I have a '00 V-10 SD that i am thinking about trading in for an 01 7.3L. wondering what the general consensus is from owners? How's gas mileage and reliability? This will be a daily driver for me.

 

I get about 14-15mpg with mixed 70% town/ 30% highway driving.

 

how is the reliability?

 

Palm trees, welcome to FTE. Since this is the 7.3 Forum, naturally we will bias our answers to 7.3s. However none of us here flame like other sites do, we are like a big family. Anyway enough of the warm lovey dovey stuff. What are you looking to do? If you are hauling a heavy trailer, i would choose the diesel. But for general driving and light to light racing, i would keep the V-10. We have two V-10 superduties and they have LOTS of power. No lag whatsoever, ive spun all four dually wheels pulling into the shop, with a 7500 pound trailer on, even by accident. The power is there right off idle. They are really reliable engines and rarely have problems. They warm up quick and don't cost much to maintain. However their only weakness as you know is the fuel mileage. I dont think i need to elaborate on that?

On the diesel, it takes alot "more" to own one. The fuel is typically more expensive, oil changes are alot more expensive, and they take alot longer to warm up. They hold 5 gallons of oil, and 8 gallons of coolant, so it takes time to warm them up. To admit it, in stock form, they are just plain dogs compared to a V-10. Im sure that a stock V-10 can whoop a stock 7.3 all day, and even take on and beat a few tuned 7.3's. But for towing heavy, and the modification possibilities of the diesel, its the only way for us here to go.

 

mileage is a big thing. I get 8mpg not towing a thing. Winter fuels suck. I want to tune the motor, but there just isn't a lot to do to a V-10. So tuning the 7.3 would be cool. i don't tow. just haul a##.

 

I did not buy mine tow anything. I got a car hauler but i only tow it once in a great while. I wanted to tune it also. Its fun! I had a ranger before it was way to small for me, im a big guy and i looked like the incredble hulk inside of it. I wanted something bigger and diesel because i drive a lot and i put 30K a year on it. I never regretted buying mine.

 

dude, if you can get a 7.3l X GET IT AND DONT LOOK BACK!!

These are getting hard to come by. I stopped to see one for sale with 170k miles and asking price was 17k.

 

I know i love the excursions , when i was looking for a truck last year i found one a 00 limited with 89K on it for 19k I called the second i found it and it was gone. I have not seen a deal like that since.

 

get the 7.3, you wont be dissappointed, well, maybe at first, untill you spend your first 1000 bucks on mods, after that, you will never think of your ol V-10 again,
lightly chipped, your looking at up to 16 mpg in town and 20 plus on the highway empty, not too mention that ever so sweet turbo whistle we all crave for.
good luck, id buy another one in a heart beat,

 

i have been trying to convince my wife that that is what she should be driving. no luck yet, but I keep trying. She is kind of hell bent on a prius.

 

She can plug in her car too. Instead of making it start easier, it charges up the car...

 

Where do you live? For my case, if the temp goes below 25, I have to plug it in if I want it to start well with no strain. It gets pretty spendy because dad found his electric bill spike up after plugging it in one month straight. You can use a timer to ease the elec bill but I don't know if that is needed where you live.

Fuel is harder to come by especially if you want it cheaply. I pay $2.39 at a place 10 miles from me or I can pay $2.56 nearer my house. Gas is pretty consistant.

 

wow thats a tough question. I have owned both motors. My other truck I ordered. It was a 200 F-250 extended cab with a short bed. 4x4, v-10, 5spd, 3.73 rear (open).
My current truck is an 01 crew cab 4x4 F350 8'bed single rear wheel, 3.73 limited slip, 7.3 auto.

I put about 120,00 miles on the v-10.. loved the whole package.... at times I still wish I owned the truck!


I love the 01 too!

The main reason I bought the 01 was for a larger cab. We decided that we wanted to take anouther trip out west and take a friend with us. I also wanted to pull a 32' trailer with two jeep on it. AS for how the trips have gone. I am very pleased with the performance of the stock 01. I feel the longer wheelbase helped greatly.
We had taken a trip out there before with the v-10. And on the mountain roads I pulled the same spead with both trucks for the most part. Keep in mind that I had one jeep with the v-10 and two on the 01.

One of the nice thigns we noticed with the 7.3 is that when you work the motor hard it is much quiter than the v-10... The v-10 has a bit of a roar when you have it in 3rd gear wide open running 4000 rpms! But that is where the power is!

As already mentioned it does cost more to run the 7.3 than the v-10.

 

Read my sig.

I'm doing basic mods little by little, and am already seeing the mpg and engine performance increase, and haven't done a really SERIOUS mod yet. I just got 17 - 20 mpg (highway) in the last several weeks after doing my mods, and the 17 was while running 80-90 for about half that tank's run.

 

a stock v10 cannot whhop a stock 7.3 ive had both the 7.3 will out pull a v10 all day long. my stock v10 refused to pull a camper in od let alone itself my 7.3 stock would pull my overloaded toy hauler all day at 65 in overdrive and the milage was WAY better 6 with the v10 and 11 with the 7.3 loaded and working i love my diesel will never own a gasser again