Tow Vehicle Acquired... finally

TunaHead

TunaHead

Senior Member
Thanks to all of you for your advice on trucks to tow the V. Last weekend Janine and I travelled ~ 3 1/2 hours north to Grants Pass, Oregon to look at a truck I had seen on Craig's list. I drove home in a 1995 F250 7.3 liter turbo diesel 4x4 with dual gas tanks and a crew cab. It's a two-tone blue over silver with only 178,000 miles. One ding in the tailgate but otherwise in excellent shape and very clean. Set me back $6,850 which is a pretty good price around here.

I'm still looking for excuses to drive it anywhere ;)

TH
 
You did good. I've heard the 7.3 is a good engine compared to the newer 6.0. the pulling power that you have now offset the diesel prices.
 
YEP, that ill do it. You won't even know the V is back there with that. Trailer brakes? He don't need no stinkin trailer brakes. Although I'm sure he won't ever sneak up on anyone at the ramp either. My only real complaint about the 7.3L is it is pretty noisy, but they sure are reliable. Just carry a spare CPS and the tools to change it with you at all times. The CPS is the 7.3's achilles heel, but pretty minor compared to most any other engine out there.
 
i guess that'll be okay. Of course I'm kinda parcel to Dodge. You just can't beat a Cummins. We get it done with six compared to eight, but who's counting??
 
Congrats!!

Fix Or Repair Daliy
Found On Road Dead
Factory Ordered Road Disaster
For Only Retarded Drivers


Backwards
Driver Returns On Foot
Dorks Ride On Fords
Don't Ride Over Fifty:you:


Hard core Chevy man!! But good luck you will need it!!
 
the main reason the 7.3 is such a good motor is Ford had nothing to do with the engine, they bought it from International, Ford put more input into the 6.0 and it didn't turn out so well
 
I was told by one of our local school board reps. (whom we deal with everyday) that the 6.0's head bolts stretch and cause damage around 75k miles.
Unfortunately I have acquired the single truck contributing to the national deficit in gas consumption. A 2001 2500HD 4x4 extended cab sporting the 8.1, 496. 9mpg while empty or pulling every broke down ford I pass. Thank God for company vehicles.
 
i may be wrong, but last time I had one of those(7.3) down( long time ago) I believe they were dry sleeve engines. We used to use them in street sweepers, used to use the old Detroit 8.2 till they stoped making them, we used teh 5.9 Cummins till we upped the hydraulic demands, we couldn't get the Cummins to make the torque we needed at 1000 rpm(had to be emmsion legal), so we stepped up to the 7.3 high torque 195 hp, worked great in those sweepers, about the time I left, they had just started to use the 24 valve 5.9, they seemed to work pretty good. Funny thing, they bought a whole bunch of GM 6.5 NAs with no warranty from GM, we used them in the twin engine trucks(Had to use an aux engine to spin the hydraulics), they would drive them to Rocky Mount from Wake Forest, NC to break them in, half of the engines didn't make it there, they would blow the crank right out the bottom
 
The early 6.9L/7.3L IDI's were a non replaceable sleeve block. These were the ones that experienced the cavitation issue due to FORD not putting the coolant additive in them from the factory and they would develop pin holes through the cylinder walls into the cooling passages. I'm not sure about the 7.3 PS, but I didn't think they had replaceable sleeves. Most any engine can have custom steel sleeves put in it though.
 
My friends son had the 7.3 PS which he had the sleeves replaced. I don't remember what year it was though. Could have been custom too for all I know, but I thought he told me otherwise.
 
the ones we messed with had the coolant filter(looked like a small oil filter) that had some kind of additive inside the filter, they were real strict about replacing them, and only using oem filters. On a side note, they sent me to Detroit Diesel to learn how to work on the CNG conversion of these motors, they screwed the injectors out, and screwed spark plugs in, DD had all the conversion crap on the outside including the first mass produced, fly by wire throttle plate on the American Highways. The motors worked pretty good, the only problem was CNG is not regulated per mix of gasses, so where ever the trucks went, they had to send an engineer out, have the cng sampled, then reprogram the ecm to handle the mix
 
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