MN Mechanics. E350 Ambulance 93 Ford

PrettyRicky · Dec 19, 2014

Hello,

This is my first post. I just bought this 1993 Ford E350 Ambulance

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It's a 7.3 idi diesel. This is the first and only diesel I've ever owned. I know from reading how important it is to run the right coolant in these engines. I'd decided on using Final Charge global. Thoughts on that?

I want to get a coolant flush, transmission flush, and engine oil change. The guy I bought it from wouldn't tell me anything about it. He was basically worthless in terms of information. So I figured by changing all these oils I can start a log book and know what I'm starting with. I'm finding it's hard to find someone who can fit the dually box van on their lifts. Midas won't, Jiffy Lube won't. Mr. Tire won't. Sure the Ford dealership can, but they charge such a premium.

Do any of you have any mechanics or shops you recommend? It's an odd sized vehicle, and I'm learning that diesels and duallys are hard to even find mechanics for.
Any help is appreciated.

I suppose it should be in a separate post, but I'm seriously interested in converting it from a dually to a single wheel if anyone has knowledge or is in MN and can do this please send me a PM.

Thanks!

PS I'm in the Twin Cities Area

Tim4 · Dec 19, 2014

Welcome Ricky. I would expect that an auto shop would have trouble with your rig on a lift even if they were willing to try. A local shop owner took that chance with his dually duramax with an aluminum flatbed. Nobody got hurt and he was able to buy a replacement arm for his lift.

I'm not sure that a srw under an ambulance body would be a good idea plus the standard srw axle housing would require some mount fabrication and welding to match up to your springs.

I don't mind a seller who is no help, it's actually preferred to somebody selling you a bill of goods.

Welcome to the world of idi's.

PrettyRicky · Dec 19, 2014

I just need to find a mechanic so I know who my go to guy will be not only for my fluid changes which I need now, but also for future repairs. Are oil changes the same as cars every 3,000 miles?

C_Luft · Dec 20, 2014

Welcome, if you were to go to a jiffy lube or a quick lube place ask if you can watch them, and if they say no walk away, my family has had more than one bad experiences with quick lube places putting too much oil into my mother's astro van and causing severe leaks when the van was brand new and they wouldn't take responsibility for their actions. Some ford dealerships are stupid too, I was looking through some of the service receipts(previous owner) from whidbey island ford and they put 15 quarts of oil into my 7.3 idi turbo, and for someone who is trained to work on ford vehicles even if the truck was 14 years old at the time would know this isn't a powerstroke(oil cap on passenger valve cover) vs 6.9/ 7.3 idi oil fill at the front of the engine. Honestly I don't trust anyone except nw powerstroke here in vancouver and my self.

First go on google and search yelp reviews. Find a auto repair place that has really good reviews and call them to see if they have any knowledge about 6.9/7.3 idi engines. That would be a good start.

Next I noticed you wanted your transmission flushed, I wouldn't recommend this, I would ask them to drain and fill the oil and replace the filter. Ask them to remove your transmission inspection plate and look on the torque converter for a drain plug and drain the torque converter to ensure your getting nearly every bit of old oil out.

For the 3,000 mile oil change is really up to you, for me if I am running regular oil and doing short trips, then 3,000 mile oil change intervals is good. If I put full synthetic oil in I would change the engine oil every 5000. If you have a person change your oil go down to a auto parts store and get 1995 7.3 powerstroke oil filter, it's a better filter then the original design 7.3 idi oil filter and it holds a quart more of engine oil and remind the person to fill the oil filter before they install it.
(10 quarts with original filter)
(11 quarts with powerstroke filter)

Another item that should be on all diesel engines is a coolant filter, I would suggest you have one installed on your truck soon to prevent cavitation. Napa part number 4019 coolant filter kit

stealth13777 · Dec 20, 2014

C_Luft said:
Welcome, if you were to go to a jiffy lube or a quick lube place ask if you can watch them, and if they say no walk away, my family has had more than one bad experiences with quick lube places putting too much oil into my mother's astro van and causing severe leaks when the van was brand new and they wouldn't take responsibility for their actions. Some ford dealerships are stupid too, I was looking through some of the service receipts(previous owner) from whidbey island ford and they put 15 quarts of oil into my 7.3 idi turbo, and for someone who is trained to work on ford vehicles even if the truck was 14 years old at the time would know this isn't a powerstroke(oil cap on passenger valve cover) vs 6.9/ 7.3 idi oil fill at the front of the engine. Honestly I don't trust anyone except nw powerstroke here in vancouver and my self.

First go on google and search yelp reviews. Find a auto repair place that has really good reviews and call them to see if they have any knowledge about 6.9/7.3 idi engines. That would be a good start.

Next I noticed you wanted your transmission flushed, I wouldn't recommend this, I would ask them to drain and fill the oil and replace the filter. Ask them to remove your transmission inspection plate and look on the torque converter for a drain plug and drain the torque converter to ensure your getting nearly every bit of old oil out.

For the 3,000 mile oil change is really up to you, for me if I am running regular oil and doing short trips, then 3,000 mile oil change intervals is good. If I put full synthetic oil in I would change the engine oil every 5000. If you have a person change your oil go down to a auto parts store and get 1995 7.3 powerstroke oil filter, it's a better filter then the original design 7.3 idi oil filter and it holds a quart more of engine oil and remind the person to fill the oil filter before they install it.
(10 quarts with original filter)
(11 quarts with powerstroke filter)

Another item that should be on all diesel engines is a coolant filter, I would suggest you have one installed on your truck soon to prevent cavitation. Napa part number 4019 coolant filter kit

This is all good stuff. I personally don't mind using the 'machine' to do the trans flush (it's basically just two tanks, one with new oil and one with old, with some hoses on it), but on older vehicles I recommend asking them to only exchange the fluid; don't use any extra flush chemicals or additives. Just a fluid exchange is basically what C_luft is recommending.

Your coolant choice is also good. The filter is a nice to have, and a lot of guys here, myself included, have it. But I would have that low on my priority list. Then again, if you're taking the coolant out, now would be the time to add it. You need to find a shop that specializes in commercial vehicles or trucks. Even where I used to work, with heavy duty in-ground lifts (don't remember the rating on em) we would start having the hydraulic seals give out on the ones we put E350s on (didn't fall, just leaked till we had to fix em) None of these chain 'car' shops will have equipment capable of working on that. And asking if they know idi's, as mentioned above, is a great plan. Don't need the mechanic learning on your vehicle.

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PrettyRicky · Dec 20, 2014

stealth13777 said:
Your coolant choice is also good. The filter is a nice to have, and a lot of guys here, myself included, have it. But I would have that low on my priority list. Then again, if you're taking the coolant out, now would be the time to add it.
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I just want to make sure I understand this correctly. I can use the coolant filter AND run the Final Charge coolant? Is there any risk of having too much SCA in the coolant by doing this? I'd also read somewhere that you can use conventional coolant and as long as you have just 1 gallon of the final charge mixed in you should be good? That sounds sketchy to me. I was thinking of 50/50 Final Charge and distilled water.
Is putting the Coolant filter kit on difficult? Like I say I don't have access to a garage - the ambulance doesn't fit in my garage and my garage isn't heated anyways. But I've not wanted to drive this thing till I did the coolant and fluids.

thanks for all your help guys!

stealth13777 · Dec 20, 2014

Just use a filter without any sca in it. You'll have a choice at Napa. 50/50 coolant/ distilled water should be good. Check out the body of knowledge on here there's a walk through for installing one I think. Should give you an idea of what it takes. Imo not a hard job with some minor tools; 'hardest' part is mounting it. If you're not up to it though, the engine would survive without it.

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C_Luft · Dec 20, 2014

Final charge coolant is fine by its self, don't dilute with green coolant and yes only use distilled water.
4 gallons of final charge and 4 gallons of distilled water is what you need.
At napa they have range of coolant filters containing 0 added sca to 8 units of sca. You need the coolant filter containing no added sca's.
With your vehicle being a e 350 there isn't a lot of room to mount a coolant filter like there is with a f350. A coolant filter is usually added in line with the heater hoses

PrettyRicky · Dec 22, 2014

So i looked and I have green coolant. I used a test strip and it left me kind of confused. There are 3 pads in which change diff color to test the coolant

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the bottle shows an "Ideal" color of the first pad, but the other 2 it doesn't say what the ideal color would be so I have no idea if I'm good or not. I thought diesels weren't supposed to have green coolant no matter what?
No one has a bigger rig like this in MN and a mechanic they trust to work on them? Looks like I'll be using Tousley Ford for all me maintenance needs? That sounds expensive and lame!

PrettyRicky · Dec 22, 2014

ps how do you get the images I'm attaching to show up in the post rather than just being a hyperlink to the pic?

riotwarrior · Dec 22, 2014

PrettyRicky said:
ps how do you get the images I'm attaching to show up in the post rather than just being a hyperlink to the pic?

load pictures to photobucket then copy the IMG line and past it into your thread

jayro88 · Dec 22, 2014

I would keep it a dually for stability reasons.

Having a trusted mechanic is a good idea for a fail safe, but everything you have listed is fairly simple. They do not require a lift, or even jacking it up. There is a lot of information on this forum, along with others, that can walk you through doing the maintenance yourself.

On my e250 I go 5000 miles between oils changes unless I am towing or in dusty conditions. Just keep an eye on the oil level since a lot of these engines do consume/leak some. For coolant, I run the green low silicate from NAPA mixed 50/50 with distilled water. I use their SCA NAPA Kool according to the bottle directions. NAPA also sells coolant test strips you can use to test the coolant additive level. For the transmission flush, I do not use any chemicals or machines. I simply pull the ATF return line hose and put it in a bucket. Then run the engine while dumping in fresh ATF through the fill tube. Once you see clean fluid coming out of the line going into the bucket you are done. Hook it back up and top off the fluid if needed.

MN Mechanics. E350 Ambulance 93 Ford

PrettyRicky

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Tim4

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PrettyRicky

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C_Luft

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stealth13777

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PrettyRicky

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stealth13777

Full Access Member

C_Luft

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PrettyRicky

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PrettyRicky

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riotwarrior

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jayro88

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