Hi folks...
When I joined this forum I was the owner of a Ranger... That has changed. August of 04 I purchased my first diesel, a 02 Ford SD SC 4X4 Lariat 7.3PSD Dually. I bought it used w/only 12K on to odometer. I checked out its maintenance history & found a few problems had been corrected, namely, the cam-sensor. It has been replaced once along with a serpentine belt and alternator.
We (wife&I) have got to know this truck quite well since. We've put over 18K on her pulling a fifth wheel. Traveled the states from the NW to the MW thru OH MO KS etc. We spent much time in NM & AZ. During this 6 month trip we saw 'Big Red' (as the wife likes to call her) falter on several occasions.. Mainly the cam-sensor failed us twice, the fuel regulator once and the pcm once... This all happened in the SouthWest. Thank God it was still under the 36/36,000 warranty. We are now home (thank the one above no failures occurred on the Alcan hwy) and I'm thinking of selling it b4 the 36/36 disappears in May of this year.
Hey, I couldn't falt it in its overall performance.. It pulled strong thru mtn's & hot desert conditions. It is noisier than all the new GM's & Dgs.
We pulled 12K w/the truck wt at 7530, 19500+ I like her but afraid of the future costs. Ext.Warranty costs over 2K
Any opinions on whether one should upgrade to the new 6.0 F350 or stay w/the 02F350 7.3...

 

stay! we have a 6.0 at work at its a turd. plus the 7.3 has more torque

 

all i can tell you is i LOVE my 02 blue mule..! i bought her with 56k - now have 88k, knock on wood, no probs... i tow a 10k 5th wheel 8-12 times a year, (GCVW = 20k), no problems doing that..! i have an 02 7.3 psd F350 4x4 SRW SD. Do some research on this forum, it is biased toward the 7.3... but at least we are honest about it..! I think you will find, if you reasearch the 6.0 forum, that there are a lot more "issues" with that motor on that forum than what you will find here. It seems the CPS is an "issue" with the 7.3, but it isn't an expensive part, and it's easily fixed. Other than that, the 7.3 has a reputation for being almost "bullet proof", and adding a few mods can really "wake up" your psd...! I simply dissabled the wastegate actuator,(which starts to dump turbo boost at as little as 5 lbs.), it's a simple mod that takes about 2 minutes, and now my mule has twice the giddyup..!

 

Thanks Johnny8 & Beano..
I'll consider your responses since after reading your post's it is apparent I need to do much more research on the merits of both powerplants, the 7.3 & 6.0 ..

 

I believe the motor has a 100K/5Yr warranty... so there is a little bit left before you have to go and pay 100% for each visit to the stealership.

 

vulcan 3.0... you got it right man... read... read.... read...! Knowledge is power..!

 

PSD noisier than Dodge ??? My truck has a straight thru exhaust and an open element filter and I can still hear a Dodge next to me idling if my window is down.

 

I've read a lot of stories where the 6.0 dumps coolant when it's towing. Nobody has been able to really nail down the problem between head gaskets failing, exhaust gas EGR cooler overheating due to excessive EGT's, or both. I would far rather carry a spare CPS than have to deal with that!

 

yeah... what kwik said.... and best of all... you have a great smoker... and you don't own a dodge...!

 

Yes, the older dgs are noisy. The newer ones with the bosch (sp)? common rail sys. (same as GM's) are pretty quiet... Don't get me wrong here, I'm not a dodge fan by any means.
V3.0

 

Look at my signature to see what I drive.