Just bought my first diesel. 2000 Excursion 7.3 2wd with 262k on it. What to do 1st?

[jamesfoster]

Hey guys, I'm new to the forum and new to diesels. I just bought a 2000 Excursion Limited 2wd 7.3L with 262k miles on it, and I paid $7500 for it. It was literally owned by a soccer mom since it was new, has never been in an accident, and was maintained by the Ford dealer so I figure it's had a pretty easy life. I was skeptical about buying a truck with so many miles but I couldn't pass it up for the price. I want it to run as long and as smoothly as possible while getting the best MPG I can get out of it.

Now that I have it, I want to do all the necessary maintenance things that It needs. So far I know that I need to replace the rotors and pads, put new shocks in all around, and possibly replace some or all of the ball joints. Other than that and changing the transmission fluid, what else should I do?

As far as appearance I just want to put some 05 Harley headlights on it, a billet grille, and eventually paint it all black and possibly do a 05 front end. I'd like to do some mods to help it get a little better MPG's but I'm not too sure about how to do that yet. Any feedback or help is greatly appreciated!

-James

Here's a picture of my new truck

[CT Performance, Inc.]

DEAL!!

Normal mods..intake, guages and custom chip.
'05 up lights..IMO get '02-04 best you can get unless you want Hids, which is the only way to get better lighting for the '05 up housings.

Now if it was my Ex....I'd make it a 4x4 with '05 up axles and 4 link it. Thats next for my Ex..