what areas or items should I be on the look out for on a 2001 F350 with a 7.3

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BRUISER

silent.. but deadly
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Hey all, I am looking at a 2001 F350 with a 7.3 and 260,000 miles I have never owned a 7.3.

So I am wondering what areas or items should I be on the look out for?

thanks in advance

Ken C
 
A lot of the typical 7.3 issues are tough to find without a meter and testing continuity, resistance etc. CPS, Under Valve Cover Harnesses, glow plugs, glow plug relay etc.

Check for oil around the turbo pedestal. Could indicate bad seals on either the turbo, the pedestal or EBPV.

If 4wd see if the auto locking hubs work. The vacuum lines tend to crap out and leak. The plastic hub dials get old and brittle. I plugged mine and put Warn Hubs in.
 
well I am looking for a specific style truck and this one just happens to have a 7.3 in it
 
StretchASU said:
A lot of the typical 7.3 issues are tough to find without a meter and testing continuity, resistance etc. CPS, Under Valve Cover Harnesses, glow plugs, glow plug relay etc.

Check for oil around the turbo pedestal. Could indicate bad seals on either the turbo, the pedestal or EBPV.

If 4wd see if the auto locking hubs work. The vacuum lines tend to crap out and leak. The plastic hub dials get old and brittle. I plugged mine and put Warn Hubs in.
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Honestly if you're buying one and the seller doesn't know. I would just go ahead and replace those items. They aren't necessarily hard to do, just time consuming
 
I had a 7.3 with a 6 speed behind it. the clutch spit the dampening springs out, then several hundred miles later the clutch arm broke. new was an upgraded design. HPOP O rings, glow plug relay, glow plugs, valve cover gaskets, turbo seals twice. There was a sensor on the driver side that had insulation crumbling. At 230K miles the body started to really rattle.

I did however get about 80K miles on a veggie oil/ diesel blend with no issues. Hope this helps.
 
benXJ said:
check and see if you have air pumping up out of the oil filler cap. Take the oil cap off and turn it over and sit it over the hole. If it gets blown up/off, the enginis on its way out...
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I see this as a foolishly optimistic test. Every engine has crankcase pressure, that's why they put a vent on them. And try balancing an oil cap on any running engine and it will probably vibrate off too. I've had people do this on great condition trucks I'm selling that don't use a drop of oil over 10k miles, and say that it was worn out and had too much blowby. Of course since its on the internet, people are gonna believe it.
 
I've done it.
not vibrate off, see if its generating enough blowby to push it up
you can tell the difference and its just a start
then use other signs/judgement to make the final decision
 
Its going to have blowby. There's days mine has almost none and there's days you can actually see it coming out of the hood because the line isnt hooked up, so that test is stupid imo.

Smell the antifreeze to make sure it dont smell like diesel. Make sure the truck is completely cold when you go to look at it and start it, cold motor is more prone to show injector knock or injector failure. You can look for leaks but they actually came from the factory leaking oil :laughing:. Make sure oil pan isnt a rust pit.

You said a type of truck youre looking for that has this motor? So its not a superduty or obs truck? If its not factory truck then hard to tell actual milage or ask if some teenager has ran its guts out.
 
I’ve heard “zero blow by” so many times from a seller,
I’m pretty much done at that point. If it’s a diesel it has blow by. At best it’s a matter of where you direct it
 
The blow by test with the oil cap is a reasonable gut check test IMO. Unscrew it and leave it in the filler neck loose. If it shoots straight up in the air, that’s a good indication that there’s “too much” blow by, or some other crankcase pressure/venting issue. Either way, that result would be justification for me to pass on it. The oil cap on my 120k mile 7.3 will sit on the filler neck (upside down) and not move, so I don’t buy the argument that every diesel has blow by.
 
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