

When you see the truck, take some pictures of the engine bay, undercarriage and axles when you go to look at it and post them here. The FTE community is very good at spotting things that don't look quite right.

Trust your gut and if you need a bit more time, take that time.

 

Sounds great so far! And set up for your intended use.

Pics would be helpful, you'll get hundreds of experienced eyes on it.

 

Some rust underneath

Newer front shocks

Coolant dripping down

 

Another spot of coolant leaking. Not 100% sure where it csme from, this is on the passenger side, and I didn't see anything there after driving it on the highway for about 30 miles

 

When I started it up today it spewed out a cloud of white smoke on the initial startup, but no white smoke after that. Just a bit of black smoke when hitting the gas with the tuner at the +50hp setting.

Ran great on the highway, and no blow by from the oil cap. Cloud of white smoke at startup doesn't seem great tho. Especially combined with the potentially new coolant leak I discovered under the passenger side of the engine. I suppose that could have come from the thermostat, but seems unlikely as its on the other side of the motor.

 

Just by the pics there's a couple of red flags, leaking coolant, oil dripping, rusty undercarriage, what looks like worn out front sway bar end links, most likely will need a suspension overhaul, all that amounts to some serious coin. To steep IMO. Look for another one, or hassle him for a lower price.

 

Retorqueing all the water pump and front cover bolts would probably fix the new leak. Don't want to go crazy on them, just another round at factory spec. If none really turn at that setting maybe try bumping up 2# but probably not much more. If I remember right factory spec is like 20# so 2 more is a 10% increase. I don't like to press my luck when aluminum is involved.