Thanks, yeh that was my concern to. That defnitely caught me off guard. He was the second owner, bout it at 45k miles. He said he used to drive from Savannah, GA to Florida, mostly highway miles.

 

That truck has 6.0 badges.

Edit: belay my last, just saw post 13

 

All I can add is test drive as many 7.3's as possible even if you have no intention of buying that particular truck. It will help you get a feel for how they should run, ride, sound. Give you a baseline is what I am trying to say.

 

I think if you look around more you will beable to find a better deal out there,I bought my truck in october for 12,500 with 87,000 miles on the clock.but i really had to search to find it.

 

Mostly highway miles and it needed a new(ish) engine at less than 162k?? Man oh man is that screaming "I don't care of my stuff and want to dump my headache on someone else now" - having the lift, etc already there is nice, but if the foundation is crumbling, pretty curtains don't mean diddly.
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You have time, and there are some good deals to be had out there. It might help if you update your profile so we know where you live. There might be someone near you that could help you out when it comes time to check one out. Nothing like having someone along that knows what to look for on these rigs.
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Jay makes a great point too - drive as many as you can.

 

test driving is fun but like someone mentioned, warm it up before smashing the go peddle. The 7.3 doesn't like the cold.

 

I'd definately get an OASIS report on this truck so you know it's history for atleast the first 100K miles. I'd get a carfax as well.

You mentioned that the truck seemed sluggish; it will if you have a stock truck with bigger tires. With the 6 inch lift they probably have 35s or 37s on that will not only throw off the speedo, but make the truck seem sluggish.

The only solution to that problem is to regear to either 4.10 or 4.30 depending on how big those tires are. Once that happens, you'll notice that it'll be consderably stronger and faster.

The fact that this engine was rebuilt using an ambulance engine would worry me. These engine are virtually indestructable as there are people that still have the original motor at 250K+ miles. I'm one of them.....

If I lived closer to you, I'd come do an inspection for you and make sure you're not buying something that will cause you some trouble down the road.

 

i would run away from that thing as fast as you can for 3 reasons.
#1: the "rebuilt ambulance engine".
#2: the price is about $3,000 to high.
#3: it has ESOF and auto hubs.
ESOF and auto hubs spells trouble down the road when you really need 4 wheel drive, and it don't work due to vacuum or electric shift motor problems..

 

I don't understand how it was rebuilt using an ambulance engine. He either replaced the engine with an ambulance engine or rebuilt the engine with very used parts. Either way I would walk away. I have 174K on my '03 and it's running strong. That truck was definitely abused. I bought mine 1 1/2 years ago for $20K and it was a high mileage ranch truck (towed a lot) and it was still in great shape. If he's referring to "ambulance prep" for the engine he's referring to the dual alternator setup (twin 130A alternators) like I have.

You can also tell the difference between the engines on an '03 by the engine dressing cover. The 7.3 has a black dressing cover on top of the HPOP that says Powerstroke and the 6.0 has the Powerstroke moniker on the cooling fan shrowd. Also, the door badge for the 7.3 looks like this:
2001-2002 Power Stroke Diesel V8 Stock Door Emblems

And the door badge for the 6.0 looks like this:
2003-2004 Power Stroke Turbo Diesel V8 Stock Door Emblems

The 7.3 puts up with a lot of abuse before it quits on you. Granted when you start modding the heck out of it you can eventually reach the block's limits, but it takes a lot to do that. As nice as that rig looks I wouldn't trust anything without a thorough 3rd party inspection by a mechanic that is very familiar with our trucks.

Just my .02

 

Thanks for the input guys. I had a bad feeling about that truck since the first day so I'm just gonna follow my gut and stay away from it. I've definitely found some good deals on craigslist and autotrader, but unfortunately I can't do anything till I sale my care which is easier said than done. The dealer had offered me a good trade in price which is why I really wanted it to work. Anyways, i'll update my profile but i live in Statesboro,GA which is about an hour west of Savannah.