- Thread starter
- #41
acefuture
Well-known member
- Jun 8, 2021
- 310
- 518
Thanks Jeff. The 7.3 motors were one of the best ever made. International did a great job. But there's a few "problems". #1: It's a dog. While it will tow whatever you put behind it, it won't do it quickly. Towing the weekend warrior home from Oregon, I was doing 40mph up the grades through the Shasta area. Never skipped a beat, but the trailer was empty. Loading it up would've been even more work. Secondly, the motor will last for 500k or more, but the consumables do not. So if you do not do the maintenance (you know this very well), things fail. Unfortunately with my 7.3, I inherited past neglect. So I spent a whole year doing all the maintenance that needed to be done in it's younger years. I guess the next owner will get a great truck that's ready for another 200k...
The new Fords are great trucks but the a few major issues turn a lot of guys off. The major was is the CP4 fuel pump. If you only use fuel from high volume diesel stops, use a fuel conditioner on every fill up, and change your fuel filters often, the failure rate is negligible. But in the chance that you get a bad batch of fuel, that pump can take out $15k of fuel delivery. Warranty and insurance will not cover it most cases. Second issue is the 11-19 trucks' upper oil pan gasket is an "RVT" style seal that was done by machine. There can be gaps in the corners and over time develop a serious leak. You have to pull the trans to fix it, and if you don't have the tools it's a $5k job. Third, and is true with all modern diesels, the damn emissions on these trucks. If you aren't pulling heavy, or driving it for long distances regularly, you can have DPF issues that can cost an arm and a leg.
I honestly think that's why you have great luck with your trucks. You pull A LOT, and you drive long distances. You constantly get your EGTs up, regens are quick, and the truck is happy. And you do your maintenance regularly. You would probably have great luck with just about any modern diesel doing the work you do.
I honestly drastically slowed down my search of a truck because of the above issues. I wanted a 2020 or newer, but didn't really want a 21-22 because of the "covid" issues some manufacturers had (albeit not many), and I don't love the front ends of the 23-24 (and I frankly can't afford one). But this truck popped up and had the DCR pump upgrade (had a CP4 failure 15k miles ago and got an entire new fuel system), had all maintenance receipts, was a single owner, a 2020 year built in 2019, and was the trim and package I wanted all at a very reasonable price so I jumped on it. It checked every box
I wrote all that info out so hopefully someone in search of a new Ford truck can potentially learn from the 3 years of time and info I went through trying to learn about modern diesels.
