GTI-88
Active member
Hi folks,
Through unfortunate circumstances, I am "adopting" my late fathers 2003 F-250 XLT 4x4 w/ the 5.4L gas V8. The truck has ~185,000 miles on it currently, and has largely sat for the past few years as my dad had an Escape he was driving regularly.
Ultimately what I would like to do is to get the truck in good shape and use it for a combination of some weekend work activities and my partner and I are also toying with the idea of a small, probably 16' camper in the mid term future that I would like to pull with it and explore within our neck of the woods, primarily WA, OR, ID, and MT. I know there are a lot better / newer etc. trucks out there, but this one has some sentimental value and I think my dad would have appreciated me putting some work into it and giving it some new life.
That being said, over the holiday weekend my brother and I replaced the thermostat, coolant expansion tank (old one was cracked), and replaced the coolant because it was having some overheating issues where the truck would go into limp mode after driving it a ways and you would have to pull over, shut it down, back on again, crank the heater and blower up, etc. and then it would start working properly again. The work we did seems promising because after purging the system and getting it up to temp, it was clear the new thermostat was opening correctly and coolant was flowing. Some additional test drives will tell if the issue is fixed.
The truck is currently at the family property and I am planning to head back over and drive it back home with me about 300 miles. Any tips of additional work or items I should look out for before taking this on? Any recommendations on any replacement parts, etc. I should bring with me? It does seem to be running pretty well after the work we did. All the fluids check out, trans fluid looks clean, oil is good, etc. I have a bluedriver OBD tool that I have checked codes on it with, and I plan on bringing that with and utilizing some of the live digital gauges to monitor temps, etc. It will be a lot easier for me to get work done on the truck once it is here in my own garage with all my tools, etc.
I am hoping this will turn into a build thread, and I would love to hear / see what others have done with this vintage of F-250. I have never been a "big" truck guy, I have only owned smaller trucks (Ranger, Isuzu) and a couple of Jeeps, so this is a new world to me. Luckily I don't have any need to DD this pickup, which definitely helps on the project front. If you all have any must do items from either a maintenance / preventative maintenance or an upgrade standpoint, let me know!
Here is a photo as it sits. Yes it does have a 2 tone situation going on as the original bed was damaged a bit in a fight with a bollard, so my dad found the current bed and swapped it out, which has a couple dings of its own. Otherwise the body and interior are both in pretty darn good shape, and as far as I'm aware its been a west coast vehicle for its life, so no rust of any substance to be found. I think I may just be happy with the 2 tone, makes it kind of unique. I will be removing the chrome trim panels at the bottom of the doors and getting the adhesive marks all cleaned off from where the bits of trim were.
Through unfortunate circumstances, I am "adopting" my late fathers 2003 F-250 XLT 4x4 w/ the 5.4L gas V8. The truck has ~185,000 miles on it currently, and has largely sat for the past few years as my dad had an Escape he was driving regularly.
Ultimately what I would like to do is to get the truck in good shape and use it for a combination of some weekend work activities and my partner and I are also toying with the idea of a small, probably 16' camper in the mid term future that I would like to pull with it and explore within our neck of the woods, primarily WA, OR, ID, and MT. I know there are a lot better / newer etc. trucks out there, but this one has some sentimental value and I think my dad would have appreciated me putting some work into it and giving it some new life.
That being said, over the holiday weekend my brother and I replaced the thermostat, coolant expansion tank (old one was cracked), and replaced the coolant because it was having some overheating issues where the truck would go into limp mode after driving it a ways and you would have to pull over, shut it down, back on again, crank the heater and blower up, etc. and then it would start working properly again. The work we did seems promising because after purging the system and getting it up to temp, it was clear the new thermostat was opening correctly and coolant was flowing. Some additional test drives will tell if the issue is fixed.
The truck is currently at the family property and I am planning to head back over and drive it back home with me about 300 miles. Any tips of additional work or items I should look out for before taking this on? Any recommendations on any replacement parts, etc. I should bring with me? It does seem to be running pretty well after the work we did. All the fluids check out, trans fluid looks clean, oil is good, etc. I have a bluedriver OBD tool that I have checked codes on it with, and I plan on bringing that with and utilizing some of the live digital gauges to monitor temps, etc. It will be a lot easier for me to get work done on the truck once it is here in my own garage with all my tools, etc.
I am hoping this will turn into a build thread, and I would love to hear / see what others have done with this vintage of F-250. I have never been a "big" truck guy, I have only owned smaller trucks (Ranger, Isuzu) and a couple of Jeeps, so this is a new world to me. Luckily I don't have any need to DD this pickup, which definitely helps on the project front. If you all have any must do items from either a maintenance / preventative maintenance or an upgrade standpoint, let me know!
Here is a photo as it sits. Yes it does have a 2 tone situation going on as the original bed was damaged a bit in a fight with a bollard, so my dad found the current bed and swapped it out, which has a couple dings of its own. Otherwise the body and interior are both in pretty darn good shape, and as far as I'm aware its been a west coast vehicle for its life, so no rust of any substance to be found. I think I may just be happy with the 2 tone, makes it kind of unique. I will be removing the chrome trim panels at the bottom of the doors and getting the adhesive marks all cleaned off from where the bits of trim were.
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