Bought a heavier duty truck today at a yard sale

[JJZ 109]

I did the flush because my truck came from a 7-8 hour drive from home and I had no idea what was in it for antifreeze. It seemed clean enough but I didn't entirely trust the guy it came from. Now I'm positive it has the right stuff. I also took that time to swap out the stock 195° thermostat for a 203° unit.
I wouldn't spend a whole lot on things until you've used it in your intended manner a few times and find out what you like or dislike about the performance. Not like it's a daily driver for you. I put money into some performance things on my truck only because it hauls a fairly heavy trailer almost every day during the season that my business is open.
I've got all kinds of links for places that handle parts for Powerstrokes. Everything from a Ford dealer who has reasonable parts prices for Ford factory stuff to providers of filters and various performance parts like turbo intake boots, thermostats, chips, etc. I can PM them to you if you decide on any upgrades in the future.

 

[Diamondpilot]

<img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=298531"/>My son and I took the bed off last night. We cut the heads off of the bolts that hold it on, took out the tail lights, filler neck, and aux fuel tank.
After we had everything disconnected my other two sons helped us roll it off the frame onto the ground. It was easier than I thought.
The good news is that the rust damage was about what I suspected. It is mostly scale that comes off of the frame easily. The spare tire lifting mechanism is shot but that is no big deal. It also has new brake lines on the rear end. He told me that he had all new brakes put on it before he put it up for sale.
Looking under the truck the rust from the front to the rear is much different. At about the rear of the cab you can still see the color of the frame and the farther forward you go, the less rust there is.
Both rear bottom corners of the bed have rust damage that I will get fixed before I put a new bed on it.
Mechanically I think he took pretty good care of the truck. He told me he changed the oil every 5k. He gave me part of a galln of of shell oil and said that was all that had ever been in it. He also gave me two bottle of diesel additive and told me he always put it in when he filled it up.
He also told me when he had the transmission fluid changed but I don't remember what he said. I think I will go back and ask him about the transmission and when, if ever he had the radiator flushed. If he hasn't I will flush it and follow the above recommendations.
My son says I should have the muffler taken out and just run straight exhaust like he has on his truck. Would I gain anything if I do that? Thanks again for all of the help

My buddy who just bought the same year truck as you has nothing in the exhaust and it comes out a 4" pipe about 12" after the cab out of the passengers side. It sounds great, almost like a tractor.

Chris

 

[sld]

Might be a good time to buy a cheap Harbor Freight sand blaster. You could go to town on the back half and really clean it up.

After it is really clean you could determine what needs replaced.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

That sounds like a great truck to have around the place. It can tow a load and pull like a tractor.

 

[Soundguy]

my 450 has the K&N.. but it doesn't see off road. it's a 2wd job. the 350 has a paper filter,, and see's offroad..e tc..

If you're going to do a flush, take a look at the link I posted earlier and do a flush of everything. It's a nice step by step and also flushes the block.
As far as the exhaust, I don't know. How loud do you want it to be? My 7.3 is 3 model years behind you, so I don't know if all my mods would apply to you, perhaps Soundguy could contribute there. Not sure about your downpipe from the turbo, but for a few years they were squished almost flat. Guys called them a cobra head. A lot of us have replaced those with 3 or 4 inch wide open downpipes and then replaced the factory intake with what many call a Tymar type. Personally, I bought a K&N kit. But after a little research I decided to keep the K&N hardware and replace their filter element with a Donaldson paper filter. But I would say that the downpipe and intake are among the most common mods that people make to start out with.
Probably the best thing to do is to tow what you're normally going to tow with it in it's current configuration. Then decide from there if you need more power or performance from it before you start throwing money at mods you may not need.

 

[Degolyerent]

You got a very good buy, the 2000 7.3 is one of the most sought after years it has forged rods which is the best for making horsepower.They are before the egr systems where mandated. If you resale it you can get a lot more than you paid for sure. Being you have the bed off be sure and clean out tank and the pickup assembly. Check the valley of the motor out real well for leaks, they show up as oil drip from flywheel area which you can easily mistake for a rear main seal. The rear main seals going out are very rare. good luck with your truck I know you will love it. Be sure and read as much as you can on the powerstroke forums they are very educational.
John

 

[mojoinco]

A couple of thoughts. You could likely buy a flat bed for what it would cost to repair/replace the bed with a stock one. Though it would cost more, an aluminum bed similar to Lowes-Depot rental trucks would save some load capacity.

My 93 F350 (previous body style) had a 2 piece front drive shaft. It used a Cardon style u-joint (looks like a double u-joint with an H sized piece to connect them). The devil it was to find a shake in the front end. Felt and acted like it was the right font axle U-joint. Ended up being the Cardon joint. There is a ball (with needle bearings) and socket in the midst of this that keeps the u-joints aligned. It requires lube with a needle tipped grease gun. The needle tips are available at better parts houses. It was a royal pain to change (partly due to a mis-packaged wrong sized u-joint; arrgh).

Your truck might have a similar design.

 

[mojoinco]

A couple of thoughts. You could likely buy a flat bed for what it would cost to repair/replace the bed with a stock one. Though it would cost more, an aluminum bed similar to Lowes-Depot rental trucks would save some load capacity.

My 93 F350 (previous body style) had a 2 piece front drive shaft. It used a Cardon style u-joint (looks like a double u-joint with an H sized piece to connect them). The devil it was to find a shake in the front end. Felt and acted like it was the right font axle U-joint. Ended up being the Cardon joint. There is a ball (with needle bearings) and socket in the midst of this that keeps the u-joints aligned. It requires lube with a needle tipped grease gun. The needle tips are available at better parts houses. It was a royal pain to change (partly due to a mis-packaged wrong sized u-joint; arrgh).

Your truck might have a similar design.

 

[Turbys_1700]

A couple of thoughts. You could likely buy a flat bed for what it would cost to repair/replace the bed with a stock one. Though it would cost more, an aluminum bed similar to Lowes-Depot rental trucks would save some load capacity.

My 93 F350 (previous body style) had a 2 piece front drive shaft. It used a Cardon style u-joint (looks like a double u-joint with an H sized piece to connect them). The devil it was to find a shake in the front end. Felt and acted like it was the right font axle U-joint. Ended up being the Cardon joint. There is a ball (with needle bearings) and socket in the midst of this that keeps the u-joints aligned. It requires lube with a needle tipped grease gun. The needle tips are available at better parts houses. It was a royal pain to change (partly due to a mis-packaged wrong sized u-joint; arrgh).

Your truck might have a similar design.

My old 92 F250 with a 7.3 had a similar problem with the IFS...
The darn thing would back the bolts out of the mounting bracket for the IFS on the right side...
After two instances with the thing my mechanic tack welded the darn bolts...
My personal opinion was the the IFS was too light for the added weight of the 7.3 diesel...

 

[crashz]

Sweet truck and a heck of a deal!

Get on that frame with a wire brush, plenty of elbow grease, POR15, and a top coat of frame paint. Then, do all that Dmace listed.