Ownership Log: 96 F250 7.3 "blue"

Several years ago I was tired of driving around modern cars.  My current daily at that time was an a6, but I had lost all desire for driving around something that was a pain to repair and maintain- I attribute that to Audi's "service position." I looked for and old truck for a bit and found a $900 range rover classic.  I fixed it up and drove it for 5 years and made a solid profit.  Then I was bored with it.  I started looking at F100's and the like, and then saw Ultraclyde's post here about his F250.  He was kind enough to tell me all about it through email, and then also to hold it till I was in his area. My lovely wife and I were driving back from a wedding in Hilton Head and got a chance to stop by his house in south ga to check out the truck.  It was honestly love at first sight.  Just the right amount of old man and utility.  I was sold, but then UC told me about all of the work he had done, basically an entire front suspension refresh along with all maintenance. I had never driven a diesel, and honestly wasn't in the market for one because of price, but this one seemed to have been cared for, was bone stock, and from my research seemed to be the best year for the 7.3. 

So, I knew I wanted it- but I had to sell the Rover.  Thankfully, it sold for full asking and I flew home from our thanksgiving trip in Tennessee to sell it and fly back.  Because I was in TN with family, I got to take a day and drive down with my dad in his 250 to pick up my 250.  I'm 37, and live 12 hours away from my dad- so the opportunity to spend the day with him and go grab a truck was priceless.  We stopped for lunch just after picking the truck up and he even took this photo: you can see the rear end of his 200 F250 V10 in the background.  We both now have F250 4x2 lwb extended cab trucks, pretty neat! Life changes quickly, I'll remember that day for the rest of my life.  

my lady took this one the next day on the family farm. 

So- Things I've done so far: 

Oil and filter- Even got to drop the filter on my face, that was fun! 

Fuel filter- It was missing the original cap because it had a filter with integrated cap, but I went and got a motorcraft filter and added back the cap.  A nice NAPA billet cap socket was included, that was very useful.  

New Bumper! I ordered an LMC starlight bumper that has built in backup lights.  I like the bumper, but there were zero instructions on mounting and I think I've got the brackets backwards.  I worked on it for 2 hours, and it's too high.  I'll have to mess with it again.   Mounting a bumper by yourself is not fun btw. 

I also put on some new tires.  I went with General Grabber HD tires.  I've had good luck with General tires over the last few years, and this was their new medium duty truck tire.  They ride very smooth and quiet.  

The water pump started leaking today, so I've got a new one coming my way with a 205* thermostat that I've been told is the way to go.  

To Do:

Drivers side door replacement

Drivers side seat repair

new longer step sides

polish

put the hitch receiver back on

fix bumper

Wicked Wheel 2 install? I don't want more power, this is supposed to make it smoother. 

Glow plug replacement 

That's about it for now.  Will be installing that water pump probably tomorrow.  

The best thing about this truck is how much my kids love it.  We've got a very capable honda minivan, and we've been taking this thing everywhere.  This is from the other day riding around with my youngest.  

Makes me really happy to see Big Blue has a good home!   

ultraclyde said:

Makes me really happy to see Big Blue has a good home!   

Dude, we love it! It's already pulled a trailer down to miami- had to come back empty- but fun nonetheless.  

Have same truck in white...aka THE MULE.

Your kiddo's smile is awesome. My 3 year old just looooves to sit in my old truck (the 1970 Ford F250) but it's too old for me to comfortably drive her in it, just yet. It is weirding me out that the temperature is floating in space alongside your kid. ;-)

dculberson said:

Your kiddo's smile is awesome. My 3 year old just looooves to sit in my old truck (the 1970 Ford F250) but it's too old for me to comfortably drive her in it, just yet. It is weirding me out that the temperature is floating in space alongside your kid. ;-)

Ha! I grabbed that from my instagram story.  Usually the kids actually ride in the middle front, it's awesome! I've been looking at a 1970 f250 as a purchase/resell outside of baton rouge- do you like yours? 

That's my favorite body style of Ford truck.  I'm actually toying with building one of those to replace my '01 Super Duty instead of buying a new truck.

APEowner said:

That's my favorite body style of Ford truck.  I'm actually toying with building one of those to replace my '01 Super Duty instead of buying a new truck.

You should do it.  Mine has bluetooth stereo decent speakers and great a/c.  It's actually one of the more comfortable vehicles that I've owned.  I drove it 12 hours recently and was comfortable the whole way even in the worn seat.  It does have cloth seats though, and I generally find them to be more comfortable than leather, I'm not a huge fan of back sweat.  

grover said:

APEowner said:

That's my favorite body style of Ford truck.  I'm actually toying with building one of those to replace my '01 Super Duty instead of buying a new truck.

You should do it.  Mine has bluetooth stereo decent speakers and great a/c.  It's actually one of the more comfortable vehicles that I've owned.  I drove it 12 hours recently and was comfortable the whole way even in the worn seat.  It does have cloth seats though, and I generally find them to be more comfortable than leather, I'm not a huge fan of back sweat.  

The big thing that's stopping me is the time factor.  I don't really want another big project.  On the other hand I can't quite bring myself to spend the bucks for a new truck.  Right now isn't a good time to do either so my current plan (such as it is) is to hope that the Super Duty continues to be the reliable vehicle that it has been for the first 275k miles I've owned it.  If the right OBS comes along in the mean time it may force me to go in that direction.

In reply to grover :

I love my truck! I don’t put as many miles on it as I should but it’s a great fun old truck. Also it gets a ton of attention at gas stations and the like. People love it. 

grover said:

Life changes quickly, I'll remember that day for the rest of my life.  

Yes it does, yes you will.

You were lucky to have done it, and even more fortunate to realize it for what it was.  

APEowner said:

grover said:

APEowner said:

That's my favorite body style of Ford truck.  I'm actually toying with building one of those to replace my '01 Super Duty instead of buying a new truck.

You should do it.  Mine has bluetooth stereo decent speakers and great a/c.  It's actually one of the more comfortable vehicles that I've owned.  I drove it 12 hours recently and was comfortable the whole way even in the worn seat.  It does have cloth seats though, and I generally find them to be more comfortable than leather, I'm not a huge fan of back sweat.  

The big thing that's stopping me is the time factor.  I don't really want another big project.  On the other hand I can't quite bring myself to spend the bucks for a new truck.  Right now isn't a good time to do either so my current plan (such as it is) is to hope that the Super Duty continues to be the reliable vehicle that it has been for the first 275k miles I've owned it.  If the right OBS comes along in the mean time it may force me to go in that direction.

I run into a lot of them looking at older trucks.  If you know what you want, i'll start looking.  

It's crazy how comfortable those seats are given the age of the truck. That's the only vehicle I've ever driven over 3 hours that didn't leave my back stiff.  I can't decide if they might have been worse when new and softened up nicely, or if they were even more comfortable then.

ultraclyde said:

It's crazy how comfortable those seats are given the age of the truck. That's the only vehicle I've ever driven over 3 hours that didn't leave my back stiff.  I can't decide if they might have been worse when new and softened up nicely, or if they were even more comfortable then.

you know, I've wondered that myself but i'm still going to have the drivers seat redone.  It made a world of difference in my rover.  

Nice truck. I used to have a 91 CC F350 7.3L IDI, was a darn good truck. It had captains chair front seats from a conversion van in it, quite comfortable seats, looked like a bolt-in deal.

grover said:

APEowner said:

grover said:

APEowner said:

That's my favorite body style of Ford truck.  I'm actually toying with building one of those to replace my '01 Super Duty instead of buying a new truck.

You should do it.  Mine has bluetooth stereo decent speakers and great a/c.  It's actually one of the more comfortable vehicles that I've owned.  I drove it 12 hours recently and was comfortable the whole way even in the worn seat.  It does have cloth seats though, and I generally find them to be more comfortable than leather, I'm not a huge fan of back sweat.  

The big thing that's stopping me is the time factor.  I don't really want another big project.  On the other hand I can't quite bring myself to spend the bucks for a new truck.  Right now isn't a good time to do either so my current plan (such as it is) is to hope that the Super Duty continues to be the reliable vehicle that it has been for the first 275k miles I've owned it.  If the right OBS comes along in the mean time it may force me to go in that direction.

I run into a lot of them looking at older trucks.  If you know what you want, i'll start looking.  

Thank you.  As I said I'm still on the fence about what to do but if I were to take the plunge and buy an OBS it would have to be an F-250 or 350, 4x4, extended cab, 8 foot box with an excellent body in any color except white.  I'm less picky about the engine and transmission since I'll have to build or modify whatever it comes with to get the performance that I want.  One option would be to pull the engine and transmission from the '01, freshen them and then swap them into the new to me truck.  I guess the ideal would be something with a bad motor or transmission.  That would bring the price down and I wouldn't be paying for something that I'm not going to use.

In any case, if you run across something I'd love to hear about it but don't go out of your way.

I went to buy lunchmeat a couple of days ago and came back to a puddle under the truck...I knew it was water pump time.  I did some research and ended up buying from dieselstop.com. They're in tampa, not too far from me- and that meant normal shipping only took a day! I also ended up ordering their thermostat after some research. 

First things first, I needed to remove the fan so I went to my local harbor freight and picked up the jumbo set of combo wrenches.  Generally I wouldn't prefer HF wrenches, but honestly, how often am I going to use these huge things? I needed 1 7/8" for this job.  I got them home and promptly figured out that the wrench was too thick and spent the next 30+ minutes putting it on a diet.  Here's a basic before and after.  

That actually worked great and I was able to get the fan off.  As I was taking the fan off, it was obvious that the pump was bad.  I had about 2-3mm of play on just the fan shaft itself, meaning the pump was pretty far gone.  

I took the thermostat housing off first and discovered that it was very corroded and the powdercoat/pain had started to flake off on the inside.  So, I went and got a new one. I was bummed that I had to buy a painted part, but it's all I could find on short notice.  

Next unfortunately, the lower hose was similar....But I ended up using a dremel to clean it out.  

I forgot to take an "after" photo.  But here is the inside of the pump 

I'd say it's seen better days.  

The new one came with a gasket that if I'm honest, was a pain to install- but it seemed to hold itself in place.  

I got it all buttoned up with 30 min to spare before date night with the lady....and realized I left a bolt out of the face.  I have no idea how it happened, I even torqued them down in a star pattern.  I decided to just throw it in...and I have a small leak. No time to fix tonight so tomorrow I'll be loosening all the bolts and retorquing the thing down.  But, I do have brand new coolant with the correct additives (peak concentrate with SCA already added) and I know my pump is good.  So that's assurance.  

As an aside, I ended up installing a 203* thermostat rather than the 195* that ford sells. Apparently, this is what the motor was engineered for, and what it needs to run perfect.  I'm not sure if that's snake oil or not, but it does take an awfully long time for my truck to warm up- so maybe? Regardless, this was a long day and I'm thrilled to be mostly done. 

Well, I placed a pan under the truck last night and it looks like it lost 2 drops.  So, maybe good? I'll drive it around and see what happens.  Next up is glow plugs.  

Wow. I put that upper thermostat housing on when I bought the truck 2 years ago. That's crazy.

ultraclyde said:

Wow. I put that upper thermostat housing on when I bought the truck 2 years ago. That's crazy.

Yikes! I might want to try and find a billet piece instead of the dorman then.  I don't want to deal with this again! It looked fairly new from the outside.  

The water pump hasn't leaked a drop in the last week so I'm calling it good.  Also, the truck did truck stuff today 

Thread here: F100

I need to put the tow hitch back on for a better tow angle, but that's not a normal bumper on it now, it's the lmc rated for 8000lbs.  This thing pulls like a freaking dream! I ran 68 on the I-95 the 2.5 hours back home and it acted like it wasn't even there.  Man, I love this truck.  Also, it only seemed to drop the rear about an inch with the trailer.  I almost want to buy another one of these powerstroke f250s and put it in storage.