Looking at buying this 2001 7.3L Excursion but what is this discoloration? Should that raise any concerns?

 

Welcome to FTE. That discoloration is 100% normal and nothing to worry about.

Take the lid off the air filter and inspect the intake hose going back to the turbo. Make sure there's no dirt inside the tube and that the air box isn't broke. Then read this link for other things to look for https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/5...questions.html

Any other questions, just ask.

 

Like Chris said, that discoloration is completely normal.
IMO it's caused by the intake air getting heated by the turbo, which heats up that housing.
The charge air cooler removes the heat before it goes to the engine.

 

What they said... About every PSD I have ever opened the hood on has shown that same thing.

 

I have only seen one PSD like that and that was Jeff7825s truck. My truck has just a hair and the others I have looked at don't really have that.

 

Mine wasn't quite that bad, but it seems to be normal like everyone else has said. I think you can get that to clean off with a little work and some degreaser or something along those lines.
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Everybody has it pretty much covered. The coloring is due to the cosmoline applied to the parts for whatever reason.

 

Mines still aluminum colored @ 157000 miles.

 

Does that Ex have a tow hitch installed?
Also it doesn't have factory intake boots.
I wonder if it might have been worked pretty hard.

 

What am I missing here Dan? Looks stock to me. Just looks like someone cleaned the engine up some. You can still see the crud build up in a few spots in the foil on the CAC tube.

If you're referring to the blue and black rubber boots without the metal retainer ring in the center, that's normal for an 01. I think the ring was only on the 99's.

 

I have a theory that the heat from the turbo is browning up the coating on the housing, with the more heat made, the more brown it gets.
It's just a WAG, so I could be very wrong.
And the boots, I was completely unaware that they were different on the later models. I thought that they all had those cool reinforcing rings like my truck does.

 

I have the original boots with rings as well. Plus the originals have the groove in the boot that fits over the ridge on the IC tubes. Placing the clamp right over where the groove mates to the ridge makes for a very tight connection. Haven't seen any aftermarket boots with that feature.