Hey guys im looking at buying a 95 ford f350 with a 7.5L and an auto. i was wondering if anyone could shine some light on this truck. Mainly the engine and trans, im planning on pulling two or three drift cars and want a reliable tow vehicle, thanks yall

 

7.3 or 7.5? 7.5 the 460? 460 great motor,.. but dont expect much more than 8 - 10mpg and 5 - 6mpg pulling a trailer.

I had a 93 F250 with the 7.3. Was the first year for the turbo diesel. Mine was a 5 speed. I had an 89 F350 with auto. It had the push button on the dash to engage OD and it was the biggest POS ever. I had nothing but problems with the transmission in that truck. The OD kept going out and with a 4.56 rear top speed was 40 mph with out OD, 65 mph with. Mind you I bought it in 92 with barely 50k miles on it. Tranny went in 3 times for warranty. I sold the truck after just 1 yr and bought the F250. Never any problems with the F250 and manual tranny.

7.3 is a great motor. Even the early ones. The early ones had sporadic issues with the injector pumps going bad every 50k - 75k miles. Sits on the intake like a carb. They were $275 to replace back then. No idea what they would cost today.

I would be weary of the automatic, especially if it has the push button to engage OD.

A couple faults I had with the 88 - 98 F250/350 trucks was that they had rear only anti-lock. The front wheels would lock up in a New York second in bad weather, and if you had a load on the trailer and anything was in front of you, expect to crash into it because your not going to stop.

They had I-beam front suspensions. They were impossible to keep an alignment. Out side edges of the tires always cupped. There are two braces behind each beam on both sides of the suspension. When the bushings go bad the whole front end will do what I call the wobble of death, where the whole front end shakes violently. It can happen when you apply the brakes or just driving down the road and hit a bump the wrong way. So if yours has a lot of miles,.. the first thing I would do is rebuild the front end.

Also,.. I never had this happen on my F250. But my F350 during city driving hauling an 8600lb bobcat on a 4800lb trailer I had my brakes over heat and lost all brakes. Luckily I was going slow enough to where I could use the parking brake as an emergency brake and pull over to the side of the road. Flushing out the DOT3 fluid with DOT5, switching to ceramic brake pads up front and installing a steering stabalizer helped things out before I sold that truck. Suspension wise they were pretty much the same from 82 - 98.

Personally I would look for a 2000 - 2006 Chevy Silverado 1500 with the 5.3 in it. I have a 2004. I've owned the truck since 2007 with 42k on it. I'm pushing 170k on it now. I have towed heavily with this truck from day one pulling a 20ft dove tail low profile trailer. The only mechanical issuse I have ever had is the Knock sensors rusted out on me. Easy fix. And a valve in the valve body of the transmission wore past the bore and causes the line pressure to exceed rated specs causing the torq converter to fail. $900 repair 29k ago. I also had the water pump leak on me at 92k. Everything else is still factory. I meticulously maintain this truck. I get 14 mpg pulling almost any car on my trailer and 11 - 12 mpg pulling full size trucks and SUV's. This truck pulls and stops as good as my old F250 did. I cant carry the tongue weight the F250 and 350 could,.. but with a 20ft trailer I can balance the loads just fine with out squating my rear. I swear by theses trucks. I have a 3.42 gear in mine with the Z60/Z82 package. I can get an honest 20/21 mpg on the interstate unloaded with mine.

Here are some pics. Like I said,.. for moddest towing,.. I swear by these trucks. The 5.3 has plenty of hp and torque. There isnt too much I havent pulled over the years with mine. I constantly tow with mine. It has more tow miles than unloaded regular miles. I have helper coil over shocks on the rear. Other then that its bone stock. Single exhaust, giant factory muffler and all. If the motor blew up tomorrow I would by another 5.3, drop it in and keep driving this truck. And this is coming from a guy who used to swear by Ford trucks.























I have 100's of pics like these towing different things. Boats, cars, motor cycles, trucks, SUV's, Classic and muscle cars, golf carts, 4 wheelers, Steal poles, you name it.

Hurst

 

OK, I'm of limited value here but I used to spec out vehicles for a local fire rescue. We used Fords exclusively and they were great (F350) but somewhere around 1998 (I think) Ford and International got into this big pissing match, the result was that International quit building Diesels for Ford and that Ford started building their own..which IMO were turds, at least for awhile, enough of a turd that we went with another manufacturer.
That's not much, but I hope it helps

 

The pissing match started in 2004 with the 6.0's IIRC. The 7.3 was still in use up until mid year 2003. But they couldnt pass the up coming emissions standards so they moved to the 6.0. To my knowledge,.. (Correct me if I am wrong) the 6.0 and recent 6.4 were both Navistar motors. Not until the latest 6.7 did Ford ever have their own diesel. The 6.9, 7.3, 6.0 and 6.4 were all International motors. The 6.0 from what I understand isnt a bad motor once the head studs and EGR are replaced. The 6.9 and 7.3 were great,.. ran forever. And the 7.3 power stroke was the best ever. I got an honest 20 mpg all day long out of the one in my F250.

 

my 300 cylinder can just about anything,and gets 18miles to the gallon city.mine is 1992 f150. gas mileage won"t be so great with 460.but it won"t break.trans not sure.I have had five speeds in my trucks,and never had a problem with them.

 

300 i6 was a great motor. Run forever.
Only auto from Ford I ever liked was the C6. I had problems with all the rest. 4 and 5 speeds never had any problems. I had an 84 F150 with the 300 6, 4 speed OD tranny. Technically a 3 speed with 4th as OD. I forget which tranny that was. Great truck.

Hurst

 

The 300 was awesome, and yes it was about that time that Ford switched manufacturers. The C6 rocks, but I did have a 1997 Ford F150 that had over 230K on it, (lots of towing with it) I cried the day I traded it in. on my 2010 F150.

 

225,000 on mine.and still ticking.only thing i want to change is my running gear. 2.73. sucks pulling really heavy loads,but the motor won"t stall.dam thing will pull its guts out before it will stall out.want to put 3.55 in to make more use out of the low end torque.

 

Thanks for the input guys. im going to give this truck some serous thought, Hurstmeister, thanks for your help, and as for the chevy truck... i sold my 2004 z71 a few years ago, biggest mistake of my life. i had pulled the 5.3L and factory 4l60e out and installed a 2001 Ls1 and 4L80e and the truck came to life even with the 4:11 gear. so ill go take a look at this new monster in the am and taking your advice ill give it a good shake down. thanks all