DividingCreek
Explorer
In the quest for a heavier duty truck to tow with I fixated on the 99 up extended cab or crew cab 7.3 f250 4x4. I have a business where I handle the transport, ocean shipment and US import of interesting vehicles from around the world though most all US ports of entry. In many cases when the vehicle enters @ Philadelphia,Baltimore,or Norfolk I end up picking the vehicle up and delivering it on to the client. Most of these vehicles are Land Rover defenders.I also transport trucks that are broken or need modification work that I do on the side. I had been bidding very conservatively on a few gov deals state highway etc trucks and always lost the auctions because I was too cheap. A friend outside of Toledo found a e99 4x4 F250 crew cab with 8ft bed on craigslist and went and looked @ it. The truck was a lariat and had 375k on the odometer. The story was that the trans had just been rebuilt by a company named Earl Bros Transmissions in the Toledo area. The truck had recent cooper AT3 285/75/16's load range E's on it. The asking price for the truck was $3500. We agreed to pay that if he could demonstrate it running. The fellow had the top of the engine somewhat pulled apart trying to track down an oil leak. My buddy went back 2 days later and the truck started and ran but very weakly. He had it moved back to his shop and decided it was likely a blown turbo. We bought a rebuilt turbo and non EBPV pedestal as well as the riff raff fuel rail kit, rebuilt the fuel bowl and installed the higher fuel pressure spring etc. The truck has a 4 inch exhaust and TS 6 position tuner and cold air intake. After doing the turbo job the truck still wasn't running on 8 cyls and was blowing white smoke. We had another friend who was headed down to Virginia from Michigan so he loaded of the truck on his trailer and brought it down to me in central Virginia. With the truck running I shot the manifolds with my IR temp gun and there was 100 degree difference on the rear of the left manifold. I pulled the valve cover and with the truck running unplugged the #8 injector and there was no change so thinking I had figured it out I pulled that injector and sent if to Jim Rose @ Rosewood Diesel Service and had him do his premium rebuild on the injector. The #8 injector was a know problem on these engine due to dead heading issue with fuel pressure. Ford even used a totally different part number injector in that hole on many trucks. I got it back installed it and now the truck ran on 7 cyls. @ This point I'm into the truck around $1800 in parts and shipping costs as well as the oil change etc. Pulled out the IR gun again (hey it worked the first time) and with the truck running went up and down the manifolds and determined my problem was #6. I stupidly just assumed it was that injector and sent it to Rosewood. Got that injector back, installed it and no change. Still thinking my problem was injection I went and got a new valve cover gasket since that is also the injection harness on ea bank. Again no change. So I ordered a glow plug hole adapter for my compression tester and when that came confirmed my worst fear, 0 compression in the #6 hole. So I pulled the left head. I found a pencil sized hole in the #6 piston and cracks on the tops of the other 3 pistons on that bank.
So I had gambled and lost on this mechanics special. I have definitely been kicking myself. Since the truck is an e99 any newer engine would be an upgrade in so much as that the intake spider and turbo are different, the up pipes are larger diam and the injectors spray more fuel. I assume the damage to the internals on this engine are from using ether to try and start it in uber cold weather. Another possibility someone suggested was perhaps someone had put gasoline in the tank briefly.
Anyway I had a decently straight truck loaded with leather interior and the paint was decent, trans rebuilt and nearly new tires. I decided to find an engine and fix it since @ this point I'm in to the tune of around $5700. I shopped and noticed that engines up North were all much cheaper than down South of me. I found a craigslist add in Raleigh for a 2000 engine for $2k. The fellow had bought some decommissioned rescue squad ambulances. I missed the 2000 engine but put a deposit an 2002 e450 engine for a price of $1750.
The engine was still in the truck and was running and driving when I went down and checked it out. These ambulances had the oil changed every 5k and were always parked inside. The engine was spotless and rustfree and had zero blowby @ the filler and sounded sweet. The E series engines have no waste gate or EBPV which eliminates the surging problems the F series are known for when under load. The "van" turbo's also have a larger housing which makes more boost. They also have no intercooler so the programming to run them was somewhat detuned to keep egt's down. I asked around and if plumbed up with F series pipes to the inter cooler and plugged into the F series ecu the engines are actually considered a bit of an upgrade over the waste gated ebpv pedestal'd Fseries trucks. Hoping so since the engine I have bought has lived a very easy well maintained life so far.
Plan is to go back and pick it up this week, had to give them a few days to pull it.View attachment 259237View attachment 259237
Here's how she sits today with no engine. The engine compartment is filthy and will be cleaned up today. I guess I'm going to have a bunch of E99 stuff to sell.
So I had gambled and lost on this mechanics special. I have definitely been kicking myself. Since the truck is an e99 any newer engine would be an upgrade in so much as that the intake spider and turbo are different, the up pipes are larger diam and the injectors spray more fuel. I assume the damage to the internals on this engine are from using ether to try and start it in uber cold weather. Another possibility someone suggested was perhaps someone had put gasoline in the tank briefly.
Anyway I had a decently straight truck loaded with leather interior and the paint was decent, trans rebuilt and nearly new tires. I decided to find an engine and fix it since @ this point I'm in to the tune of around $5700. I shopped and noticed that engines up North were all much cheaper than down South of me. I found a craigslist add in Raleigh for a 2000 engine for $2k. The fellow had bought some decommissioned rescue squad ambulances. I missed the 2000 engine but put a deposit an 2002 e450 engine for a price of $1750.
The engine was still in the truck and was running and driving when I went down and checked it out. These ambulances had the oil changed every 5k and were always parked inside. The engine was spotless and rustfree and had zero blowby @ the filler and sounded sweet. The E series engines have no waste gate or EBPV which eliminates the surging problems the F series are known for when under load. The "van" turbo's also have a larger housing which makes more boost. They also have no intercooler so the programming to run them was somewhat detuned to keep egt's down. I asked around and if plumbed up with F series pipes to the inter cooler and plugged into the F series ecu the engines are actually considered a bit of an upgrade over the waste gated ebpv pedestal'd Fseries trucks. Hoping so since the engine I have bought has lived a very easy well maintained life so far.
Plan is to go back and pick it up this week, had to give them a few days to pull it.View attachment 259237View attachment 259237
Here's how she sits today with no engine. The engine compartment is filthy and will be cleaned up today. I guess I'm going to have a bunch of E99 stuff to sell.
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