Project: WUT D P F

[Strictly Diesel]

With growth in business, the addition of employees, changes in what I needed to do every day...and sadly with the prevalence of FB and IG...I've mostly been away from the forums for a while. Now that I've gone back to my roots in this industry with a 2000 7.3L project, it seemed fitting to come back to the forums that got me hooked on this stuff to begin with. Kind of a "full circle" thing I guess. Personally, I hate Facebook for truck stuff, the forums will always be more functional and useful, even if they are not the way of the future.

The Readers Digest version, getting hassled by the EPA when we had stayed as far away from all the "d*l*t*" stuff as possible pissed me off...enough to sell my 2017 F450 and go "old school". Losing the NHRDA and selling my 7.3L race truck certainly left me with the itch to work on something, and it wasn't going to have a bunch of emissions BS. I knew I wanted to do a lowered street build, and managed to find a pretty clean 175k mile 2000 F250 CC 2WD out of TX (maybe someone here will recognize it). With that, project WUT D P F was born.

The truck came to me with:
"USA" Turbocharger (horribly laggy)
Unknown Fuel System (DI maybe?, old for sure)
Very Old FASS HD pump
Sniper Chip
AFE Stage II Intake Kit
Banks Power Elbow and 4" Exhaust
ISSPRO Gauges
Bunch of Modified Wiring (engine, headlights, etc)
Stock Lariat Wheels with BFG ATs
Welded in Gooseneck and Receiver Hitches (grrrr!)
2005+ Nose Conversion and Reflexxion Cowl Hood
Backflip Tonneau Cover

Here are some "as received" pictures:

The outside of the truck shows 20 years and 176k miles of driving. It is dirty underneath, there are small dents in the sheet metal, the paint is not great...pretty much what you would expect. I bought the truck because the interior was really clean for its age (from what I could tell in the pictures), and so far I haven't been too disappointed. The engine did have a noticeable miss when cold, which was significantly improved with a BG oil treatment and bottle of HSS Stiction Eliminator (enough of a bandaid to tolerate driving it for a while). The trans shifts extremely hard, and I'm not 100% certain why, but we did find 2 broken springs in the valve body that have been fixed (but it hasn't driven yet). Overall, it will be a solid base for a "restoration/modification" project.

I will do follow-up posts by category of work (to get caught up) and then try to be better about making update posts more often. Going to try to spend more time here too...

 

[Strictly Diesel]

After some basic maintenance and a good looking over, I decided to start with the lowering kit. I knew the truck would be down for a bit for this, but I didn't know that my anal retentive, OCD, jackass self would kick in so badly. What was supposed to just be an installation of a DJM 3/5 drop kit snowballed into months of work. It still isn't on the road yet, but I'm happy with how this has gone so far. The rest of this story will be told in pictures with captions...see below!

Decided that doing the back would be easier with the bed removed. What isn't shown, because I forgot to take the "before" picture, is the goofy pop-up gooseneck hitch that left a gigantic hole in the bed. The hitch was bolted to two very large and heavy braces that were welded across the frame. Once the bed was off, removing that crap became the priority. Then after that was gone, I realized what 20 years of dirt and grime look like, I realized that the receiver hitch was welded in (scary if you ask me) and it just took off from there.

Here you can see the axle, leaf springs, brake lines and e-brake cables removed. The next step was knocking all of the rivets off for the front leaf spring hangers, rear leaf spring hangers and shock mounts. I also backpulled the wiring harness so the frame was totally bare. The bumper was removed, the welded receiver hitch cut off and the whole frame cleaned and prepped. What happened to just installing the lowering kit?

Frame painted, finally starting to feel like I'm moving in the right direction.

DJM Front Hangers, OE Rear Hangers, DJM Rear Shackles and Brand New OE Leaf Springs Installed...progress!

DJM Front Hangers (in "lowest" position)

DJM Rear Shackles (in "lowest" position)

99% done with all new brakes, new bearings, new 3.55 gears, 08-10 finned diff cover, Helwig sway bar, Curt Class V hitch, new spare tire hoist and a new Curt trailer plug.

Now...on to the front...

 

[Strictly Diesel]

I wasn't ready to pull the cab, so the front of the truck wasn't getting the "clean and paint" level of work that the back did. At some point the cab will come off so I can do the engine, and the rest of the frame. For now, the front just got the suspension and I had to fight my OCD every step of the way.

Looks funny with no front suspension!

New OE Radius Arms and DJM 3" Drop I-Beams Installed

New OE Coil Springs and DJM Shocks Installed

Don't know why, but I stopped taking pictures after the above. The front end also got all new OE steering linkage and ball joints as well. The spindles were fine, but they got all new bearings, seals and brakes like the rear.

First time on the ground in almost 3 months.

Time to move on to the engine!

 

[Strictly Diesel]

It's in my plans to do an engine build, but I don't have time for that right now. I just needed to get the engine running good enough to daily drive and clean up some stuff I didn't care for. Of course, like everything, I could have done just what was "needed", but that's now how my stupid brain works.

Removed AFE Stage II
Removed "USA" Turbo with Banks Power Elbow (and rest of rusty exhaust...my OCD doesn't like rust)
Removed Leaky Modified OE Turbo Pedestal
Removed Modified and Greasy Intake "Spider"
Removed Unknown Regulated Return
Removed Injectors (half stamped "reman", several not working well)
Removed Glow Plugs
Removed Mismatched Batteries
Removed Squished/Rubbed Modified Headlight Wiring
Removed FASS HD Pump and Wiring
Removed Modified Engine Wiring Harness
Removed Unknown Age UVC Gaskets and Harnesses

Installed Modified Stock Turbo (from my old Race Truck PMR Motor)
- Rebuilt with 360° Thrust Bearing and 7x7 Billet Wheel
- Banks 1.0 Turbine Housing with Wastegate
- Original ATS (pre Purple Palace) Ported Compressor Housing
- Banks Big Head Actuator
Installed New Non-EBV Pedestal
Installed Driven Diesel Fuel Bowl ****** Regulated Return
Installed Full Force Diesel 180/0% Single Shots
Installed Lightly Used Glow Plugs from my old Race Engine
Installed Lightly Used UVC Gaskets and Harnesses from my old Race Engine
Installed Cleaned Up (unnecessary wires removed) Engine Wiring Harness from my old Race Engine
Installed Lightly Used Matching Optima Batteries from my old Race Truck
Installed New S&B Filters Intake Kit (not shown)
Installed Intake "Spider" From my old PMR Race Engine

Just Another View

You can see the fuel tank in the first picture with the bed off, and like everything else, it was filthy with 20 years of dirt. Scrubbed the crap out of it, inside and out and it looks brand new.

Of course, there has to be something between the fuel tank and the regulated return. Since I still had the AirDog I from my race truck, I started there. This pump is one of the originals, from back in the day when Charlie was first running the company, and it was always rock solid in the race truck. Hopefully it brings good "ju ju" to this project. Sorry, no pictures.

After the AirDog I used one of our Driven Diesel Dual Bosch fuel delivery kits. Normally this setup would have a pre-filter, but that isn't necessary with the AirDog. Right now I'm just running one of the pumps along with the AirDog to get the truck up and running. Future plans will require the second pump for sure, so it's just a bit of wiring away from being up and running.

After the pictures above, I decided I was going to run dual crankcase breathers to a catch can. I moved the driver side valve cover to the passenger side and I installed modified the E-Series van valve cover I had on my race engine to fit on the driver side. They will be tied to a catch can and then back to the crankcase breather, since that is one of the things our local emissions inspectors look at. I'm currently waiting on the parts to finish plumbing the crankcase vent, after which I can finish installing the passenger side intercooler tube and the S&B intake tube and the engine portion will be done.

Engine fired up and ran beautifully. Forgot how much I love the sound of a nice single shot 7.3L.

More to come...

 

[Zeb]

Wow, what a nice comeback!

I love a good 2wd.

 

[Connor M]

**** YEAH BUILD THREAD

I love a build thread man, this is getting me juiced. Thank you for this.

And awesome work. It’s looking great.

Try to find a big plastic plug for the hole. Something like what trucks with the fifth wheel/gooseneck prep come with. It’ll look almost factory.

You look at that truck and think filthy, here in New England we’re going “wow that’s insanely clean for 20 years!”

 

[DEEZUZ]

Very nice.

 

[psduser1]

Nice project! I wish my 20 year old trucks were that clean! I mean the as bought pics, lol.

What kind of power are you going to set this engine at, down the road?

 

[co04cobra]

Love it! Always nice to see someone else that isn’t a FB fan and always great to see a 7.3 build!

 

[Petro]

Fantastic.

 

[Black AOD]

I was never a 7.3 Fan Boy but I don't necessarily hate them either. This thread looks to be very promising! Awesome start to a clean 20 year old truck Dennis.

 

[Strictly Diesel]

Thanks All!

Try to find a big plastic plug for the hole. Something like what trucks with the fifth wheel/gooseneck prep come with. It’ll look almost factory.

I wish it was just a round hole. Big square(ish) hole, like 12" x 12". I'm on the hunt for a bed, but that is proving to be more difficult than I had hoped.

What kind of power are you going to set this engine at, down the road?

475-500ish. This truck will be a "fun daily driver" that can still tow. I want a truck that's great on a highway road trip. It will be getting a lot of attention to the interior, everything from lots of sound deadening/blocking to stereo to who knows what else. I would really like to find an 11-16 truck that I can take the full interior out of (black leather captains chairs with console, rear seat, carpet, door panels, headliner, the works)...maybe even work on a dash swap.

 

[sootie]

Thanks All!



I wish it was just a round hole. Big square(ish) hole, like 12" x 12". I'm on the hunt for a bed, but that is proving to be more difficult than I had hoped.



475-500ish. This truck will be a "fun daily driver" that can still tow. I want a truck that's great on a highway road trip. It will be getting a lot of attention to the interior, everything from lots of sound deadening/blocking to stereo to who knows what else. I would really like to find an 11-16 truck that I can take the full interior out of (black leather captains chairs with console, rear seat, carpet, door panels, headliner, the works)...maybe even work on a dash swap.

Ncollins64 has a rust free short bed available.

Also, you would be better off swapping an 08-10 interior than 11+. Much less headache and my personal preference is the seat shape is more comfortable. They've also dropped significantly in price. If you are lucky enough, you can also find them with quad buckets which is not available 11+

only thing to gain would be the vented seats.

 

[mandkole]

Awesome, fun to see some new activity here again. Looking forward to the progress!

 

[Magnum PD]

VERY nice build Dennis. Keep us updated.

 

[Countryboy07]

Following this for sure! Great come back so far. Also, if you think that frame is nasty, you should check out the frames we have up north!

 

[FaSSt9602]

You and your 7.3's Dennis. You always end up coming back!

 

[Strictly Diesel]

Ncollins64 has a rust free short bed available.

THANKS! I will reach out.

Also, you would be better off swapping an 08-10 interior than 11+. Much less headache and my personal preference is the seat shape is more comfortable. They've also dropped significantly in price. If you are lucky enough, you can also find them with quad buckets which is not available 11+

only thing to gain would be the vented seats.

I may be open to that, but the vented seats was something I was hoping for due to being in AZ.

Following this for sure! Great come back so far. Also, if you think that frame is nasty, you should check out the frames we have up north!

Thanks...and I know what you mean and I'm glad this was a TX truck for sure!

You and your 7.3's Dennis. You always end up coming back!

Yup!

Awesome, fun to see some new activity here again. Looking forward to the progress!

Thanks...me too!

VERY nice build Dennis. Keep us updated.

Will do, thanks!

 

[Strictly Diesel]

Closed loop crankcase vent is done. Used a DRIVERS SIDE valve cover on the passenger side, with the vent assembly facing the rear. Used an E-Series van drivers side valve cover on the drivers side, but had to cut and significantly shorten the oil fill tube. Both vents merge into a single 3/4" hose, which is connected to a Mishimoto universal catch can. The outlet of the catch can is connected to the OEM CCV adapter in the middle of the intake, which I rotated 180°. Pics below...should know how it works soon.

Passenger Side CCV Connection

Drivers SIde CCV Connection

OEM CCV Housing (flipped) And My CCV T-Fitting Behind It

Mishimoto Catch Can Mounted Behind Drivers Front Tire

 

[Connor M]

Clean install. So you’re ventung the air (with the oil filtered out) back into the top of the other bank? Or does it go into the intake and I just missed something.

Never mind, missed where you said they merged. My B. Great job!