70K OR 700K? Ford 7.3 Powerstroke Mileage Discrepancy. How Many Miles Are Really On This Engine? 

Per the mileage discrepancy between december 29th and february 3rd the engine had an average velocity of approxmately 750 mph

Having rebuilt a few of these over 20 years, that is definitely about a 70k mile motor with a ton of idle time, cold start and a fair number of dry starts. Last 7.3 I rebuilt had 300k and was superb. That was definitely a city/municipal/county or state vehicle that was sold at auction

Judging from the lack of patina on engine parts, I'd say it's a 70k engine, but the bearings tell a story of a lot of idle time. Service body as well as the Chicago location tells me this truck was never shut off in the winter. I wonder if you could pull the total engine hours out of the ECM, if it's still with the engine....... Would make a good starting point for a rebuild, though..........

As another person mentioned, the cylinders still appear to have really nice cross-hatching. The bearing wear is definitely a little concerning, but with that service body and the rust, I suspect it was probably a municipal service truck. Probably used for plowing snow. So started cold often, and then floored into piles of snow. The biggest giveaway to me is that the injectors and valve cover harness appear original. A 700,000 mile 7.3 would be on it's 2nd or 3rd set of injectors - usually a hodgepodge mixed set at that. Reman injectors have a big "R" or some other identifying mark on them somewhere. All of the injectors appear to be original OEM injectors, and they simply would not last 700,000 miles.

Keep in mind it may have lots of engine run hours vs engine mileage. Could of had tons of idle time on it.

I had a similar conundrum, but in reverse. I bought an NA Miata with about 120k in 2014 from a guy who took it to a local oil change place near his house. I never took it there. Yet a few years later when I decided to sell it, I pulled the Carfax and found that the same oil change place somehow had been entering oil change records (presumably on the the previous owner’s other car), but on my VIN. The mileages entered were LESS than previously entered for the Miata, and hence showed as a red flag in the Carfax report. I never got it corrected, and obviously I declared actual mileage when I sold it. But basically those oil change places can cause trouble and confusion for Carfax reports.

The exhaust bolts still have corners, 700k I'd expect them to be almost useless from heat cool cycles much less excessive salt exposure.

Interesting that in the truck pics the service body was eaten up but the cab seemed fine. The body could have been lifted from an older truck. I do know that 7.3s can easily run to 700k miles if properly maintained but the labels would be cooked. Those labels look close to what they did when it left International's Indianapolis engine plant.

After a hard 11+ hour day at work that didn't go well, it was so enjoyable to watch this video. :)

i’m gonna say 70k. the wear on it is probably due to it likely having not been shut off a whole lot in the winter. especially since it has a service bed, i’d be willing to bet that truck ran non stop.

I’m going with 70k miles just with a ton of winter idle time. When you were showing the cam, I caught a glimpse of some of the cylinder bores, and they looked almost new. The crosshatching would be gone if it had 700k.

I’m a mechanic in the Chicago area and those exhaust manifolds are clean for being a Chicago engine, I’d lean more towards it being a lower mileage engine unless the headers were replaced which also wouldn’t be surprising

Nice day to come through. Rainman Ray can't post repair videos right now. You scratched the itch for the day.

As other people have mentioned, the truck had a service body. To me personally it looks like it was a hard working 7.3. I see rust a lot but I live in Canada so that’s why. What caught my eye is that the injectors looked pretty much factory, which someone mentioned. I think it’s had a lot of idle time and hard driving since it looked like a service truck. Also depends on the oil that the service place used, running 15w40 is hard on diesels in the winter. I drive a diesel and run 5w40 all year round.

I'm rebuilding one of these right now. This one has 80k but was used offroad in a wildland firetruck, and they used starting fluid trying to get it to start (actually the valve cover gasket and wiring had failed). The bearings were pretty bad, almost like the ones you showed. The starting fluid really tears things up on these TDI motors, as does the idling to keep the AC on.

I am going to agree with Randall Vos. 70,000. A service truck in the upper mid-west, would most likely idle long hours daily. I ran a service truck back in the early 90's for almost 5 years. In the Milwaukee area. 6 days a week, I started the truck at 6 am and backed it out of the shop. and put it away mostly after 7pm. In the winter I never shut it off, I had an extra set of keys in my pocket and just let it run and locked it up when unattended. It may have been used in construction depending on how they used it, It may have run year round.

I'm gonna go with 70k. I bet you the Feb. 2015 service mileage was entered one decimal place off, then something in the Carfax system doesn't let mileage be entered lower than a previous entry, so every following entry got multiplied by 10. Especially since just over a month earlier, it was entered at 68k.

I would say 70k. The reason being I have worked on plenty of these engines. Normally the plug going into the valve cover gets replaced around 200k, and those look like original plugs. On top of that the valve cover harness look original too. And I have never seen a valve cover gasket last more than 100k miles.

The bearings should have a date code stamped in the back of the bearing. At least some manufacturers did. That would tell that they are original to engine or have been rebuilt. I doubt someone would find date coded bearings to keep the truck original. I’m more towards 70K with poor oil change maintenance or an owner that was used to driving gas engines. Start and go drivers. Looked like cylinders still had cross hatching, that would be worn at around 200K, by 6.0 experience. Thanks for the videos. Hopefully the family is doing well.

As someone that used to own one of these trucks, & replaced the valve cover gaskets, that far lower bolt on the back of the valve cover by the turbo is near impossible to get back in or remove at all with the engine in the truck. The fact Is has the rear bolts means it is either low miles, or that they had a rly good mechanic working on it. Same goes for the injectors, if they are original you can look up the serial of the injectors on the solenoid cap. Secondly that serial on the injectors would change & if the injectors are rebuilt that solenoid gets replaced. Thirdly, since it has a service bed on it, & is 2015 the likelyhood they it was low mile for that long sounds strange, & how clean the up pipes are.

I'm in agreement with everyone else that has mentioned it: lots of cold starts and idle time. I'd say sell it whole. It looks like a great starting point for a project the way it is without doing a complete teardown.

Borescope view of the cylinder walls would be useful. Wonder what kind of ridge the piston rings have left in there? 70k miles maybe, but could have a bejillion hours overall, judging by the crank bearings extreme wear.

The oil change shops could have assumed the last digit in the odometer was 10th's when it was actually miles. Everything on top points to low milage though. hard call. 700k on a set on bearing on a service truck is stretching it but they could also be the second set of bearing changed out as preventative maintenance. Since you can't be sure... strip it for parts unless you want to replace the water pump, the bearings and the harness and dyno it if there's that much difference in value.

I'd bet it's a 70K mile engine. I purchased a beater truck 20 years ago or so that been sold 3 times within a year (it had an engine problem that others couldn't seem to find the simple cause) so it had several title transfers and carfax entries. The truck had 168k on the odometer. The mileage on the title went from 168k to 186k in a months time, and the carfax mileage tracked the title.

I say 70k. Service trucks idle A LOT. The wear isn’t is indicative of 700k. At low idle Diesel engines can wear more cause the temp and oil pressure go down. The cross hatch in the cylinders looked amazing though.

Hope the new addition to the family is doing well. As for that engine... I'd say 70k with many Cold Starts, and a ton of engine hours from idling. Or if it was used to plow snow, then it would have experienced high load for extended periods.

I’d say it is more than likely 70k but it just had a lot of cold starts in sub zero temps and maybe not the best oil change history overall which caused excessive bearing wear

Judging by the Carfax, valve cover /injector harness, cross hatching and overall cleanliness id say its 70K miles. Defiantly a hard 70K with a lot of cold starts and idle time based of the bearings and camshaft wear.

I don't have the slightest idea how many miles are on that engine but I definitely enjoyed the video. I never saw the inside of an engine until I watched your channel. Super interesting.

Can't beat an old 7.3 power stroke! I been working on them since they were in the 7.3 idi configuration. They are nearly always clean inside even if neglected and you won't find one that's been destroyed from being run without oil as they usually won't start if they are more than a gallon low on oil. As others have said I bet the condition those bearings is from high idle time and/or infrequent service. *Edit* I'd love to see you tear down an old idi 7.3, they are archaic by today's standards but they were pretty advanced when they were new.

The oil change records are the key. If it only had 70k, that would mean someone had the oil changed with 231 miles and 3 month time, followed by 1 month and 259 miles. So clearly, the engine has 700k, and the oil changes were happening at 2311 miles and 2597 miles. Nobody would get back to back oil changes within a few months with only a few hundred miles.

I've rebuilt quite a few of those 7.3s, I see the ones that just idle all day and the insides look just like that one. Many of them were low miles but I like to think idle time is just an easy 10miles/hr.

Usually when a 7.3 is run hard, you will find broken exhaust manifold bolts on the rear of the engine. Dash cluster changed perhaps? They didn't use Archoil on this engine!

Oh , best way to check is the oil intercooler on the side of the motor. They slowly build up shmoo as well as the coolant side of the intercooler .

I'm going with the CarFax is power of 10 off -- probably is 70K engine, BUT; being a service truck; it probably idled for very LONG periods. Those rod bearings should be down to the copper at 150K on that engine -- hence, why I think it idled for long periods.

YAY You finally did my fav engine!!! I've tore several down and rebuilt a few and still own a few, I'm pulling a T444E out of a school bus now. Thanks man I really like your vids! I've put 515k on one truck with the stock engine and it still has plenty of go left in it after eating glow plug tips and all lol. And @11:09 yes the paint marks on the heads are what you SHOULD find on all the heads via the valve cover, never seen one that wasn't I'm sure if the heads had been redone that wouldn't be there but seems I've always gotten stock engines that had not been opened before. Ugg those bearings are horrible if that's 70k then they weren't changing the oil but that isn't the story under the valve cover.... Thanks again!

I'm betting that was a lower mile engine with a ton of idle time and cold start straight to abuse "cuz I didn't buy it". You're not getting 700k out of an F350 chassis that was part of a fleet in the salt belt. The truck would have disintegrated long before that engine hit half that. It doesn't look like 70k though, more like 150-200k. The carfax mileage looks like they may have replaced the cluster or had some electrical problem that caused an error in the reading, because it was remarkably consistent before and after the extra digit was added.

Used truck dealer here and the Carfax report to me tells the story. Quick Change oil centers have caused more issues with mileage discrepancies than all other sources combined. And when the ODO goes from 68,3xx to 685,xxx in a matter of two months I think it's pretty obvious what happened. Once the truck got to Copart it likely had a dead battery, no battery or something else that prevented an actual ODO reading and facilities like Copart and IAAI will either sell them as "0 miles- not actual" or they'll look at the last reported mileage on Carfax - in this case, from the same Quick Change store that likely caused the problem in the first place - and use that. Another clue to me is the condition of the wiring harness underneath the valve cover - it looked original and factory fresh. I can GUARANTEE you it wouldn't look like that with 697,000 miles. I believe this is a 70K engine with many hours of cold-weather idling, typical of a service truck from up north. If it weren't for the mileage discrepancy I'd say it could be be a reman long block - the original valve covers would have been reused and the date code would still say 1998. But the discrepancy pretty much points to a clerical error. I think it would be smart to roll some bearings in it - and then sell it as such, carefully explaining to the buyer what we're discussing here. I believe the buyer would agree.

Another thing you could look at is how the oil pan was “glued on” like you say. Doubtful a shop would do it the exact same way as the factory. Silicone, different adhesives, etc, etc. Long shot, and doesn’t tell you much, but may give you a little more info on if the bottom end has possibly been into before.

Michigan guy here. We measure our salt use by the tons per lane mile. Michigan averages 22 tons per lane mile. The next closest state averages 13-15. Engines in the rust belt with any sort of 10k/yr or more track record will be shedding weight in the form of rust flaking off. By the exterior condition of the engine, it looks like 70k. The body rot is likely due to age. The rust is all low on the vehicle indicating it wasn't driven at really high speeds like it went down the free way a lot, and it just never got washed or stored indoors and all the road gunk just sat on it and rotted the bottom off of everything. The oil pan wasn't even rusty and it's pretty common for them to rot through if they get a lot of road time. I'd check out the registration history if possible to see what entity owned it and that'll be a huge help in finding out what kind of service industry this truck provided. If it's a truck shop that had it initially and used it for service calls, it didn't drive much, and likely just idled a ton which resulted in the bearing wear. It could have been used in the ports where it pretty much got driven around the yard and was used to maintain and fix equipment and never got slush anywhere above the rocker panels. But it idled a FUCK ton while out on the docks servicing things. The service body probably got crappy, and it was sold off to the dealer when they got a new one and someone picked it up cheap because of the low miles, drove it around, that's where the service history at the oil change shop started, someone done goofed on the mileage reading and their system wouldn't allow a lower mileage entry than the previous one so they just continued down the path multiplying the mileage by 10 until it got wrecked. Copart probably pulled the history you did and either rounded up to the nearest 100k, or did a quick check on the cluster upon intake and said close enough. Either way, this thing had a lot of run time but not a lot of miles. I wouldn't part it out, but sell it as a complete engine good for rebuild. It's a clean engine, it looks to be in great shape still, and will likely be perfect again with a fresh set of bearings.

Cold starts and lots of idle time could account for the bearing wear. If you could put it on an engine stand and run it and check for blow by that would give an indication of top end condition.

I saw the scoring on the crank when you pulled the first rod bearing and went "oh no!"

Eric, Not all 99s had an analog cluster. I am fairly confident that it had a digital odometer, which often caused these errors. Call a Ford dealer with the VIN to double check.

This is an interesting video. After a while, viewing broken engine internal parts gets old. You're a teacher, and you found a good subject to present. Thanks for the change!

Going to go with 70k. The up pipes aren't caked with soot from tens of thousands of heat cycles which will cause the donut gaskets to shrink.

From the UK : Love the "I Do Cars" sense of humour re: drained oil pans!

Definitely an original turbo. AlliedSignal acquired and adopted the Honeywell name in 1999, not long after that engine was produced. I was also tentatively voting for 70k… but there are two things that are odd. The fact that all info sources are consistent after the first time 680k+ was reported. And, if the decimal was shifted, why were they changing the oil every few hundred miles toward the end? Only thing I can think of to explain both is maybe the cluster flaked out and they swapped it with a junkyard unit that just happened to show almost exactly 10 times the miles. Then the oil change intervals might make sense. But then the bearings… yeah, that’s a lot of wear for 70k unless it was neglected and thoroughly abused. I’ve seen factory original diesels with more than 700k that had rod bearings that looked a lot better than that, so I don’t think it’s out of the question it could be that high. I dunno. Maybe the better question is whether that generation of Super Duty truck would last 700k and 16 years in Chicagoland? Yeah it was pretty rusted in the pics, but imo not 700k levels rusted. So I’m gonna go back to my original assessment of 70k, with the caveat that it lived a really rough life. Maybe pull the glow plugs and scope the cylinders, see what condition they’re in. If they’re in as bad of shape as the bearings, that thing’s gonna need an overhaul anyway.

Fellow mechanic here. That engine appears to be a 70,000 mile engine that was not maintained with the proper oil , or preheater for the climate it was being run in and had spent excessive time idling. I spent some time in Fairbanks Alaska and watched brand new trucks with less than 20,000 miles on them seize up at cold start when forced to start with no oil heaters. Idlingen engine at normal idle speeds for extended durations is very bad for the bearings. That's why they make high idle modules. You have to keep things spinning fast enough to keep your oil pressure up and to keep enough heat in the oil to prevent acidification. Yank the crank out toss new bearings in inspect the cam and cylinder walls very closely. Document everything perhaps even with photographs or video. Reassemble with fresh bearings if you find everything else to be acceptable. List it as a running core. Love the channel.

I'd say it has 70k miles. It being a diesel with a service bed would be in line with low miles but very high idle hours. Long hours idling with low oil pressure at idle would do the damage to the bearings and cams as seen here

I don't know as much about diesel engines as some here. But I would like to try to add a couple of bits of information that may help explain a few things. 1. The accidented truck has all sorts of doors that were custom fitted to the pickup bed area. This to me, indicates that it was a service truck of some sort. While the truck itself probably had just 70K miles, the actual operating time on the engine in terms of operating hours was probably sky hight. I worked at an oil and gas services firm for a while, and when our trucks were on site, they basically idled all day, the never moved. So the mileage on the trucks was low, but the operating hours were sky high (this has to do with site safety regulations in the oil and gas industry-in the case of an emergency situation arising, they wanted everybody out as fast as possible, no looking around for keys to start the trucks, no finding out that the truck wouldn't start, essentially a hot stand by) because they would idle for 10 hours a day. if this truck was used for this purpose, it could have had 70K miles, and it could have had the bearing wear that was seen. Unlike what people believe, diesels (of all types) don't like to sit there idling, it is bad for the engines. 2. I think whoever first wrote up the mileage for the truck after the big "jump" in reported mileage misread the mechanical odometer, not knowing that the white last digit was actually in 1/10 of a mile. Automatic jump from 68K miles to 680K miles. The last two mileage readings for the truck prior to the accident were made by the same oil change place, and probably by the same guy, so the mileage was misread both times.

I'm rebuilding one that got dusted at 180k. The rod bearings where much nicer. Just started showing copper on all of them. Along with the other comments I would bet it has a ton of idle time hence the frequent oil changes the frequent oil changes and more oil leaks then I'd expect from 70k miles.

Same thing happened to me at an inspection station. They assumed because of the age of the car that it didn’t have 86,000 miles. It must be 186,000 miles. I had no idea until I went to sell it and a buyer pulled a carfax. Boy I was mad but they too could see the discrepancy in the data so they bought it anyway.

I got a Tacoma from Copart they said had 480k miles on it. It was only 2 years old and I was like...that has to be wrong. I went and looked at it and it was actually 48k miles lol. I ended up getting it cheap since some people probably thought it was 480k miles.

Hello Eric, 1) Carfax is just a reporting agency. All they get is computer generated information. 2) If those main bearings get any thinner Reynolds Aluminum Corp would put them in a roll of foil wrap. 3) The cam wear is is not that of a 70k mile engine unless there were no oil changes but under the valve cover is clean as a whistle. 4) The crankshaft has a lot of grooves on the journals. 5) There are way to many anomalies for a 70k mile engine. Another terrific video sir, I'm waiting for a part 2 TEAR DOWN VIDEO. 😢, How is the new baby doing ???? TMP from N.J.

i am going to say 70k. Going by the photos of the truck. The bottom of the doors, fenders, cab. it is respectfully clean for a Chicago truck,, especially for its age and being a service work truck but the service bed on the other hand probably picked up most of the rust itself. That engine looked relatively clean, wire harness loom, connectors as he mentioned, etc

Appeared to have low milage, due to the injectors appearing original, under valve cover harness is a factory part, up pipes aren't leaking, harness is in great condition, appears to have the original turbocharger and still had the original icp. Usually about 200-300k these engines require most of the items previously listed to be replaced. Ive worked on a few that had more than 500k and they are so leaky and dirty with multiple injector replacements. But those bearings tell different story, Ive never had to tear into the bottom end of one so not sure if that amount of bearing wear is normal low milage (I doubt). Keep up the great videos

Awesome mid week post! Just what I needed to make it to the weekend! Thanks Eric!

Your Minnesota copart connection here. Digging through our archives, I pulled up the mileage photo and it last read 699, 341 miles.

600k miles added between New Years at the end of 2014 and Feb 3rd just two months later. That means 10k miles were put on it everyday (average) between 12/30/14 and 2/3/15. That's driving across the USA back and forth TWICE per day!

Two things that stood out to me: 1.) You said this pickup was from Chicago. 2.) You did not mention whether/not this engine had a block heater (keeps oil warm). We know with certainty that diesels absolutely DO NOT like to start when it is cold (sub-zero). I have been in Chicago in Jan/Feb, -20F is commonplace. Oil turns to molasses, and you WILL get excessive bearing wear on a cold start b/c engine lubrication is almost nil until the oil comes up to temp. Not unusual up there to leave diesels idling so they don't freeze. Just my 2 cents, but I think you've got a 70K engine with TONS of winter idle hours on it that definitely needs a complete rebuild. I also think the cluster was replaced at some point. Anyway, that's just my personal opinion. Good Luck.

That's about the bearing wear I would expect at 70k.... for an S85

A lot of good comments that make sense, low mileage, hard life. Back when I was in the Navy... seriously, though, we had a wrecker at a service station that needed a rear main seal at 10 years

Probably did only 70K but god knows how many hours it sat running at the jobsite. As a work/service vehicle, it likely got treated as a rented mule on the oil changes during its first years. Will be interesting to read on other people's thoughts on this 7.3.

70K on it. 1) being a turbo engine, you will see bearing wear, on the upper bearing shell, as compared to a naturally aspirated engine. 2) cold starts will also affect this, read, non-uniform bearing wear 3) agree with the increased idle time over miles. In that, you will see a lower oil pressure at idle and therefore, potentially, an increase in the upper bearing shell wear

Engine appears to have been well maintained. Bearings are shot. From what I could see of the cylinder walls, the crosshatching is still very apparent. I think it needs a good rebuild, and will be ready to go for a few hundred thousand miles more.

I'd say it may have somewhere between 70k mi to 85k mi. But with bearings in that condition, I'd like to see a teardown 👍🏻👍🏻 Like others have said, it may have a lot of idle hours, which is a very accurate observation.

Looking internally and the little amount of rust on it I'm betting that it's a 70k mile engine. But also looks like it had a rough 70k miles looking at the bearing's and camshaft.

A low mileage engine that was started on ether a LOT! Glow plus were a major issue, but costly to replace. Two of them being out would make it hard/impossible to start. Being in a cold climate, ether was the easy fix. That is the reason for the upper bearing "fatigue" and camshaft wear. Give it the ether (hard force on the upper rod bearing), rev the crap out of it to keep it running (no lube to the camshaft) and away you go! Pull one main bearing lower and I'm sure you'll find the same wear as the upper rod bearings.

Tear it down. The bearings and cam should be enough to make you comfortable knowing it was better to go to just selling the good parts. I wish I was building a truck. I have always wanted a 7.3.

Until I saw the bearings and rod journals, I was leaning toward 70k. After seeing the bearings, I'm leaning toward the engine having been very well maintained (based on how clean it is), but with 700k miles. I can see why others think the engine wear is from cold starts, however. The engine does look very clean inside and out as if it only has 70k miles.

Mid-week video? Eric, are you testing us to see how close we follow when you upload?

First clue, it came out of a service truck. In Alaska I ran heating service and it wasn't uncommon to put 75k miles per year on a truck.

Is it possible the oil change place (which did the last several oil changes) used bulk passenger car oil like 5W-30 or 10W-30 instead of the stuff that was meant for diesels?

I so wish I knew enough to contribute to the discussion, but I don't, so I won't. However, I can can comment on the video itself, and your intent behind it......AWESOME! A touch of mystery, a bunch of discussion and a bunch of intriguing information. I wanted to stop the video and read the comments then watch more. I didn't, but that's how fascinated I was. In other words, this was informative, involving and very cleverly done. Eric, nice job!

This looks to me (a non-expert) like a 70K mile engine that was maintained well, but used abusively over a long period of time - short trips, lots of idling, maybe towing. I say tear it down and make a video if that's a better revenue generator than selling it as a rebuildable core, since it's pretty obviously not sellable as a good engine. That rod journal looked pretty rough, such that I think it'd be a hard sell to someone who wants to just slap it in their truck and drive.

Any video from you is a good video my man. In this scenario though just play it safe by making it a teardown. It'll give you peace of mind to know it all good.

the carfax tells the story on this one, even if the bearings look rough.

Love the mid week video. It was good seeing ya at the last Cars and Coffee at Holman Motors.

I was at 70,000 with the original turbo maybe it has a ton of idle time

I don't really care, but always enjoy an upload from the channel! ❤️

The bearing surfaces seem to point more towards 700K imo. Quite a fun little mystery either way

Read 50 comments, and can't resist. Truck has replacement dash/odo. Heads and turbo came off a low mileage wreck, what had been siting in the bone yard. Carfax should have shown 10 header fan motor replacements!😜

Save it, everything points to it being a good motor. But, there’s definitely more than 70k on it, and as others have stated, I feel it’s in hours.

I'm guessing 70k just because the engine is so clean both inside and outside. Great video. 👍

Just the condition of the OEM stickers makes me think 70k cuz every one I've ever worked on had them cooked off The bearings do look kinda rough but I don't know if that's normal at 70k like I know the stickers aren't normal at 150k+

Truck was about 15-16 years old when parted. It showed 68K miles in the 2013 oil change. It was local to Chicago, so it has to be low mileage. It wasn't on the highways a lot. Some kid was off by a digit at the oil change place. Randall Voss's assertion that it idled a lot seems correct. Save it.

I know it would be hard to find but I think it would be great if you got a Ford 300 or AMC i6

My 2000 built 10/99 7.3 has almost 16,000 original miles. Crew Cab, long bed, Lariat. It’s a classic!

Still has cross hatching in the cylinders!!!!! Has to be 70k !!!!!

That bore we could see had plenty of cross hatching. It’s a badly looked after 70k mile engine. Maybe lots of idling. Before it was crashed it had some oil changes which helped clean it up I suspect. I love your vids sir please keep ‘‘em up. I also am amazed you don’t have 500k subs. You will soon I bet. BTW. Has anyone told you that you look like Adam Sandler …..

I worked at a place and I personally rebuilt over 150 of these engines I could tell the year just by looking at this is a low miles there is no way that in Chicago that body and that engine held up with that little of rust for almost 700,000 I've seen vehicles with less than 70,000 rusted all the way through my bet is the first owner did all his own maintenance then it was sold to somebody else that was going to these quick change places

Depends on how much money one has in it. If you can make money on part out, then tear it down. I don't think you owe the previous garage as no one can say how many actual miles it has and the engine does need to be rebuilt/all new bearings and check cam and turbo for bearings as well. How does the water pump and high pressure oil pump feel/look? How are the injectors? You have a real mystery and to sell it, what to do your tell a buyer? Miles unknown with a 630,000 mile disparity? Tear it down, I say!!!!!!!!! Another classic "I do cars" video, young man.

Also to add to that last comment I made, I have a 1999 7.3 2 2wd f350 The odometer and the truck only has right now 8800 miles. Yes under 10,000 miles. It came out of a local plant here in East Texas it never left the plant other than to drive to town for 5 miles away to get parts. But I can guarantee you that thing probably has 20,000 hours of idle time.

It's too sketchy I would tear it down to be safe! Great video! Hey, I won't mention the Mitsubishi Mirage 3cylinder this time! OK? OK!

Considering the long gap of many years in the CarFax report, if the oil wasn’t changed (just added when needed), could account for excessive wear on the rod bearings. One thing that can’t be hid in a high mileage engine is the cylinder bore taper. Due to wear from the piston rings, the diameter of the cylinder would me much larger near the top, than the bottom of the cylinder. I’m on the 70k miles side and think the cylinder bore will be the determining factor.

If I had a good garage shop set up, I'd totally rebuild that thing. Strip it down to constituent parts, replace all wear items, full bullet proofing.

I would say that it had 70k miles driving but had 600k worth of idle time. I believe the clue is the service body on the truck it came out of, chances are high it drove to a job site and idled for long periods. I would say that the odometer jump was an input error and the wear you saw on those bearings is consistent with a high use especially high idle time engine. Probably have a good re-builder though, block, rods, crank, heads etc need refinished then R&R the rest and slap her in another truck. Love your channel and love the frankness you share with us. Keep up the good work :D

Alot of cold temp idling, pedal mashing without engine warmup and cheap dyno oil (and/or the wrong viscosity in low temps) will do that to a low mile engine. As tough as the 7.3 is, it still won't last under those conditions. My 99 7.3 Econoline van has a little over 200k on it and has been well treated and runs like brand new with over 400lbs compression/cylinder. It also has cold temp high idle 'mode' which helps with idling in the cold. Hard to tell in video but the crank journals looked ok and I would guess measure within tolerances along with the sleeves so you might just need a camshaft, rebuilt injectors (AB's for a 98), polishing, bearings, rings, seals, oil pump, gaskets, turbo sleeves and o-rings, etc.. As per some of the other comments here, the exhaust manifold bolts are nice and thick (alot thicker than mine) so it doesn't look like high mileage to me.. I've replaced or rebuilt everything but the long block on mine. Well worth rebuilding that beauty!

Having been a field mechanic for a construction company, I'd say, depending on cylinder wear pattern. I could have 689k on it, but it depends on if it was a local company or a multi-state company.

I'm guessing the two ~70k sources assumed the ones place to be tenths, because 690k miles sounds much less reasonable to most people. On the other hand I don't think two independent sources would assume ~690k over ~69k without doing a double-take