New Member Doing what I'm told!
- Thread starter Y2KW57
- Start date
Stroked68
This is FORD Country
Welcome! Wow 49k!!!! Im jealous. How did you find that gem? Tons of great info and great people here to help ya with yer truck. Grab a chair and start reading 
Welcome! Wow 49k!!!! Im jealous. How did you find that gem? Tons of great info and great people here to help ya with yer truck. Grab a chair and start reading
X2 !
WELCOME ABOARD
Joe
170,000 and count'n on mine.
WD40
Full Access Member
X 3 or 4 on the Welcome to SSD.com Where on earth did you find a truck like
that. I would start off by changing all the fluids in that truck because it's set around to much.
Hope you can post up some pictures of this almost new 2000 truck.
Where at in the USA do you hang your hat?
Doug
that. I would start off by changing all the fluids in that truck because it's set around to much.
Hope you can post up some pictures of this almost new 2000 truck.
Where at in the USA do you hang your hat?
Doug
DaveBen
SDD Senior Member
Y2KW57.Dave
Butch Cassidy
Full Access Member
A BIG WELCOME to the forum!!!
Butch Cassidy
Butch Cassidy
JRNOLL
Full Access Member
Welcome to this forum. Alot of great people here.
Again welcome.
Again welcome.
BIGMike
Full Access Member
Welcome to SDD...
Wow... I'm overwhelmed with your welcomes. 
What a nice board! A lot of you have asked "where on earth" I found "such a gem" of a truck with so few miles. I actually stumbled across it right in my own backyard. Literally. My own backyard. Practically tripped over it all the time.
I bought the truck a dozen years ago, took good care of it, and used it a fair amount until about 2004, when I had a job change that involved out of state travel 5 days a week. Simultaneously, this was a time when diesel fuel costs doubled for a constellation of reasons unknown to me... refinery costs to reformulate into federally mandated lower sulpher, the simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afganistan, the beginning of the economic credit collapse, the supposed conspiracy theories about the then president's ties to the oil business, who knows?
When I first bought the truck, diesel was less than $2.00 a gallon. By 2005, it was approaching $5.00 a gallon in California. In late 2005 I ended up buying a Prius, which achieved over 50 mpg on fuel (regular gas) that was a dollar less per gallon than diesel. And my truck, with 4.88 gears to support a 17,500 GVWR rating, only gets about 10 mpg. With my new job taking away all the former uses I had for the truck, I parked it.
But I didn't sell it, because it was simultaneously becoming apparent that I would not be able to replace what I had. The 6.0L was getting horrible user reports, the 6.4L wasn't reported to be that much better, and by the time the 6.7L came around, the truck's MSRP had climbed to $65K. I also found that the value of used trucks with the 7.3L seemed to be rising, as people realized that they would rather be without the technical complexity of EGRs, DPFs, water in fuel, fuel in oil, etc.
Now, the traveling part of my career is nearly over, and I am preparing my truck to assist me in the pursuit of other activities that will call upon it's use daily. Bringing it out of the mothball state so to speak.
As far as changing all the fluids goes, I can say that in just 49,000 miles, I have already changed the oil 16 times, the fuel filter 7 times, the transmission fluid 3 times (and swapped the trans pan for one with a drain plug), the transfer case 2 times (and switched to synthetic), the front and rear differentials 1 time each (and switched to synthetic, as the big Dana 135 axle shipped with mineral oil). I've also used the coolant test strips and have added FW-16 periodically as required.
I changed the coolant entirely once, when I replaced the radiator to install a newer version with the oil to water transmission cooler circuit. Some '99-'00 trucks only came with oil to air transmission coolers, so I did the TSB to add the oil to water cooler, and at the same time replaced the diesel (20 row) oil to air cooler with a V10 (26 row) oil to air cooler. The 6.0L (31 row) cooler hadn't been invented yet when I did this back in 2001. While I was at it, I added the Ford branded Magnefine external transmission filter as well.
I also changed the turbo CHRA bolts to the updated Ford/IH wavy design that won't back out, changed the in dash cupholder to the updated design so the coffee cups don't flip out, changed the cruise control brake cylinder switch to the updated design so the wires don't burn out, and keep 3 new gray, blue, and black CPS/CMP sensors in the truck in case the truck decides to stall out.
I added the updated Ford stone shields for the rear brake rotors (relevant to F-550's only), I dropped the (metal) fuel tank and removed the sending unit to inspect for, find, and fix the corrosion (not an issue with poly tanks in pickups), I updated the breather of the fuel tank roll over valve ($80 for 18" of 3/8" hose with some mystery plug fitting on the end of it!).
I upgraded the air cleaner assembly twice... first to Ford's updated stock version that changed from the 1680 series panel filter to the deeper 1710/1750 series panel filter with locating tabs on the air box lid. I then purchased the Ford AIS Donaldson airbox assembly, but haven't installed it yet because I have two more brand new 1750 air filters to use up first.
The truck is guaged, triple pillar with post turbo EGT, boost, and Trans temp at the pressure port. I mentally add 300 degrees to presume pre turbo EGTs. The 3.5 inch Banks downpipe had a boss for the probe, which seemed less risky to me than drilling holes through the stock exhaust manifold. The exhaust is only a single outlet 3.5" to the tailpipe, with a straight path muffler. It is a non catalyst truck from the factory.
Quite a lot of maintenance and money for such low miles. I'd say the cost per mile on this truck exceeds any metric of economic sense. But it is mine, it is paid for, and I intend to use it much more over the next decade than I did during the last decade.
Thanks again for the warm welcome, and I look foward to your help and advice in helping me pimp this ride up a bit, and maintain it's usefulness in the future.
