Calling on some Ford 7.3 Diesel guys!!!

I ended up with a Ford F350 ton dually in a trade two years ago. The trouble with it was it would not start. They had blown a turbo in Nebraska. A dealer installed a new one there. They drove it home to Iowa, About a 700 mile drive. Shut it off and it would not restart unless jumped an block heater plugged in. That motor had about 200K on it. The transmission had just been rebuilt less than 5000 miles before this. The fellow owed me some money on some repairs. He offered me the truck AS-is in trade. At that point I only had $2500 in a 2000 F350 crew cab dually 4x4. I was not worried at this point being I could part it out and make money.

My youngest son kind of wanted the truck. So I told him to try to get it fixed and we would work something out. Well the injectors where all bad plus the glow plugs too. He found a set of used injectors that where supposed to be out of a low miled wrecked truck. HE put them in and replaced the glow plugs. The truck would then start and run but blew oil like a freight train. Number 6 piston had exploded and ruined the bore. The son then lost interest as he could not afford to replace or rebuild the motor. So I paid him for the injectors and glow plugs.

I looked around for a good used motor and did not have much luck then. A crate engine was more than I wanted to put in the truck. So I just kept looking around for a good used motor. Well just this last summer a local repair shop found a lower miled truck that had been totaled. They need the bed and some cab parts. So we cut a deal for them to change the motor using the turbo and injectors out of my motor. The turbo only having less than a 1000 miles on it. While they where working on the truck I just had them go over the entire truck. They found a list of things it needed like ball joints and such. I told them to fix the list.

Well they got it all together in November. The trouble is it had a random misfire and sometimes would hard start. They kept plugging away at it until two weeks ago. At this time the shop owner dung into the truck and determined that the injectors where misfiring. So they sent them off to be checked. They call me today and told me that all eight injectors are bad. They priced a set of remaned injectors at $2000 plus labor to install them. OUCH!!!

So I am now I am getting close to blue book wholesale in this DOG!!!! What are my options??? Is the $250 a pop reasonable for the injectors??? I looked on line and found prices all over the place for them.

I sure wish now I had just parted the darn thing out when I first got the thing. The worse part is I have been messing with this thing for over two years.

What is the thing worth running??? 2000 F350 crew cab dually about 200K for miles. The interior is not too bad. Cab has no rust but has some small dents. The bed is dented all to heck inside and out. I had planned to just put a flat bed on it for my use.

Fuel shop I worked at flat refused to ever install used or reman injectors, it was install new Alliant Power injectors or have a great day. The few times early on the used parts bit them in the butt every time, even if they work awhile they never lasted long.

All I know is; my helper dude flew to Edmonton and bought a 2002 GMC Duramax extended cab (diesel) with 200K-kms. on it. It is in nice shape - for $9,000.00. Cost him $150 in fuel on the return trip (approx. 1,100kms.)

You are in pretty deep to just walk away. I would shop around for a better deal on injectors. It is unusual to have that much trouble with injectors. Especially at 200k miles. The 7.3 engines are usually good for 500k and up. If you have a use for it, that would be a good truck. Rust can be a big issue on a vehicle of that age. Your lack of rust adds to the value. While I am no expert on values of vehicles, look into what it would cost to buy one like it. To me, that is a more accurate indicator of value than what a book says.

Hahaha... I know the truck. ALMOST bought it myself!!

Ya but he still has a Duramax when it has problems he will be into as much as he paid for the whole thing

Your posts are so long and drawn out I can only skim threw them, however I have a 2000 f250 with 2005000 miles on it 4x4 reg cab auto air xl package, I bought it used in 2004 for $20,000, right now it has very little rust, only needed an alternator, and a water pump, not even an oil pan, as there prone to rot out. I wouldent sell this truck for anything.

I for one would never have used any of the parts from the failed engine. The turbo and injectors are exposed to the engine oil, any metal in the engine is in the turbo and injectors, and now its in your new engine. My question is, are the injectors causing it, or is the cam sensor failing? Before I would have pulled the injectors, I would have scoped the cam sensor signal pattern, or just replaced it, it's cheap. Cam sensors can make them do weird things. Tearing up a 7.3 is like breaking an anvil.

Get a second opinion on the injectors. It would be very rare to have problems with all 8 unless the engine they came out of never had the oil changed or had some sort of failure that filled the injector oil with metal. Doubtful, and also rare the the electrical portions would all go bad as well. My ol 7.3 Powerstroke has right at 300,000 miles on it with original injectors and turbo. I abuse it, I use it, it still has good power, starts easy when cold, but a little smokey from the worn injectors. I change the oil every 10,000 miles, it runs very smooth for the lack of maintenance it gets. Only problem I ever had with it was hard warm starts due to blown orings on the IPR valve. The IPR valve can cause running issues hot or cold if the solenoid on it is getting bad or doesn't make good contact with the IPR valve itself. The harness and plug ins at and under the valve cover are problem areas (burnt pins at external plug end, bad connection at injector itself, broken wire under the valve cover. A shop with a good scan tool should be able to plug in and you can basically watch the engine run by the many different values given.

Ross

Cam sensor and IPR valve are new as the harnesses under the valve covers.

JD Rboots is giving you some good information, the business I used to own took care of a fleet of these. They started having trouble with them around 100000 miles. We had a man that took care of the top 1/2. He was forever working under the valve covers, injectors cost us $110.00 each but that was over 13 years ago. Wiring harness under them was always a problem. Something about waste gate problems, high pressure oil pumps--kinda forget, been too long, memory is going. I made the mistake of buying one 6 years ago. First thing that happened, trany went out, 3 weeks later I started putting money in injectors,etc. I think they were 150.oo each with the discount I get thru the car dealership. Ford wanted 10000.00 for a reconditioned motor they claimed would fix it.
Went thru the wiring harnesses, stuff on the turbo. It would run but was hard starting. I finally gave up on it and shipped it to an auction. Cost me $3000.00 to get rid of it. The truck fleet is now running Chevy and Dodge diesels. Operational costs were almost 1/4 less than the fords and there down time is far less than the 7.3's

Have you checked the injector driver module? It's on the drivers fender down by the master cylinder. That is what sends the signal to the injectors. If you part it out I'm looking for some rear aluminum rims.

Your experience is far different from any I have ever heard. 7.3's are bullet proof in my experience. Mine has 235,000 miles and I have never touched anything on the engine. This is very typical. They should go 500,000 without problems. Rusted out very junky 7.3 trucks with 250,000 miles on them sell for $3,000 to $6,000. Your dually with a good body and engine should bring $10,000 to #12,000+ around here. Again, my 7.3 experts say to never use anything but 10W30 oil for injector reliability. My brother's Duramax is a nice truck but the engine has been a money pit. My friends newer Duramax keeps going into limp mode and won't pull anything. I like all brands but the 7.3 is known as being one of the best engines ever built. The Cummins are also great engines. With enough poor maintenance and abuse, anything will fail.

I've come to realize that any vehicle with 200,000 miles is money pit.Should have parted it out.Next will be the transfer case,transmission and rear end.

Those cam sensors are notorious for failing without causing a fault code-I've seen new bad ones.I would have left the original injectors in the totaled truck engine and seen how it ran first.That is a HUEI engine-what are the high pressure oil pump readings?Injector o-rings can be torn on installation,they would cause poor hot start to poor running,and low high pressure oil pump readings,which should make a code.I would think $250ea is cheap for the injectors.You might get them at a Navistar dealer-their reman stuff is good.That motor is known to last,and be reliable-I would have a hard time believing the injectors are all bad-I've never seen it.The only thing is:did they replace the injector o-rings when they did all the swapping from engine to engine? They cannot be reused.Also you have to drain the oil galleys or suck the oil out each cylinder when you remove the injectors,or,you can/will hydrolock the engine,or break piston rings trying to crank the engine back up.If the the turbo blew,it can blow metal into the charge air cooler,which can later be passed into a cylinder.The charge air cooler needed to be flushed out.Are they using a scan tool to diagnose this engine?Good luck-let us know.Mark

Well my truck has 2005000 miles on it workes like new, what do you say to that?!

You might not know but when does the engine misfire, hot/cold or all the time? Has this set a check engine light-codes? I find it very hard to believe that all 8 injectors test bad. Generally they last around 200k or more without problems. With the exception of the electronics, there is basically 2 sides to these injectors, fuel side and oil side, did they give any details on the reason all 8 failed? Was the ICP/HPOP pressure tested, fuel pressure tested, injector buzz and cylinder contribution tests performed? Was IPR % and ICP compared for possible problems or pressure leaks/issues?

Its fairly easy to cut injector o-rings on these and new ones should always be used if removing/installing. If an upper o-ring was leaking you could see oil bubble up around the injector where it goes into the head (valve covers off, cranking or running) If lower o-rings were leaking it would push engine oil into the fuel system, easiest way to see this is getting a fuel sample or pull fuel filter cap and look for oil in the filter housing.
Also what about the copper washers on the ends of the injectors, they should be replaced if removing/installing injectors. Hopefully someone didn't leave one out, or a piece of o-ring, or maybe double stacked the washers.

Sorry for the long post, you can literally write a book on this subject, of course it sounds like most of this information is only relevant to the person doing the work.

(quoted from post at 06:31:50 01/29/16) Well my truck has 2005000 miles on it workes like new, what do you say to that?!

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million miles? I say you are talking NY sheet!

It's liven on borrowed time... We had a 1999 f450 with the gas gussing v10 with 41,000miles that had been through a transmission, transfer case and leaky frost plugs.[the motor had to be lifted to get new frost plug in]We could not depend on it or afford it. And good for you. You have a rare one.

I would take it to an "Enterprise Leasing Used Car Lot" and trade it in on a one year old vehicle. They don't test drive the trade-ins and the price they're asking on their used vehicles are non-negotiable. The salesman don't work on comission so they don't care if you buy or not and there's no bait & switch.
They gave us $1000 last summer on a 1997 Dodge Caravan with 185k miles. We bought from them a nice 2014 Chevy Impala fully loaded for $16k with 19,800 miles. We have talked to more people that are going to Enterprise Leasing to buy their vehicles. By The Way they have a 2 week buy-back program so if you're not satisfied you can return the vehicle for a different one or a refund (less $200 license fee) with no questions asked..

swap a cummins in it and be worry free

Did you buy it with 2005000 miles on it?

I have owned 3, 7.3 power strokes. The early ones were GREAT. My 2001, is why I now drive Dodge. My 97, I had well over 300,000 on it. Only 2 things I did was a Barometric sensor, and water pump. Great motor. The 01 was a money pit from the time I bought it. Cost me almost $10,000 to not own a Ford!!!
Part it out and walk away. You are chasing Gremlins!!! Or drop a Cat, Cummins, or Detroit in it, but then the rest of it will be JUNK!

I'd like to see a picture of that truck with 2+ million miles on it that runs like new.

That's 125,000 miles a year! Where do you drive it?

I am looking for that same truck. What would you take for it as is and walk away? Al Baker 231/757/0064

I re-used HUEI injectors & HPOP from an engine that guys were throwing parts at to fix a miss. I bought it, found burnt piston/rings. did a full rebuild. thought-hey, these new parts haven't been anywhere except a few test drives. wrong. first thing that went was HPOP kicking code. fixed that, than chased injectors one at a time til saw it was useless. first thought it was cheap parts, but now wonder if it is 7.3 'fast fill' setup? it pulls unfiltered oil into HPOP.

No, two hundred and five thousand,

You put in a used set of injectors into one engine then removed them and put them in another running engine and never checked them? Used injectors should always be checked before installing them. A bad one can wash down a cyl. wall causing it to score as or burn a hole in a piston in short order. Fix it right. A 2000 power stroke still has good value if it's anything at all. Somebody would buy it to pull a livestock trailer or whatever.

Did you buy with 205000 miles?

My 17 year old F150 with 130K is like a new pickup and I'll probably own it another 5-8 years but I'd never buy one 17 years old with 130K on it - especially one that needed lots of work.

I guess I'm still confused. You bought this truck in 2004 with 205,000 miles on it and now have 2,005,000 miles on it?

I know a guy who's had to replace injectors TWICE on his 7.3 powered 2000 Ford F250. Jeesh!! Of course, he's got over 700,000 miles on the truck and doesn't maintain it very well.

JDseller,

I can't help you on what to do with yours, but I can answer your value question with a comparison to my pickup.

I bought my 2000 F-250 Extended cab 6speed manual from Decorah auto in April last year with 202,000 miles for $6,500. It now has 215,000 miles on it and I have only replaced the water pump and changed the oil 3 times. It has rotted out cab corners and a rusting front fender, but doesn't look terrible yet (give it about three years). I just took it 4 hours into IL yesterday to buy a tractor. The engine has been reliable and powerful. I regularly pull a 25 foot dual tandem gooseneck trailer with it. It does thoroughly mark it's territory with oil leaks, though. The picture was taken the day I bought it. The second picture is from yesterday, and doesn't really show the pickup, but does show the trailer it's almost always on.

I'd buy another 7.3 in a heartbeat. In fact, I am sort of looking, but I'm particular on what I want - F350, 7.3l, standard cab, manual transmission, dually, 4wd. I'll pry never find it, but I'll keep looking