Differences in early 99's bad?

[Caramon]

I wanted to create a new thread to get the most visibility. I read through the sticky at the top and had a question regarding it. The list has about 20 or so things that are different in the early 99's vs late 99.5+ Of that list of things that are different, are any of those considered a bad thing? I'm having a hard time telling since I'm new to the diesel thing.

One of the vehicles I'm considering looking at is 2/98 mfg date.

[REDPOWERSMOKER]

Originally Posted by Caramon

I wanted to create a new thread to get the most visibility. I read through the sticky at the top and had a question regarding it. The list has about 20 or so things that are different in the early 99's vs late 99.5+ Of that list of things that are different, are any of those considered a bad thing? I'm having a hard time telling since I'm new to the diesel thing.

One of the vehicles I'm considering looking at is 2/98 mfg date.

THAT WILL BE A EARLY BUILD AS MINE IS THE DIFFRENCES ARE TURBO, UPPIPES, IC TUBES, SPYDER, AND SOME SUSPIENSION PARTS AND ECM'S ARE DIFFRENT AND IM SURE THERES MORE AND PEOPLE WILL CHIME IN SHORTLY

[cvdenson]

I don't think any of the differences are "bad" per se just different. But you can upgrade your rig with later options and stuff that the early '99s didn't come with.

My truck didn't come with keyless entry and I plan on having that using the factory keyless entry system. I'd also like to upgrade from the cloth seats to the later Lariat leather seats. I like them a lot.

Chris

[Caramon]

So there are no inherent flaws then with the early 99's? The price is good on this one I'm considering, but I want to make sure it's not because of problems the early 99's had.

I guess the question would be, had you to do it all over again. Would you skip buying an early 99 and get a later 99?


Thanks

[cvdenson]

I don't think there's any flaws. If I had to do it all over again, I would probably have gotten a 99.5 or later just for the simple fact that the aftermarket supports them better. I take pride in the fact that I have the powerstroke V8 on my fender, makes it rare.

Chris

[Caramon]

Well I guess that I can live with that. Of the aftermarket parts, I was thinking of the basic that everyone seems to do, air, chip and exhaust and probably airbags for pulling my travel trailer. Are those among the things that have limited support?

[cvdenson]

Not at all. All of those mods can easily be gotten for the early '99. But it won't stop there. Once you get the modding bug, you begin to see what is supported and what's not. One of the biggest limitations is the turbo upgrades. Basically the only drop in aftermarket turbo for the early '99 is Bean's D66. After that, you basically have to upgrade to the later style up pipes, intake manifold, and a few other things to install a different turbo. But if you have a lot of $$$ it's no problem.

For what you want to do, here's what I'd do:

1. Air: DIY Tymer ($40)
Ford AIS (~$198) absolutely the best filtration possible. It flows better over stock.

2. Exhaust: MKO (ebay), MBRP, or Farmboys. All are very reasonably priced.

3. Chip: Either a DP Tuner or Tony Wildman. I have DP and it totally woke up my early '99. It's like a whole new truck. I've never run the Wildman chip but those that do love it.

Chris

[alabamafrog]

Only bad flaw with the early 99 is the same flaw most PSDs have, but it’s worse on the early 99 so look carefully before buying, the factory air box and intake can leak dust into the turbo and engine. Mine was this way when I bought it with 130k on it. I wasn’t as smart as you and I didn’t research before buying so I didn’t know to look. I wound up having to replace the turbo and rebuild the engine.

On a good note the early 99 has the good rods in it if you want to build for power.

The main thing is to be aware of what you have when you do mods or buy parts, they also made a F-250 light duty in 99 which is basically a 99 F-150 body.

Oh, and it has a 15* HPOP which is not as good as the later 17* HPOP but you wont notice unless you get performance injectors.

Also I noticed on mine that the rear end sits about 2” higher than all the 99.5-03 trucks I have seen, which can be good or bad depending on what you tow and do with the truck.

[Caramon]

Thanks CVDenson. This would only be a pulling rig, I have a 2007 F150 FX4 as my daily driver, but it doesn't pull my 7,800lbs trailer very well even with a CAI, Custom Tunes and a Magnaflow Exhaust, that and I'm worried about the tranny going out prematurely on it with pulling so close to my GCVWR (14,500 Max, I'm at 14,100). Thus my reason for looking into a 3rd vehicle just to go on our vacations with.

Alabamafrog, that's great info, I hadn't heard that before about the Air intake being leaky. I was told however, that putting an aftermarket CAI on might not be a good idea since the oils you put on those filters would get sucked into the turbo and cause basically the same thing your describing.

I'm curious about what you mean by the light duty statement though. Are you saying that all F250's were that way in early 99 or just some. Would you have to look up VIN's to figure that out? If so, how do you find out which ones were light duty?

Of the mods I was considering, probably DP Tuner, exhaust and intake of some kind. I thought I read on these forums that having a tuner has increased the MPG for most people. Was I dreaming about something to tell my wife to get her to sign off on it or is this true?

[Dirk]

If it is a 99, and a diesel.. it is not the light duty f250.


There is nothing wrong with the early 99. I love mine.

Get the DP Tuner. You can tell it will get better mileage.. but as you can see from my sig.. you really won't unless you force yourself not to mod the truck.