Bought a heavier duty truck today at a yard sale

[Haoleguy]

Did your wife get a finder's fee? She deserves one for pulling you out into public........Cheers, Gary

[medic0648]

Also if you keep it to the 160-180,000 mi mark be ready for a few big repair bills and then be good till almost 500,000 if properly maintained. The 7.3 has a few issues that tend to pop up around that time. But otherwise very reliable and strong.

[Soundguy]

Also if you keep it to the 160-180,000 mi mark be ready for a few big repair bills and then be good till almost 500,000 if properly maintained. The 7.3 has a few issues that tend to pop up around that time. But otherwise very reliable and strong.

what big repairs are you referring to at 180K? I'm apparently overdue...

[mikehaugen]

That is definitely a good deal. My BIL just bought a 2000 f-150 with like 180,000 and some rust for I think the same price, or maybe $3500.

[D7E]

I would wonder about the excessive rust.
I live here too (Florida)......
That much rust makes me wonder.

I'm with you on that . Mechanical problems are easy to fix but rot is another matter .

[Soundguy]

might have been a northern or beach truck.

[medic0648]

Certain time periods of the 7.3 after they added the turbo result in head gaskets, timing chains, and a few other issues that were mostly resolved when ford updated parts. If you had work done more recently that those items were replaced/repaired anyway you wouldn't notice. I made it to 180,000 before my head gasket blew and at 183,000 my timing chain decided to give up. Good engine, teething issues after some updates to it. If it is newer than about 2001 MY you should be good. If the engine has been rebuilt or replaced you're good. Just a really high failure rate that is fixable.

[Soundguy]

I hope you are aware that there are pretty much 3 versions of the 7.3.

the NA one.. the ats turbo that came out for a small time.. then the PSD is a completely different animal from the previous 2 engines.

soundguy

Certain time periods of the 7.3 after they added the turbo result in head gaskets, timing chains, and a few other issues that were mostly resolved when ford updated parts. If you had work done more recently that those items were replaced/repaired anyway you wouldn't notice. I made it to 180,000 before my head gasket blew and at 183,000 my timing chain decided to give up. Good engine, teething issues after some updates to it. If it is newer than about 2001 MY you should be good. If the engine has been rebuilt or replaced you're good. Just a really high failure rate that is fixable.

[medic0648]

I have the first version of the psd that they pretty much just slapped a turbo on at the factory and changed a few parts to accommodate. I know the 7.3 is a great engine, but some things ford did to them weren't so well thought out and took a while to fix the issues that came up. Given that the head gasket is a more common issue on the early PSD engines as well as the timing chains not lasting as long as they should I thought I would try and give the guy a heads up that for certain years these were higher rate issues in those mileage ranges and you're looking at about $1500-2000+ for a head gasket job done right.

[Soundguy]

I have the first version of the psd that they pretty much just slapped a turbo on at the factory and changed a few parts to accommodate. .

that is not a PSD.. it's the same old 7.3 NA engine with an ats turbo essentially. It bears little resemblemnce to the PSD.

date wise.. somewhere around 89 thru 93.5 was the NA 7.3, from 93.5 to 94.5 was the ats 7.3, and that's when the psd came out.. I believe, the early models thru 95 were 5spd only.

again.. can not compair a na 7.3 or a 7.3 ats turbo directly to a 7.3psd in terms of repairs.. they are different engine.

all were solid well built near bullet proof designs but they ARE NOT the same engine.