Funny call to local Ford dealer

[DR.billZ]

Called the dealer to inquire about checking for glow plug module problem and to see what it would cost.
Told the person what year and engine and their reply:

"You have the good engine. Oops, I probably shouldn't have said that"

I just had to laugh a bit.

[MotionMan]

Mine was in for the valve cover gasket fix....he said the same thing, that the 7.3 was the best engine ever made. He also said a complete reman with install was $12,000 inc labor....holy crap!!!!! The valve cover gasket was the first failure in 7 years and 217,000 so I can't complain....except for the first mechanic who messed it up and lied to me, he did meatball repair and said he had the scanner needed....he had a multimeter The dealer network redeamed itself on this fix.

[rock_doctor]

If you look though some of the powerstroke help videos he goes over all three of the psd engines. He basically says not much can go wrong with the 7.3 other then the normal stuff. He constantly says the injections system is a Caterpillar style system and very dependable. Shame the EPA killed the 7.3, if it wasn't for them Ford would still be using that engine. We had an 02 X with the 7.3 and we still miss that truck.

[86GLHS]

The last 7.3 long blocks from Ford sold for something like $12K, brand new in the crate, plus labor.

Wonder how many guys dreamed about putting one in place of the 6.0???

$12K for a rebuild with labor sounds about right. Right now you can find a good used Excursion with 4x4 and three rows of leather with a good running 7.3 for about that!!!

Mine has had a SES light for about 80K miles but it still has plenty of power and gets great fuel mileage so won't even bother digging into it. One day if it starts knocking or something then will have it looked at and if it's bad will find a forged rod junk yard motor to drop in. Current mileage 211K.

The 99 F250 has 275K miles and my diesel mechanic recently said, "Doug, that thing runs like a dream".

[86GLHS]

Also, a few things are known to go wrong with the 7.3.

1. 8th cylinder starved for fuel which causes injector failure and the cylinder to drop compression (this is my guess what's wrong with my X as it's got a slight miss at times). My diesel mechanic said the last customer that had to fix this cost him $14K. His recomendation was to just run it. Gotta like a good honest mechanic!

2. Cavitation due to not running the coolant additive or switching to the green coolant.

3. Known for leaving a little oil here and there. In most cases it's fairly simple fix's. All three of mine have leaked from time to time. Right now two are leaking oil.

[Pappy19]

That means I can replace 2 V-10 engines for the price of 1 7.3, not to mention all of the other diesel crap to contend with fuel and oil change wise. Not knocking the 7.3 cause I had 2 of them and a 6.9, but unless you really tow heavy, a V-10 will do you just as good a job with alot less hassle and much cheaper to maintain....or replace.