Cascade Crew

[Kage87Z]

I'm looking to get a mid 90's or so power stroke. I don't have a lot of experience with diesels outside of Army tracked vehicles... so what should I be looking for?

Any particular areas of concern? I'm using it to tow my car trailer mainly... but do these vehicles have known issues to be aware of?

Thanks for your help, guys... much appreciated.

[rjmcgee]

I have a 96 Ford and it has been great. Engines run well over 300k but the auto transmissions are not real good. I put 60,000 on mine with the the transmission throwing codes and running in a default mode. I finally replaced it with a reman from Ford last year.

Other than that they have tons of power, the bodys and interior is well built, and I haven't had any electrical issues like my 89 did.

[91RSVert]

Every motor is known for sepcific issues. Being I got a chevy, I dont know about power strokes issues. Might want to try and search some powerstroke forums.

Wiki says you will need to make sure its atleast a 94+ model. No mention of serious issues.

[QwkTrip]

Best forum out there is www.ford-trucks.com

The '96 and '97 is the best of 7.3L Power Stroke in the square body trucks. Personally, I would step it up to a 2000 Superduty with the 7.3L. Many people consider that to be the best truck that Ford ever made. When it comes to dually body style the Superduty has the previous body style beat by a long shot. A 6-speed manual is also offered in the Superduty if you are interested.

[izcain]

The main thing that I have repaired on them is the Injector sleeves and once in a while the injectors themselves will go bad. The sleeves were pretty common and I have done about 7 or 8 rigs now with this problem. I ended up making my own tools to get at the sleeve since they tell you at ford that you have to pull the head to change the sleeves but you dont. You can pull the sleeves and press in the new ones if your crafty!

The other problems that I have repaired have been the valve cover wiring harnesses going brittle from the excess heat. I am not sure why they decided to route the wires this way but the valve covers themselves have the wiring harness impregnated into them. After about 150k they can and do go brittle and begin to lose contact. The job of replacing is pretty straight forward wrenching but the wiring harnesses are pretty expensive. I started to Ohm all of the wiring in the cover gasket every time I have to do glow plugs or injector replacement because once in a while you would come across one that would have problems.

Little Info for ya from my own experiences with working with them. I have pushed them to the limits though and they are pretty strong motors.

Had One that we stacked the chips and exhaust, intake, upgraded turbo, and injectors and man that thing hauled!