Ford OBS 7.3 manual trans or 1998-2003 manual trans 4x4 for overlanding? F250 or F350

[jonb96150]

"My personal favorite factory truck would be a 94 F350 CCLB with a 5 speed and a 7.3 IDIT, it's the factory turbo version of the IDI, they are a MUCH better engine. 94 is also the first year of power windows on the rear doors, has the stronger 5 speed, and stronger rear axle. Only minor downsides are electrical speedo and BJ D60(both 92 up). Not too many kicking around though, and even fewer coming up for sale. "

Tomorrow I'm looking at a 94 IDIT super cab long bed 5sp. I decided to focus on IDI engines due to the great advice on this forum. I value bulletproof simple over more power and more sensors, modules, etc... that can leave you with a long walk back if they fail.


.

 

[Korben]

Sounds like a real good candidate, not really any weak spots or common issues to check for outside of the normal stuff. Ya might inquire about SCAs with the seller, and keep in mind not all 94s are factory turbo. Some came off the line NA, the factory turbo was an option and many turbos were added later. But only the factory turbo has the stronger internals, main one being the connecting rods. The "factory" turbo is also an aftermarket turbo, Ford basically bought a kit from ATS. So a 7.3NA with an aftermarket ATS kit and a factory IDIT are very similar but the only the factory turbo has the stronger rods. That's not to say if the engine isn't a factory IDIT you should pass on it, a 7.3NA is still a very strong engine internally. Does no good to be overly picky when looking for a truck like this.
.
Here's what a factory one looks like

.
One with an ATS kit is very similar but says "ATS" where the factory one says "Ford".

.
There's plenty of small issues with these trucks that may worry some but are commonly and easily dealt with. Some that come to mind....
-Smokey exhaust, often a CDR issue, the IDI version of a PCV, easily solved.
-Battery issues, stock is two hooked directly in parallel, works fine until it doesn't, I put a solenoid in the ground cable of one of my bats to prevent parasitic draw between batteries.
-A few glow plug issues, there's a wire/plug that commonly goes bad, it's a square 6 pin(I think, maybe 8) plug that is above the passenger side manifold with 2 large (10g) I think black w/orange stripe wires going from the starter solenoid to the plug and yellow from plug to glow plug controller. That plug often overheats, melts, etc, easy to check for if it's not starting well cold. Many "cheap" glow plugs have bad reputations, motorcraft ZD9s have a great rep and run about 10 bucks each. Might ask the seller what's in it.
-All ford brakes of this generation are often spongy/weak, it's a booster issue nothing is undersized and it's a little worse with the diesels as they have no engine vacuum and use a pump. Rather easily solved/upgraded with a upgrade to hydroboost which came stock on F-superduties(F450 up) of this generation.

 

[Korben]

Do you have a link to Dana axle spec sheets?

I thought at one point I had found them, but I dont know where!

Had a link/pdf somewhere, can't find it now, that 6500 number has always stuck in my head for some reason though.

 

[underdrive]

OBS D60 in a SRW truck can be as low as 4600lbs, looked at the cab tag of one today Big difference from the 6500 lbs Dana supposedly rates them at.

The factory-turbo IDIs seemed to have some issues with the wrist pins. Forgot what exactly the problem was, but there have been enough reports on the Ford truck boards of it that it's not just an uban legend. Oddly enough the aftermarket-converted IDIs don't have to deal with this.

When looking at a 4x4 IDI+ZF5 truck, special attention needs to be given to the tailshaft housing of the ZF where the transmission mount bolts up - they are known to crack there, we got one of those that the earsgot completely ripped off (getting reweleded and beefed up in the near future). Also cracks on top of the bellhousing, starting at one of the bolts, have also been reported.

 

[jonb96150]

Leaving in an hour to go look at this truck. Hard for me to tell if it's factory turbo as the air intake has been changed. Has a PSD flywheel and clutch, is that a good thing?. D50 has all new ball joints and bushings. 240k on the clock.

http://chico.craigslist.org/cto/5472103924.html

Thanks again guys for the tips.:beer:

 

[Korben]

There's probably a way to tell by the numbers or something if it's a IDIT, I don't off the top of my head know what it is.
.
It does appear to have the factory turbo oil line,(the one the goes over the top) rather unlikely for a 94 non-IDIT to have that line.
.
PSD flywheel and clutch is both good and bad, it's not too unheard off to use a PSD clutch, BUT the PSD flywheel will NOT bolt to an IDI crankshaft. So he's lying or doesn't know what he's talking about. IIRC to use a PSD clutch an IDI flywheel must be re-drilled. Ask if it's a single mass flywheel, worry a bit if he says "huh", but if it works it works.
.

 

[IdaSHO]

Hard to tell from the pics, but are you SURE that's a TTB D50?

I find it hard to believe somebody would dump so much time and money into that rig and not do a solid axle swap.


Although looking at the wheels maybe it has newer super duty axles? So a D50 solid axle?



It does look to be a nice truck, besides the shifter, camo interior, bling bling tail lamps, tc. Although Id be wary of ANY rig with so much work done.

 

[Korben]

Ya can tell by the second pic that it's a TTB.
.
The drove through auto zone with a crap magnet look concerns me as well, but it's not a deal breaker, that crap comes off.
.
It may be an odd thing but the one thing that concerns me more is the positive battery cable, that's a butchered stock cable. It likely broke and they fixed it cheap. A stock replacement cable is available new from many places for about $100. This tells me the PO decided to cut that corner, if he's unwilling to spend $100 on something as important, reasonably priced, and easy to replace as the unique positive battery cable what other important things did he cut corners on.
.
EDIT
Don't let these concerns turn you off this truck though, any 20 year old truck is going to have issues, and this is a rare combination of parts. Just be aware and use them as bargaining points, cause the price is by far the biggest issue with this truck.
.
5-6 months ago I almost bought a bone stock 94 IDIT 5sp 4WD ex-cab for $3000. It was rougher then this one, but just used not abused rough. My 89 7.3NA 5sp 4wd ex-cab I got in trade for about $500 worth of parts, it of course is rough, but just to put it in perspective a bit.

 

[IdaSHO]

I didnt even bother with under hood pics.... didnt get that far :chef:

 

[underdrive]

Regarding the battery cable, that is actually a viable way of fixing it. Also, factory-style cable suck for adding any power feeds for other things to them, for example our has winches and 90-amp power connectors and inverters and such, and since everything needs to draw directly from the batteries the wiring at the terminals is an imporessive mess - the marine-style adapters provide quite a bit more flexibility in that regard, also you don't have to deal with the stupid clamps every time you disconnect the batteries for whatever reason. So for all we know the PO saw on some online board this is the way to if you wanna add things, and he did the mod, even tho he apparently had nothing to add just yet.

What would concern me more is if the batteries are mismatched. Idk ****** that passenger-side battery is, almost looks like a Group 31 (another popular mod fir these trucks) but it has the clamp-on terminals and not the bolt-on style most 31s have. And the driver-side battery is not clearly visilble from that picture, but it needs to match the passenger side in both style, CCA, and age - basically every time you need one new battery you buy two and install them together, and your old good battery goes in your camper or on wheels as a jump box or whatever.

The PSD flywheel likely refers to to PSD-style flywheel, aka solid-mass - IIRC that wasn't factory setup for the OBS PSDs but the Superduties ('99-up) got it, so maybe that confused him. I'd venture a guess he bough the $330 LUK SMF conversion kit for IDIs, and is just confused in the terminology.

 

[Korben]

Regarding the battery cable, that is actually a viable way of fixing it. Also, factory-style cable suck for adding any power feeds for other things to them, for example our has winches and 90-amp power connectors and inverters and such, and since everything needs to draw directly from the batteries the wiring at the terminals is an imporessive mess - the marine-style adapters provide quite a bit more flexibility in that regard, also you don't have to deal with the stupid clamps every time you disconnect the batteries for whatever reason. So for all we know the PO saw on some online board this is the way to if you wanna add things, and he did the mod, even tho he apparently had nothing to add just yet.

NOTHING is more important battery cable wise then getting enough juice going where it needs to go to start these suckers. That means BIG connections to the starter solenoid on the fender, the real junction point for about everything on these trucks. It's where main power including the glow plug power(bout 150A) are connected, and where large draw accessories should be attached. The stock cable is quite large and at that junction pass through, making for great flow to the solenoid post where everything including the large draw of the glows is connected. He went from the fantastic 1/O pass through cable to a marine terminal and what looks like a 4 gage connecting it to the solenoid. 4 gage is just plain too small, and marine terminals while handy are unreliable. In this instance stock is better in every regard, there's nothing you'd connect at the battery with a marine terminal that isn't better done using the stock cable and connecting at the solenoid.

 

[jonb96150]

The good news is;
It was a beautiful spring day and a very pretty drive!:smiley_drive: Yep that's it for the good news lol!

The truck was misrepresented on many issues so I passed. Back to the search!:Astrologist:

 

[njtacoma]

Bummer, but now you have some more learning and it will help you with the next one you look at.

I always learn something when I look at the "nice" cars on Craigslist. I wonder how much Photoshopping they do sometimes!
Oh well keep looking

 

[jonb96150]

I finally bought a truck (whew). I had to drive 600 miles to get it, and rent a tow dolly and used the truck to tow my jetta back home. Flawless except for serpentine belt started squealing so I had to dose it with KY lube to quiet it down. Have not had time to look into it.

1993 F250 IDIT SC 4X4 5sp XLT with 164k on the clock. Power everything except seats and it all works. I haven't found anything that doesn't work yet. It is in exceptional shape and does not leave a drop of anything underneath it. A very dark blue, (too dark for my liking, but I knew I was going to have to compromise on something, I can paint it if it really bothers me.) No rust anywhere, always garaged (so the story goes, but the dash is pristine so I believe it) The owner was very good about maintain it, DCA yearly, Delo 400 synblend every 5k and only used Baldwin filters which he swears by. Had oil analysis yearly. His career was in maintaining expensive manufacturing equipment and it shows.

Has a Warn bumper with 10K warn winch inside. Really old school bumper but hey.

Has one of those visor things at top of windshield for even more old school points. I don't like the looks but on the drive I appreciated that it really does keep a lot of sun out of your eyes.

Does not wander or pull even when braking. Pulled a lot of grades, Corvallis Ore to Lake Tahoe Ca and got just under 14mpg using mostly 4th as I don't know how strong 5th is when towing. Being in 4th is like driving an auto when using cruise, no need for shifting. Temp would start to rise on grades and then the fan clutch locked in and temp went back down, then as soon as cresting hills down further. Nice to have a responsive gauge.

Tried for 30 mins to post pix but no can do on this forum like I do on other forums. Maybe my files were too big. I'll change the camera settings and try less resolution in a couple days.

Thanks for all the advice, it really paid off as I would never have considered such an old truck. This one is in such amazing shape I am glad I was patient on the search.

 

[Korben]

Sounds like a heck of a score, congrats.
.
FWIW 5th is plenty strong, only reason some say not to tow in 5th is heat, the transmission will run hotter in all gears except 4th period towing or not. This is cause 4th is direct, no load on the gears when in 4th and this reduces heat buildup. Of course this is only a problem when it get's hot enough to cause problems for the oil, which is rare and frankly I think near impossible with a stock IDIT outside of extreme external temps, even more so if you use synthetic in the tranny. If you're pulling hard enough to heat up the tranny in 5th, you'll need to downshift anyway. If you hop up the engine you'll be adding temp gauges anyway, at a minimum EGT, so add a tranny and rear and temp while you're at it and you'll be sure not to overheat them.
.
I've also been told and believe it to be true that those visors are worth about a mile per gallon. My IDI F350 has one, I'm not a fan of it and taking it off is on my to do list, but waiting till I'm ready to fix the holes and paint.