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New to me '99 F350 Dually 7.3L

Truckman4life

Truckman4life

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Picked this up as a fix and flip truck but the wife is already talking about just keeping it since we need a new tow rig when camping season starts up anyways. It's a 1999 Ford F350 dually. 7.3L auto trans. 195,569 miles. Belonged to a guy that owns a log home company and was his personal work/tow rig. It has a random issue with pushing coolant out which he seems to believe is either a head gasket or cracked head. I think it's something easier. It also has a weird thing going on with first gear when it shifts to second. I drove it home Saturday and haven't had time to mess with it at all. It's got something like 4" springs on the front and not sure what out back other than the airbags. Running 315/75R16 on factory aluminum wheels with like a 2" spacer between the duals. It's huge! Got a crappy tool box and a fifth wheel hitch in the bed. Needs tires.
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Well this has been sitting in my garage for about a year now with the engine tore down to replace the injector cups. Good thing about waiting is my boss let me buy the $450 really nice tool for doing the cups through work since I replaced cups on his Excursion and needed it. Gonna get going on it soon with my gubment stimulus money cuz I need it ready for camping season next year.
It needs tires. I way overthink tires cuz I'm a tire nut kinda and need some advice from like minded people on them. It currently has 315/75R16 tires on factory 16x6 wheels. Too wide for the rims. It has spacers out back between the duals. I am looking at the 255/85R16 Toyo MT that is 33.5" tall by 10.2" wide or the 285/75R16 Cooper STT Pro MT that is 33" tall by 11.2" wide. I can get both for about $250 a tire from my local tire supplier. I have had both in the past and know they are great tires. This truck will be for all around farm use and mountain camping and hunting hence the MT. I would need to keep the spacers out back with the 285 but could probably lose them with the 255. It has about a 4" lift and also the camper package which got it 4:10 gears. Let me know what you guys think.
My other cheaper option would be to keep the 315s and just put four new ones on the rear for now since the fronts are still usable.
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I didn’t know you had that truck. You seem to know a lot about Ford Diesels so Right on! I like it.
Probably 255/85/16 would be the best bet for what you intend to use it for although the 35s look cool!
Only thing I know about that size in 255 are Toyo M55s. I’ve had 3 sets on my Duramax, I like them but I don’t think I get the miles out of them that I should.
 
Been off work for carpal tunnel surgery. Once I was feeling good I got a side job out of the garage and pushed this thing back in. Finished pulling fuel lines off the engine and cleaned all the mouse garbage out of the valley. First up I straightened out the intake plenums and installed sone Riff Raff aluminum plenum inserts. Then I installed the Riff Raff braided stainless fuel feed line kit. Next up was a little retaping and clean up on the engine harness and also a rebuild/reseal of the fuel filter housing. Lastly before my second carpal tunnel surgery today I got the injector cups pulled and the cnc stainless cups from Riff Raff installed. Now I'm on break for a few days of recovery then back to work.
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Truckman4life said:
Been off work for carpal tunnel surgery. Once I was feeling good I got a side job out of the garage and pushed this thing back in. Finished pulling fuel lines off the engine and cleaned all the mouse garbage out of the valley. First up I straightened out the intake plenums and installed sone Riff Raff aluminum plenum inserts. Then I installed the Riff Raff braided stainless fuel feed line kit. Next up was a little retaping and clean up on the engine harness and also a rebuild/reseal of the fuel filter housing. Lastly before my second carpal tunnel surgery today I got the injector cups pulled and the cnc stainless cups from Riff Raff installed. Now I'm on break for a few days of recovery then back to work.
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Nice! Fix it right and it should run for a good long time. Can you still get wiring for the engine. Glow plug and injector. Guys around here seem to have trouble with that?

Good luck on the surgery!
 
max 02 said:
Nice! Fix it right and it should run for a good long time. Can you still get wiring for the engine. Glow plug and injector. Guys around here seem to have trouble with that?

Good luck on the surgery!
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Thanks. Surgery went good. The under valve cover glow plug and injector stuff is easy to find both oem and aftermarket. A lot of the stuff like wiring harnesses have been discontinued on these trucks. All you can get is pigtails to repair what you have and I haven't seen any aftermarket whole harnesses come out yet. The 7.3 just runs one harness. I just did an '05 6.0L for a guy and they run a separate injector harness that you can still buy but the main harness is discontinued. I had to replace like 5 pigtails on his due to old age and broken lock tabs and such.
 
Almost done. Redoing battery cable ends then change oil and filter and it should run. Then do front brakes and move on to the rest of the stuff it needs that I can't remember. Its farther than this now but I got distracted with a calf that needed to be pulled and that led to other things and a kid visit to the urgent care. Hopefully get it going tomorrow.
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max 02 said:
Hopefully the kiddo is ok?
Calving season for beef is always fun...
Engine looks good!
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Thanks. Had some 9 yr old Navistar factory blue paint that actually still worked that I did the valve covers with. The kid ended up with a small fracture but it's in an easy place on his hand and doesn't bug him.
 
Sorry to hear about your kid getting a fracture pulling that calf. You've got them working hard at an early age.
 
mrk5 said:
Sorry to hear about your kid getting a fracture pulling that calf. You've got them working hard at an early age.
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Lol fracture was a gym class accident. Pulling calf was just on top of that and a whole lot of crap going on this week at once.
Currently we are hoping for no covid at our house since my in-laws both have it and my sister in law too.
 
Truckman4life said:
Lol fracture was a gym class accident. Pulling calf was just on top of that and a whole lot of crap going on this week at once.
Currently we are hoping for no covid at our house since my in-laws both have it and my sister in law too.
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Hope for the best on that Covid front. One of my coworkers got it in October. Just came back to work last week
 
Truckman4life said:
Lol fracture was a gym class accident. Pulling calf was just on top of that and a whole lot of crap going on this week at once.
Currently we are hoping for no covid at our house since my in-laws both have it and my sister in law too.
Click to expand...
It was more fun to connect the 2 unrelated events. Makes for a better story. :D
 
Replaced blower resistor and it works. Installed new front rotors and new calipers and mounts and new pads. Drained the trans(stupid drain plug had been overtightened and the nut just spun in the pan). Replaced the filter, pan gasket and the solenoid pack with a good used one I had. Fluid was nasty but no mystery chunks. Did a little welding to get the drain plug working like it should and put it all back together. Trans actually works good now. Hopefully it stays that way. Also did a BHAF(big honkib air filter) on it from Riff Raff to replace the broken factory air filter housing. I'll have to get a pic of it.
Trying to get this completely ready for our first camping trip of the year at Easter. It needs to be all ready to tow my 33 ft fifth wheel toy hauler to the desert. Roughly 13,500 lbs. I ordered a Curt 7 way trailer plug that would plug right into the factory end of frame wiring. The one on there was butchered. The 7 way someone had ran up into the bed was also messed up so I got another Curt extended length 7 way that will plug right in and tee off the back of the bumper one and I can run it up and mount it inside the left front of the bed. Yesterday I ordered some led dually fender lights I saw on YouTube. Also ordered new aftermarket dually fender liners too. And the finale I ordered up 7-295/75R16 BFG All Terrain tires off of 4 wheel parts. They have always had the best price on them and beat out my local place that sells me tires at 15% over cost. Plus my local distributor said their supplier showed none in the country in that size and 4 Wheel Parts had them in stock. Expensive for that many but thank to Uncle Joe I can get all this done. $1700 for 7 tires ain't bad.
And I am doing some trade work and putting gears and new u-joints in the front of my bosses Excursion and he's giving me an Edge Juice with Attitude to replace my broken Edge Evolution CTS2 and a set of bellowed up-pipes that will go on someday when I have to pull the turbo or if the leaking factory ones get worse.
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Apparently everyone bought tires with stimulus money so they are backordered a few weeks. Got the lights and inner fenders installed. Did the bumper 7 way and the one in the bed. Swapped in a toolbox I had for all my tools and got the fifth wheel setup for my trailer. Installed a brake controller.. Should be ready to go.

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