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Comment by lilbobbytables | Hacker News Reader

I thought the 7.3's were supposed to be super solid? How many miles does it have, what's wrong with it?

My extremely limited knowledge of diesel engines is something like "they go a ton of miles, then need a major overhaul, then go a ton more miles". If you're at some kind of major overhaul milestone, then I could see the response you're getting.

'99-ish Ford kicked off the Super Duty series, but it isn't sufficiently interestingly old to a lot of people, so I can understand their the why-bother attitude.

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It's nearing 400k miles. It's had service - new turbo and engine control components, suspension and frontend, brakes, glow plugs, etc. Original everything else though, nothing fancy, just a work truck. But anything "newer", even 10 years old, is $25k minimum for any halfways decent duty truck.

Your 7.3 is gold, that engine will last till the heat death of the universe. And you’re maintaining it. For some reason people think that a well maintained vehicle is a grenade because it has service history, while one being run into the ground is great because they haven’t paid for anything recently.

Newer trucks aren’t more reliable. They’re just newer. You won’t find a truck cheaper to maintain than the one you’ve already got.

(The people who tell you your truck ain’t worth fixing sound like my mother in law who traded in her car ‘cause the windshield wipers broke.)

Please tell me the story about your mother-in-law is an exaggeration

Nope, literal truth. Lovely lady, but some decisions...

FWIW older generations' experience with cars is that they are unreliable money pits after 10+ years. That was true until relatively recently.

> they go a ton of miles, then need a major overhaul, then go a ton more miles

Yup. Not unusual for big rigs to go a million miles between overhauls.

Even for "consumer" diesels, the engine typically outlasts the vehicle around it.

I drove a '97 Dodge which had 300k on the odo, got tired of the poor interior and upgraded to an '06 with 200k. I even threw a mercedes diesel into a 67 chevy pickup, because diesels are great :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFd1ZL2hgMY

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