I have a 2000, F-250, crew cab, long bed, auto trans., with the 7.3. I have about 193,000 miles, I've had it since it was new. I change the oil every 5K miles, the transmission and rear end fulids as required. I have no oil or water leaks or losses in fluids. The engin runs great, the only thing I have had to replace is the CPS, twice. Should I have the cooling system flushed? I have never had to add any fluid to this system. I am planning on having the hoses and belt changed soon. I read about injectors all the time, how can you tell if you have an injector going bad? Are there any sounds which are different or is there just a loss in power? Thanks for the info, Lloyd

 

If you haven't yet, then yes you should.

Usually both. You'll get unusually loud knocking, as well as a loss of power, or even a miss if it's bad enough.

 

When one of my injectors rolled over, it ran just like a V-8 with a spark plug missing. It'll chug a little but still run ok.

Are you saying you have never added the FW-16 or whatever coolant additive for the SCA's ??? If so, I may stop adding them myself. That's just a little less miles than I have on my "texas town car."

 

Fat Diesel, I have never added anything to the coolant system, I have no idea what FW-16 is. My coolant level has never gone down. This is my first diesel and it is running just fine.

 

what color coolant do you have? if it is green, cross your fingers and hope you have not damaged the cylinder walls, as this additive helps the coolant stand up against cavitation. if you have gold then no need to worry as it does not need the additive.

 

My coolant is green, what about the cavitation? Am I too late to change coolant? Should I, or should I leave it as it is?

 

He stated he has a 2000 7.3L motor... so unless I am way off-base... that would be green in color???

If green, you have severly run your coolant too long!!!!

I would change it out (flush it with distilled water several times) and refill with distilled water and fresh coolant.

Glad you have had no problems... but you have not followed your owner's manual instructions for coolant additives and coolant changes!!!!!!

 

Exactly. Green coolant requires an additive to prevent cavitation. Since you haven't done it at all, you could be headed for problems.

 

He's made it nearly 200k so I'm wondering if the PSD really is subject to cavitation damage. In all the years of forum cruising, I have never seen someone post anything meaningful about cavitation damange in a PSD...

 

That's because it's a rare occurance. It's possible to not service the coolant for such a long time and still have a good running engine. But I'm the type of person who would rather do the maintenance and not take the chance to begin with.

I can't find it, but there was a post a long time ago either here or another forum where there was an engine that was taken apart and showed cavitation damage. It had quite a few miles on it, but also the owner didn't service the coolant at all.

All I know is I'm glad I have the gold stuff.

 

I had a '99 7.3 PSD and in the manual it had both a change out of the fluid at 50K miles and to add the coolant additive (I think they asked for you to add the additive every other year or so). As I understand it, the PSD was designed to not be as prone to having the micro bubbles (cavitation) that eats up the cylinder liners like the earlier motors did. I think the later 7.3s (after my model year) even went to a longer service interval on the coolant. You might try asking this question down in the 7.3 forum -- a lot of helpful folks there...

btw: I think you can buy the test strips at truck stops that you can use to check if you need to add more of the anti-cavitation additive...

 

I don't think it is ever too late. I throw a bottle of the FW - 16 in every few months or so and rarely use the test strips. They seem to have a really short shelf life. I actually feel a lot better about it since I was somewhat worried about not testing it and just dumping a bottle in every few months.

 

It's been discussed quite a bit in the past... some folks feel the additive isn't necessary on a PSD. Might be worth looking into, but it's not too much trouble to test and add the stuff now and then.

 

If this additive is added every so many months, do you drain fluid from the cooling system when more fluid is added?

 

Well, when you test it, you're supposed to drain a bit from the radiator drain petcock and test that, as opposed to just dipping into the degass bottle. So I guess when you pour in the new additive, it sorta replaces that little bit you drained.

The cooling system holds so much fluid that the little bit of additive won't make much of a difference in volume, anyway.