Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Looking at picking up a 1999 F-250 with 7.3

It's a 2wd supercab short bed. It's got 235k miles on it. He had the injectors and glow plugs replaced a couple of months ago (by the dealer and has the receipts). It drives good, front end/steering seems to be tight with no issues. It shifts smooth (up and down).

Is there anything in particular that I should be cautious of or specifically check? I'm not a Ford guy and have no experience with the 7.3 in terms of issues or things to look for.

Thanks!

It's by far the best diesel ford made and a good truck if the front end is tight. Whatever you do avoid the 6.0 in stock form.

Ford made 'the truck' with an IH motor.

It's a good truck. I'd want to know oil usage, compression, or both at 235K.

Consider taking it to a reputable diesel shop for an inspection, it will be worth a $100 or 2.

Here's a website for Ford Super Duty trucks, 1999 and up. There's a section for the 7.3 engine on the forum.

http://www.thedieselstop.com/forums/

This is good advice right here. The rest of the truck is pretty self explanatory (it's rusty or it's not, etc) but the engine and tranny can be real money pits, so it's worth it.

Thanks for the tips guys. It belonged to a good friend and we wound up buying it last night for my son.

It needs a new bed (jack-knifed a trailer). But, the father of my son's best friend owns a paint and body shop. He's going to let the boys do all of the prep work and then he'll shoot the paint for a very, very reasonable price.

He sold me the truck for $2k, so I felt like I couldn't pass it up. He spent more than that this past spring having the injectors and glow plugs replaced. It even has two new batteries. I wasn't looking to get him a diesel, but for the price and since everything else is in good shape I decided to go ahead. Plus, he has all of the maintenance records and receipts. He even kept the tranny fluid changed regularly.

I am thinking that for the money I've got in it, even if something creeps up, we'll be able to take care of it and still be good as far as $$ into it. I found several locally that are same year, configuration etc and usually have more miles and they're all in the $7,500-$9k range.

Does that have the 5 speed electronic trans? They're supposed to be a much better trans then the E4OD.

Its got the automatic, shows to be the 4R100

OK. It's a 4 speed OD, IIRC, (lockout button on end of gear shift).
that's the upgrade from the E4OD which was the weak point in the drive train. Should be GTG expecially with the fluid changes.

Yep, it's got the lockout button on the end of the shifter.

Took it by the friends body shop at lunch. My boys and his son will do all of the prep-work and in exchange for them doing other work around his shop (he bought a new building next door and will be moving a lot of stuff around), he is going to go ahead and paint the entire truck in exchange for their work.

So, I just have to pay for a pull-off bed and my son will work for the rest and should have a good looking truck at the end. I want him to have a sense of "ownership" in that he is invested in that truck and will also learn how to do the work himself.


Thanks again for the info guys.

if it's got new injectors, you're golden. It's no Cummins, but it'll run for a long time. Injectors are a known weakness around 250K. Mine are shot, but at 330K, I'm not putting much money into it.

Good call on not passing it up for that price!

Ah, but my truck is a Cummins.... This is my boy's truck. He gets the 2nd rate diesel, ha.

Thanks again fellas.