Hey there everyone new to the FTE Forum, officially a member now been searching the web for information bit never formally became a member. I picked up what I thought was an early 1999 ford f250 7.3 powerstroke a couple years ago but come to find out my date code inside my door panel is 9/98. I bought this truck from an older guy that didn't take the best care of it but the price was right and I couldn't pass it up.

I'm not sure exactly what this early date code means and I'm hoping some of you 7.3 gurus can help me out. I'm about to do some service items to my vehicle and I want to make sure I'm not making a mistake.

Ive been doing my routine oil change's but I'm thinking its about that time to do my coolant, differential fluid and trans/tcase.

Ive been doing allot of reading on coolant and been gathering a bunch of items so I can knock out all this stuff at once. I got my hands on some Shell Rotella ELC coolant concentrate and some distilled water, also a new thermostat, housing a sinister diesel coolant filter kit, and some mishimoto radiator upper and lower hoses. Ive read the flush procedure for changing the coolant but again I think I might have jumped the gun and made a mistake. On a different thread I've read that I should not run an ELC coolant in my truck, is this right? Also I noticed with my new mishimoto radiator hoses the lower looks correct but the upper does not. My upper hose goes undernieth the alternator and around the belt, the new one looks like it goes in front of the alternator.

I guess there seems allot of opinions out there and since I'm new at this I cant seam to differentiate between whats true and whats not.

 

Can't help with the Engine stuff, but a bit of clarification on the dates. Prior to 3/22/1999/is considered early. Things like larger and more expensive brakes on the front is one thing. The E99 7.3 also had a different turbo spider configuration. Check the 7.3 section a couple of them should be able to help you out.

@scotttahoe is a E99 guy.

 

On an E99 you do not want to run ELC coolant. There only a phew guys that have been able to get away with running ELC but there are less names than fingers on both hands. I ran it for a while without issue but have returned to using conventional green coolant.

What happens with the coolant is it eats away at the sealants and gaskets.

Injector cups are common for this and will eat away the loc-tite causing fuel to leak into the coolant or soot build up. All bad news.

Any gaskets that the coolant comes in contact with like the oil cooler, water pump and front main cover.

As far as E99 to L99 differences, there are several such as...

The turbo compressor wheel is a wicked wheel from factory.
Turbo housing is smaller. Turbo pedestal sits lower which in turn uses different up-pipes.
Plenums on an E99 are 2" L99 are 3" same for the "Y" pipe.
No Air Intake Heater.
Injector sizes have changed. The early99 has 120cc(AB code) injectors and the late99-03 has 140cc(AD code) injectors.
HPOP in an E99 has a 15˚swash plate L99 is 17˚swash plate to deliver more oil psi to the injectors.
No Cruise Control Light.
Hub bearing assembly and rotor are different sizes that can be easily changed out but must be a pair.
The pitman arm has a different count in splines.

Just to name a few.

 

Bently where did you get the 3/22/99? The only date I've ever heard was 3/1/99. With there being a few Frankenstein trucks close to that date with a mix of early and late parts. The front u bolts are also square the trac bar is different, and the early 99's have a unique transmission and that's according to Mark K.

 

Thanks for all the helpful information guys, just out of curiosity why would the ELC coolant cause a problem in early 99 vs. late 99? I would imagine gaskets are very similar between the two.

I have ran into the track bar issue already I had a hard time with that when I installed my leveling kit. I ended up just making one out of 7/8 heims, miss alignment spacers and a stick of .250 wall 1.5 inch Dom tubing.

My truck also has cruise control but it is a 5speed I believe a zf6 I noticed you guys saying they didn't but I wonder if that just applies to automatic truck?

And I also did some reading on early 99 trucks having factory forged rods, would this be the case in my truck?

 

Your truck does have forged rods. They didn't switch to powder rods until around mid 2001.

 

You want the hose that goes around the belt not through the belt. It's called the dual alternator belt. The plus side of having the hose go around the belt is if you ever need to change out the belt you don't have to drain the coolant as you would with the hose going through.

 

You are correct Mike. My truck is 3/22/1999 which is where I got the number.

 

12/7/98 or before production date and it is an Early 99 for the motor parts.
After 3/15/99 is the L99 chassis.

It is possible to have a L99 motor and E99 front end.

 

Does all this apply to my V10 gasoline engine or is it only diesels?

 

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/895507-any-early-99-owners-running-elc-antifreeze.html

Reading things like this I think cause my confusion, ford didn't want to make things to easy I suppose. I already have 6 gal of rotella coolant on its way I'm almost half tempted to try it.

 

I'm not sure as far as your motor and not sure on the chassis parts but for the chassis I would think it would be the same as the diesel.

Ya, those threads can make your head spin but are spot on.

There are guys that have done it without an issue but you are playing Russian Roulette. I'm not saying don't do it just be aware of the potentials and if you don't know how to change out injector cups or any of the other items it can get costly real fast. If you have some mechanical knowledge I have an awesome right up on how to do injector cups. Hope you never have to though.