Picked up an 02 F350 on Monday!

[blderman]

02 F350 CC LB 4x4 7.3 Auto Lariat w/137,000 mi. I am pretty excited to be back in a diesel again. I had an 05 Dodge Cummins that I sold when diesel was 5.00/gal and bought a hemi. Regretted that decision since the second I did it and have been trying to get back into a diesel ever since. So after 1.5 years of looking I decided on the powerstroke this time. So far I really like the truck, it was pretty well taken care of, no major scratches, dings, clean interior(a little dusty though since it was in UT previously) etc. However, I don't know anything about the 7.3 motor other than what I have read online. I have a few questions if anyone has time to answer.

1) The truck has never towed a fifth wheel but has definitely been used for hauling etc. Is there a way to tell how much longer the tranny is going to hold out? 1-2 shift is pretty clunky but all the other gears are pretty smooth.

2) There is a lot of oil residue on the drivers side of the motor when looking underneath my truck. No oil is dripping anywhere, it looks a lot like my cummins did where the blow off tube was at, but I can't find a blow off on this motor???

3) The previous owner put 325/80/R18 tires on the truck. They look really nice but the power steering doesn't have power to turn them without the truck moving and I noticed that the power steering resevoir is covered is soot. Is my power steering likely to fail from these wide tires?


Any other "first time" owner tips would be appreciated!! I am hoping to get a good 150,000-200,000 more miles out of this truck before I have to buy another one. Thanks!

[Zaairman]

With 137K, your transmission is probably on it's last leg... Mine has 141K and I'm not holding my breath. If you baby it, you can probably get another 20K out of it, but I wouldn't be doing any WOT runs.

Your truck doesn't have a blow off valve, just a wastegate.

Power steering at low speeds sucks on these trucks... Especially because the brakes are run off of the power steering pump. So if you have your foot on the brake, it's extra hard. I wouldn't worry about it though.

[ridiculously_necessary]

[Dietoremain]

i have 162k on my stock tranny and its fine, it just all depends..

[blderman]

Thanks for the replies. My buddy has 175,000 on his truck and his tranny is just starting to show signs of problems. I ran it pretty hard when I test drove it, did a stall test and couldn't get the TC to slip. I am hoping it will go another 30-40,000 before I have to do anything. That will give me time to set some money aside. Any opinions on installing the Sonnax Valve Body? Any noob tips, things to look for, cheap upgrades etc?

Thanks!