Ok boys, bare with the stupid questions but this will be my first oil burner and I know very little about them. I’m looking at a 1999 F-250 4X4 crew cab with 110,000 miles on a 7.3 and the price seems really good. ($10,000). I haven’t test driven it yet (tomorrow hopefully) but went and looked at it today and it’s in beautiful shape. In fact the only thing I saw wrong was a little wetness around the oil pan however the pan didn’t seem rotted, I know this is a common issue with these trucks. Kinda looked like a rear main seal? All in all the truck looked very well kept.
My questions are what else should I look & listen for when I test drive and if I ended up purchasing it what should I replace/upgrade. This truck will be babied and not used hard at all. Very light towing if any and a little plowing during the winter. Mostly gonna use it to haul building supplies and occasionally some loam and mulch. With that being said I’m like most ford truck owners and always upgrade even though it's usually not needed. I love my F-toys and have no problem upgrading especially if it’s things I can do myself (Bolt on/plug in performance).

I appreciate any advice!!
Jay

 

First, I would triple check the oil pan, including scraping at it with a screwdriver. If the oil pan is rusted bad enough to leak, you're looking at pulling the motor to change the pan. Next, grab a flashlight and look in the valley of the motor (flat part between the heads where the carb & intake manifold used to sit) A rear main seal leak is very rare on these trucks, but o-ring leaks on the top of the motor that run down and look like a rear main are the most common. Of course a rear main seal would cost a lot more to fix, so you might file that away for negotiating purposes.

I would strongly advise you pull the lid off the air filter and inspect the tube that goes back to the turbo for any signs of dirt that has gotten by the filter. If you can run your finger inside the tube and leave a clean streak, it's time to inspect the turbo wheel and check for blow by in the engine (some smoke is ok, puffing is bad).

Here's a link to more new buyer info on these trucks. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/5...questions.html