I have been off the Bronco Grid for a couple weeks now but I have a pretty good reason. I have been wanting to add a Tow rig to my Ford stable for a while but I was on the fence about buying a new one with a warrantee or buying a used rig. I narrowed my choices to the new 6.7L power strokes and the older 7.3's. I came close to pulling the trigger on a couple different rigs but there was always something that didn't feel quite right so I held out. In the end, I decided against a new truck because adding that much car payment to the budget was going to dip deep into the Bronco budgets for years to come...Really not an option in my world. A couple weeks ago, I found a one owner 97 OBS Crew Cab 7.3L Powerstroke. I'm really pretty happy with it but I'm new to the Diesel world so I have been doing a lot of reading and Maintenance. The truck has been well taken care of but its been used very little for quite a while. In the short term it's kicking the crap out of my Bronco time and money but once I'm done I think it will be very reliable and ready to Drag the Bronco to MOAB at a moments notice. So far, we have changed gear oil in the diffs, changed transmission fluid and filter, changed the engine oil and filter, changed the fuel filter, changed the exhaust back pressure tube and cleaned the sensor, replaced the headlight lenses, and replaced the batteries ( the ones in it were 12 years old and still could actually start the truck). I still have more on the list to be done , the most pressing thing is that I want to get brake pads and shoes replaced. The problem with this thing is that there is all sorts of cool (Expensive) upgrades that I can do to it and I already have several of them on my "To do" list. Pillar gauges, up pipes, down pipe, intercooler retrofit are just a few things I want to get done. Anyway, thats what I have been up to. Here are some photos of it, The headache rack was a little to "Cowboy" for my taste so I pulled that off and down the road I'll probably replace the running boards with something more my style.

Nice score, I like that body style.

Congrats on the OBS!! One ton makes a difference for the front axle (TTB vs solid), nice score! Appears to have a leveling kit on it too? Auto or 5spd?

They are certainly great trucks!! Check the valve cover gaskets. They have wires running thru them and is a common failure point. Sounds like you've got a good list of mods. These trucks respond immensely to improving air in and out. Along those lines, I'd look into a full exhaust with CAT delete if you can get away with it (ooohhhh the sound!), and a nice intake like Tymar or a DIY similar. If you want a cleanable filter, avoid oiled setups. I like AEM Dryflow.

I like the tube type side steps like what Ranch Hand sells, but could be easily made in your garage.

Go down to the local international dealer and pickup a spare CPS (Crank position sensor) to keep in the glove box.

Once done with the air mods, I am sure you can pickup a good used tuner for it that wake these trucks up! I was pretty happy with my SCMT, but I think dptuner is a better product and customizable and shift-in-the-fly.

As for brakes, you don't have to go to get good performance. You don't really need drilled cyro'ed rotors, although slots wouldn't hurt anything.

Oh, if the truck sets for a week or more at a time, look into the 5W battery tender. It'll pay for itself the first time you DON'T have to replace batteries.

I'm excited to replace my tow rig once we get back to the States, but I'll likely be looking at new or near near. They just have much tighter control on performance mods these days :thumbsdown:

Nice truck. I've expressed my interest in a similar 97 F350, regular cab. The guy just needs to decide to sell it. LOL.

What does OBS mean?

I'm just learning about these trucks/diesels myself.

Old
Body
Style

:-)

looks super clean. Hard to find that body style not beat to crap.
Obs is 94 to 97 7.3 which is similar to 99 to 04 7.3 just the newer has some upgrades not exactly sure what. I think the big things are the inter cooler and turbo. The idi is the older 7.3 which shares only the displacement.

Agreed with tuner makes a big difference with these deisels.

Best Truck you'll EVER own!!!

Mine had almost 193k miles on it when I bought it and only being a weekend driver... I sold it 4 years later with just about 227k!

Never any problems, always started (as long as it was plugged in, in cold weather)
Bought it for $6000, sold it for $7400 4 years later!!!

1" body lift (on it when I bought it) added 33" wheel/tire combo

I love the color!
Wish I still had mine

I like it!

OBS stands for Old But Sexy!!!

Love the truck. I really like those trucks. And I'll let you know how the dorman bellowed up pipes are. I have a set sitting here for mine. Just gotta get off my butt and order a WW2 for mine soon. Check out riffraffdiesel.com I use them for most of my parts.

Yep, OBS is Old Body Style but I like Old But Sexy better! I have logged so much time on the Diesel Forums I forgot that might not be common knowledge ! forgot to mention that it does have a Tuner already. Its a Superchips 3 position chip. I probably would pick something else if I was buying a new one but hey, it was included so I'll take it! I looked it up and the website says its rated as an 80HP chip on the 97's and older but its supposed to give 120HP on the later 7.3's with the intercooler. I do also have a cold air intake on my mods list, just forgot to mention that part.

I did the International bellowed up pipes. Couldn't tell you if they actually reduce EGTs because I did not have an EGT gauge before they were installed. Of course, I never romped on it either.

I CAN tell you the International pipes DID reduce the numbers on my USD gauge.

I'd have likely bought the Dorman pipes had I known about them.

I bought them from RiffRaff and paid full price for them. At the time, I was in the middle of a turbo rebuild and had my exhaust side in the machine shop having a stripped bolt and helicoil removed. I knew it was going to be another 2-3 days before I had my turbo back together so I went ahead and pulled the trigger. Everything was easy to get to that way.

I don't think flex exhaust pipe will do the trick. We're talking temps up to and hopefully not exceeding 1200*F. The big selling point to me was the elimination of the exhaust donuts for flat exhaust gaskets. I'd already replaced one set of donuts when the turbo came off. Once removed, I was able to remove the exhaust collector almost completely without loosening any bolts on it. So, I pretty much knew the donuts weren't doing crap to keep everything together. The coating of soot on the firewall also told the story as well.

For gauges I went with Isspro EV2s. The top three everyone says to run are Boost, EGT, and Trans Temp if you are an auto guy. A few guys who tinker A LOT with their trucks are recommending Fuel Pressure as an alternative to Boost, as boost issues will apparently be obvious. I am running Boost, EGT, Trans at the moment. I plan to add HPOP to the 4 gauge pod I have over the rearview. Then I will add a 3 gauge piller pod and put in Fuel Pressure, Low Oil Pressure, and a pillar switch for a DP Tuner chip.

I run pyro, boost, trans. For everything else i run the torque app on my phone via obd2 bluetooth reader.

What sticker did you have behind the rack??????