2000 ford f350 hot shot advice

How many miles are on the truck now? Starting out i'd replace all fluids and make sure your brakes and tires are in top condition, maybe even change your wheels and tires over to some 19.5's. Make sure youre radiator is good and flush and fill with a good ELC coolant that meets Cat EC-1, like Rotella Ultra. Also upgrade your transmission cooler, maybe change out the fluid with Valvoline MaxLife ATF. 4" or bigger exhaust, gauges for boost, EGT, Trans and Diff Temp are critical for your application. Check out powerstrokenation.com, there's a lot of info on the 7.3 for technical and performance upgrades. As far as tuning you could use an SCT X4 or a Hydra, you can get custom tunes for them and they will tune them according to what you're doing. Only thing is you dump a bunch of money into an older truck, is it worth it? If you get to really running hard, you're truck will be worn out within a year or two.

 

http://www.thedieselstop.com/forums/f5/

This forum was helpful for me with my 99.

Like @Ragingbull said, you can put a lot of money into an old truck but is it worth it. Mine had over 500,000 miles in 15 years in the construction business. Alternators, power window motors, shocks, cam sensors, rust...... The 7.3 is great and it will run forever but you end up having to replace most of the truck around it.

 

One of the few weak spots on your 7.3 are the connecting rods. If you need to rebuild it use forged Carillo's.
Mine is an 03 6.0, only problem i've had is a dropped injector and a leaking ICP sensor, otherwise it's been good. I'm in the process of bulletproofing it, ARP Head studs, EGR delete, Bulletproof oil cooler, new exhaust manifolds and 4" turbo back straight pipe, 58V FICM, new High Pressure Oil Pump, Air Dog diesel lift pump. If you know what to do to correct the problems they can be good engines.
Good luck to you!

 

No one of the weak spots of a 7.3 isn't the connecting rods. '99-01 were forged rods from the factory. 02 and 03 7.3's had powdered metal rods. They were good to about 500hp before they started having problems.

The weak spots in 7.3's is the uvch, cmp, fuel bowl heater and the drain o-rings (which most have discovered by now).

Those trucks are 11-17yrs old now. Vibration and age take a toll on the electronics and wiring.

Power upgrade wise, a good chip from somewhere like DP tuner or gearhead automotive as well as a full 4" exhaust. Air intake is a no brainer by getting rid of the airbox and doing a 6637 air filter mod (google it). Personally Id also upgrade the compressor wheel to help with egt's, because what good is power if you cant use it.

From there, good oil/filter I prefer Valvoline Premium Blue Motorcraft or Racor filters. Same for my fuel filters. When you do a oil change, send a sample to Blackstone to see how everything checks out, plus figure out what kind intervals to change the oil (will save you $).

Other than that, you wont have too many issues. I beat my 7.3 trucks hard and they never let me down.

 

Dumping the muffler wont do anything. Engines are basically big pumps. The more air and fuel in and out the more power it will make and more efficient it will be. A 4" exhaust doesnt increase power, it just allows the engine to breath better thus freeing up more power. The biggest benefit is that it lowers your egt's and thats whats important. Same goes for an aftermarket compressor wheel. It moves more air into the engine.