The clutch went out on my old Ford SD, believe it or not the local Ford dealer was more than competitive on the replacement. Also had a hard starting issue, figured it was the glow plugs/controller/harness/valve cover gasket so I asked them to look at it. They called today wanting to do a compression check as the glow plug system all checked out okay.

I like this old truck, I've had it since 01. It has been nothing but reliable and is still in pretty decent shape for being 21 years old. I figure I have two choices fix the clutch and sell it while it's still running, or fix it and run it till I can't put the wheels back on. I'm just trying to figure out if putting anywhere from $8-10K into it should be considered.

Man, new ones ain’t cheap, and they have all that DEF or whatever urea bolony.

There are few true bargains on used diesels.

So if you want to stick with diese ...

My Duramax is an ‘03, and I’m gonna keep on running it.

If I had a 7.3 that I’d taken care of since ‘01, I’d be running it too.

I have a brother in law with the same truck. He bought it new and it has been a great truck. But I wouldn't put that much money in it. My BIL is going with a 1/2 ton next time, probably with the 3.5 turbo.

If I needed a 3/4 ton I'd be looking at F250's with gas engines. I don't really NEED one, but have been looking at going that way next time. I can get a 2017 or 2018 4X4 Supercrew cab with the 6.2 gas engine for $30,000, maybe less. I haven't really priced anything older, but I'm betting you can get one 7-8 years old around $20,000. I'd rather do that than put that much in a 21 year old truck.

They are rated to tow 14,000 lbs and actually have the payload to do it. Most F250's with diesel engines are RATED to tow more, but the heavier engine and other components limit payload so you're overloaded with much over 10,000 lbs in most of them.

Fuel mileage will be worse, but with diesel costing $1 more per gallon you'll never break even with diesel. Everyone I know with a diesel is going to gas next time if they haven't already. Diesel is no longer economically feasible. All the school buses, ambulances, and many medium duty bigger commercial trucks are going to gas now. I just don't see it anymore for any non-commercial use.

I'm torn that's for sure, I've put 230K on this truck and I know every little quirk. It's a regular cab long bed and it's pretty much the perfect work truck it's usually hooked to a 28' GN flat bed or 24' stock trailer. I have an 06 Duramax as well and it is great to ride in pulling a trailer, but it's a crew cab short bed and not nearly as versatile when it comes to being a work truck on the farm.

While the 06 has half the miles my 99 is in better shape body wise. My 99 also does better on fuel averaging 17+ mpg and my 06 struggles to get 14.5 mpg without a trailer. I have the cash to fix it, and I know how hard it is to replace a good truck.

Taylorce1,

I struggled with the same exact question over the last several months as my 1999 Super Duty is just plain old with 417,000 miles on her.

A similar new truck at $58,000 plus vs a used truck with 200,000k miles on it at sub $10,000 was a hard decision as I really wanted to go with the new one.

I ended up grabbing a 2000 Lariat for cheap and I gotta admit, it was a great call.

I know all the quirks/fixes and have the confidence to drive this old 7.3 to wherever the hell I wanna go at the drop of a hat.

Even if you had to put $8-10k into it, you'd be upside down on it way shorter than if you bought a new one.

Hard to lose on a 7.3 man.

I'm surprised you could buy a 7.3L still in CA and register it! My Ford can't pull like my Chevy, but it still got the job done. Plus it's just a lot simpler truck which has its advantages for sure.

I may be jumping the gun, I don't know if I'm losing compression yet or if it's some other problem. However, I do know glow plugs and lack of compression is usually the culprits of hard starting.

Long blocks start around $4K plus core and shipping for OEM and go up, I can pick up used engine for a little less than $4K shipped 100K +/- miles. Then I have installation, rebuild or rebuilt turbo, a new intercooler (original has seen better days), new exhaust, and some intake work (old airbox is beat up). Plus whatever else needs fixed or replaced.

Have them run a contribution test. If 3 5 and 8 read off its a cps

Mine had hard start at about 242k and it was the IPR valve. Pain in the balls to change but fixed the problem. 230k is barely broke in for a 7.3L. Mine burned exactly 0 oil at that age. I'd run the oil 4500 miles and it would be exactly on full on the dipstick. I miss the hell out of mine. Sold it when I saw a newer shinier truck came along. 9 years later I regret the hell out of that decision. Personally. I wouldnt trust a dealership to touch your truck. 2 times in the last 2 years I've had 2 different dealerships try to rip me off on service for the wifes vehicle. One they told my wife her vehicle was unsafe to drive home because the brakes were so bad. Strange thing was I had put new ones on a couple months before. She gets home i pull some wheels and they are fine. the other tried to charge me $460 to change a $39 sensor that takes less than 5 minutes to do and has 1 10mm bolt holding it on. I asked the guy if he had to build up some courage before he gave that quote. I honestly laughed when he gave me the price. He tells me the part costs him $250. i told him I can buy them all day online for $39 in an AC Delco box. I swear on my children he asked me after that what I was willing to pay to have them do it. I told him I;d handle it myself. I cant imagine how many old grannies they rip off every day.

When you live rural sometimes you don't have a choice. This dealership does a lot of buisness with local Farmers and Ranchers, and they are usually competitive and usually pretty quick. They try for the upsell, but most places do. They do listen to the answer No.

Closest dedicated diesel shop I trust to work on the pickup is 150 miles away and are a PITA to get to with my work schedule. If the clutch wasn't out I'd send my daughter with it to that shop. She's got a little YJ Jeep set up to flat tow by the previous owner that works pretty well in these situations.

I have had 2 Fords with the 7.3. They will run 500k easily if taken care of. If I still had one I would keep it till the body fell off of the frame. I have a '14 Duramax now, it's a beast with to much emmisions crap on it. Can't wait to free up $2500 to get it deleted and tuned.

Different motor, but, the ECM went bad in my '06 6.0L Ford and caused hard starting. I think it was ~$1200 to replace.

Taylorce1,

Did you fix and keep your work truck? A clutch is nothing too serious. Worth fixing, they're good trucks.

I use mine for logging my land of green birch and hauling my dog team around the state. I've also towed a bunch of vehicles and heavy loads of building materials. They're good trucks.

I broke the weld on the flat bed mounting plate on rough stuff loaded down with lotta weight. Also high centered both axles on stumps with 6000 lbs of green birch. Never hurt them. Lotta full throttle 4lo runs through mudhholes and up hills with all that birch. Transfer case nor axles ever balked under the brutality.

Weak link was my torque converter. Went out at 216,000 miles. Went to a billet triple disc converter and tranmission overhauled with all heavy duty stuff. Never had buyers remorse on that one.

Now to fix all these scratches and dents from bustin brush.

Or maybe not? Nothing more embarrassing than those city slicker/townie trucks all douched up with aftermarket stuff, and not a single scratch in the mirror finish paint.

Gotta think dealers are gonna be competitive on service price since sales revenues are hamstrung by supply...

If you haven't tried adding this to your oil at oil changes, I'd highly recommend you do so before you let anyone work on the engine. 230k miles isn't very many for a 7.3 that hasn't been abused. Has the engine ever had a air intake problem where you sucked dust into the engine? https://powerstrokehelp.com/ Bill is full of hot air but knows his stuff about powerstroke engines, and his how to videos are excellent. I'd fix the truck and run it till you can't fix it.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hot-Shot...r-Diesel-Oil-Additive-32-FL-OZ/182440933
https://www.archoil.com/products/ar9100-oil-additive

Got the clutch in, but lost the water pump. I'm waiting on parts as we speak, should have the old girl running again tomorrow. Last part a billet thermostat housing is supposed to be delivered today. The old stamped metal one was so rusty I didn't want to put it back in, haven't replaced the water pump in 15 years.

Compression tested good, now that it's really hot outside she starts great. I'll probably budget new injectors and a turbo rebuild this winter. Intercooler is looking a little ragged as well, might be time to replace that as well.

Got the new thermostat housing in, and put a new surge tank on it this morning then drove around for about three hours with some flush in the radiator. Took my wife for a ride in it like I did on our first date 12 years ago, and bought her lunch. Then I had to run her by Dollar General to buy some barn cat food.






My daughter installed some new two mirrors the other day when I replaced the water pump. Kind of makes the old truck look a little different without the sport mirrors she came with.

I put '08 tow mirrors on my '99. Big improvement.....

Another idea is the hpop. Some of the 99s came with a 15 degree hpop. The later 7.3 had a 17, it gives more pressure to fire the injectors. A used 17 is really cheap or consider replacing or modding yours. Another good idea is Valvoline extreme blue 5w40 full syn. I fired my last 7.3 in -21 by cycling the glows twice and it fired and wasn't plugged in.

Yep, worth every penny!

Last fall at elk camp it was 5 above, and Whitey barely started. Lottsa white smoke when it did... But there are only 2 glowplugs that work. Goes in Tuesday for new glow plugs and I'll replace the 6 year old batteries before it goes away from home this fall.

Old batteries and worn out glows are not helpful. Have the battery terminals cleaned really well or replaced too. Check the wiring also, it's likely old too. The best wire at a reasonable price I found was welding cable. Replace the wire between the batteries and to the starter. If you don't know, the older powerstrokes take a bit of oil out of the pan, put it under very high pressure and use that high pressure oil to fire the injectors. When dino oil gets that cold it's gets viscous and doesn't work well in that or any application.

I ran the Valvoline Extreme Blue full syn 5w40 all the time but I got it at a huge discount. You could easily just run it in the winter and go back to dino when it's warm. That said, that was my experience from 8-10 years ago, there may be other 5w40 full syn oils for diesel now, I sold the truck and have not kept up on the oils.

Micky

same oil I run.....

Yep, 5w-40 here in Alaska. Those injectors behave better at 30-50 below zero cold starts.
Along with block heater, dual 1200 amp commercial batteries, oil pan heater and a hair dryer pointed at the air horn. All this run to a single plug-in. 2 hour plug-in 25 below zero or colder. White Rodgers glow plug relay replacing that worthless motorcraft relay as well.

Diesels in interior Alaska are pure stupidity. Next work truck will surely have a gas engine.