7.3 tech info

[Painkiller7]

Okay yall, I have an 01 F250 4x4 with the zf6. I should have a much better job soon and need some help. I want some go fast parts BUT my first priority is to go through the truck and fix the minor querks. I don't want to necessarily rebuild it but my questions are
1. At 226k what parts tend to wear out and could use replacing or rebuilt?
2. Front inner axle seal, will it ruin the truck if not tended to immediately?
3. All the orings (pedestal, hpop, etc )
4. More beneficial to rebuild the fuel bowl or delete?
5. Reg fuel return and other parts? To increase reliability.

Sorry for the long post. I'm just trying to get a game plan to fix up my rig in the coming months.

 

[Pocket]

Everyone has different opinions, as well as the fact that each truck is different in terms of wear, driver use (and abuse), maintenance, etc.

1) Fix what's broken, leave the rest alone. Other than standard maintenance outlined in the owners manual and diesel supplement, just drive it. You can look out for signs of problems such as oil leaks, oil in coolant, oil in fuel, soot on up-pipes indicating an exhaust leak, etc. You can identify running issues such as excessive smoke (white, black, or blue), clutch problems, erratic idle, hard starts, etc. Anything with symptoms can be addressed, but the rest can be left alone.

2) It can, depends on how and where you drive your truck. Some people get away with it for a while, some see problems almost immediately. Service it ASAP is my recommendation to reduce the risk of major problems down the road.

3) Leave them alone unless there's a problem.

4) That's up to you. If you want easy and stick to stock-like maintenance, then keep the fuel bowl and rebuild it if you can. In my case I had two of them for whatever reason crack along the bottom of the bowl. So I gave up and built my own fuel system from the tank to the block. It works better than the stock configuration, but it was a PITA to put together. Mainly because I fabbed up most of it rather than buying a pre-made kit. But in the end the filters are cheaper and they last much longer.

5) A regulated return won't gain you any reliability. It's just to change what Ford probably should have done in the first place for a completed fuel system. For power upgrades down the road, especially larger injectors, then a regulated return is going to be beneficial to you. Eliminating the deadhead with larger injectors will help balance the fueling better to all 8 injectors, keeping #8 from being starved out.

Hope this helps.