Thinking of buying a Powerstroke diesel

[two-gun kid]

im thinking of buying a late 90's early 00, powerstroke diesel, this will be my daily driver, i will be using it to haul stuff around and its becoming a PITA to borrow a tuck when i need it and my mom agrees with me. also to tow around my car and my friends car.

Me and my mom went and tested a 1998 Dodge ram cummins diesel and a 2000 Ford F250 powerstroke diesel I liked them both, my mom likes the F250 better. Not as loud and smoother than the dodge and it has to be automatic because she will have to be able to drive it around she is helping me with the payment on the truck (I'm only 18,soon to be 19 in less than a month'woo wooo)so she has some say in what I get.
Were gonna go test drive a Chevy diesel to tomorrow.
What would be some good mods to do for it? My friend has a 02 Ford powerstroke and he installed a new downpipe and catback and got one of those hand held tuners and now that things hauls ass
any tips to consider?

 

[!!!PainTrain!!!]

First of all i hear that alot of the older style dodges like the 98's and such are crap boxes after about 100K miles. Two of my friends had 98 Cummins and they both became money pits, started to nickel and dime them all the time. So id go with the Stroker.
The mods all depend on what the engine is. If it is a 7.3, then you really don't have alot of high horsepower choices, at least that i know of. But if it is a 6.0, then you can really make that thing fly. Just don't get suckered into buying something that you really don't like and don't know anything about. But the first thing i did is open up the air flow. Got an intake, and exhaust. then i went with the programmer. If you get a programmer, make sure to get some gauges so you can monitor the EGT's because they will build up quite rapidly when you are running higher horsepower and high boost. But not far behind is the tranny. Especially on the older Powerstrokes, they are the weak point. Upgrade the tranny as soon as possible so you can be safe with your mods.
All this is just my opinnon, so take it for what you will. Good luck on the truck hunt tho.

 

[jdl1000]

I have 2 powerstroke diesels. Ones a 2002 Excursion 4x4 and the others a 2002 F250 4x4. Both with the 7.3. Go with the 7.3 stay as far away from the 6.0 as you can. The 6.0's are still having problems especially the early ones (2003-2004). Both my trucks run great and have more than enough power. Both have full 4inch exhaust and programmers. I have a few friends that are techs at Fords dealerships. I asked them what they think of the 6.0 and this is what they said and I quote. "I think they spend more time up in the air than they do on the ground".

 

[sickass50]

My 6.0 hasn't had any problems... 4 inch Exhaust and Edge Chip

 

[mc01svt]

make sure that puppy has plenty of warranty left or you'll pay bigtime $$$

 

[99cobrablack]

If you are looking into a stroker try to stay 00 or earlier with forged rods. You aren't going to get a 7.3 into the 13's without alot of money, but an exhaust/intake/chipped 7.3 isn't any slouch by any means.

 

[!!!PainTrain!!!]

If you are looking into a stroker try to stay 00 or earlier with forged rods. You aren't going to get a 7.3 into the 13's without alot of money, but an exhaust/intake/chipped 7.3 isn't any slouch by any means.

Very true. I raced a 7.3 two nights ago. Black, 4-Door, Short bed with 6 inch stacks. Sounded sick. Don't know exactly what he has done to it, but he smoked me pretty good. My truck runs around a low 14 and he was still pulling pretty hard on me and beat me by about 2-3 truck lengths. We pulled over to talk and he popped the hood and there i saw twin turbos. It was pretty sick, he said he only had it on a performance tune and not on his race tune!! I felt like a complete tool :loser: :shrug:

 

[99cobrablack]

I've never been around a twin chargered stroker, I have been around some aroura 5k turbo'd big injectors 7.3's though. If I don't step up to a 6.0 I will be going turbo/injectors by next december.

 

[!!!PainTrain!!!]

But anyway you cut it, your going to have a nice truck. Either the 6.0 or the turbo/injectors, ya, your going to have a sick truck. What kind of turbo and injectors are you thinking about?

 

[99cobrablack]

Going to probably talk to the boys at ATS about the turbo, they are the king of the hill as far as pickups go in the denver/front range area(closest to me) and they seem to be pretty reputable, and whatever injectors would fit the application. . I am really having problems deciding 6.0/my7.3, the GF(reason why I wanted a new pickup with more room) just left, but I would like a supercab at least, and be able to have a decent low miled pickup sittiing there for a while so I don't have to step up to an emissions 6.4 while there are still low miled 03/04's running around.

 

[crazycobra22]

if you are going to buy an older, used powerstroke...or cummins for that matter, make sure you know exactly what condition the truck is in before you go throwing mods at it. diesels are strong engines, and will last a long time, but if the previous owner didn't take care of it like he should have you can run into some major problems especially if you decide to modify the ECU among other things. get it checked out thoroughly by a reputable diesel mechanic...and if all systems are go, check out the banks website for more power and fun. my dad has an '06 with the big hoss bundle and i never knew a big diesel truck could bring so many smiles!

http://www.bankspower.com

 

[PSD]

banks is over rated, best 7.3 tuner period is totaldieselperformance.com He also sells intakes, exhausts, injectors...

 

[svtyellowstang]

I had a 04 with Banks bundle it truck ran perfect great power install was easy.Put on the truck with 12k miles traded it with 59k not 1 problem with the truck I would recomand Bank over anything.It brought me 47k miles worth of smiles . Traded it for a cobra .