I am looking for a 250 Crew cab - 4 full doors - diesel. Not necessarily 4wd, though I won't turn it down. Some questions (hopefully w/o starting a flame war) ... (1) Any "bad years for the diesel ?? (2) I am not allergic to older vehicles, but what would you consider to be "high" mileage - over 20K/yr ??
(3) I am not a speedy driver, looking for the tow/work capabilities at a better mileage than the '03 Expedition I currently have - what can I expect city/highway (4) I won't be towing a really heavy load - can I get a 3.73 rear end ?? (5) If you had a personal favorite or great experience with a certain yr/motor/trans/rear-end combination - tell me.

 

99 to early 03 has the bulletproof and proven 7.3L. You can get the 4R100 auto or the ZF6 six speed.

03 was the first year for the brand new 6.0L powerstroke, and some of that year had teething problems so I would watch out for that.

All the single rear wheel diesels are 3.73s Dually diesels could be 3.73s or 4.10

I am very happy with mine and you can see all the pics in my sig.

Adrianspeeder

 

If you're looking into reliable performance of modding your engine, I believe it was the 2000 model diesel that had a weaklink and was prone to failure if you get it over 450 hp. Someone else can clarify this for me, I am looking for the exact same thing as you are, let me know what you find. What are you looking to spend?

 

It was the MY01 trucks that had the weakness. The problem is Ford in a cost saving switched to PMRs (powdered metal rods). These rods were more brittle and were prone to failure at anything over 400 rwhp, drugs (propane, nitrous, water/meth), or bad chip programming. A few of the very early 01 trucks got forged rods but 99% got PMRs.

 

I was hoping to spend as little as possible (LOL !) but my first pricing point was E-Bay - it looks like mid teens to 20K - which is a little rich for my blood right now. I have no problem shifting a manual - and I would NEVER want to mod out the motor - if I needed a Go Fast or bigger puller I would get one.

I pull a bobcat and a mower with a triple axle trailer now with my 03 Expy 5.4 and it is fine, i would like a bed in the back so that when I spill a little diesel or chainsaw oil it is not in my interior space.

 

You can get a 99-02 F250 for around 17k, give or take a few thousand depending on what you want. I want leather, crew cab, etc so I am looking at about 17k. An F250 at that price will have just over 100k miles. You can always talk someone down a grand or two on their asking price, keep looking.

 

i guess that y'all are in agreement that the 7.3 is a very stable motor - and the automatic is a good transmission. what sort of mileage are you experiencing with your truck. right now i'm getting 14mpg city/17 hwy not towing anything.

towing it drops to 10mpg i guess, not towing over 65mph.

does the 250 come with the built-in class 3 hitch or do i need to be sure it has a tow package ??

 

Make sure it has the tow package, and make sure you buy a full set of gauges for it. You need to watch the trans like a hawk unless you wanna replace it. They're durable if you take care of them.

 

If you dont mind traveling to get one and dont mind it being "high milage", a guy here in Georgia sells 2 and 4 wheel drive 250s in the 99-02 model rane for 10-13k$ all day long. they range from 150k to 250k miles though