Ford 7.3 Diesel...only 185 HP
Hard to believe that the first 7.3 was only 185 horsepower. Was also IDI (In Direct Injection) and non turbo for those who were not paying attention to diesel powered trucks back in the late 80's.:...
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I think my 96 had the torque to get things moving just fine. It was just there was a very low limit on what power it did have.
My worst time with it was pulling the fifth wheel one day, doing about 60 MPH and came up on a SLOW vehicle on a two lane highway.
Of course I knew I needed a lot of space to pass, so had to wait for a long open stretch of road.
Things finally opened up and I pulled over to pass and floored it. Yep, almost nothing happened. Seems like it took forever, just barely, gradually increasing speed up to the 65 MPH mark and to where I could pass the very slow vehicle.
I knew at that point the truck didn't have anything left to give me. Horrible feeling, being stuck passing on a two lane road with no power left to accelerate with and get safely back into your lane.
Mind you, liked the truck and not long afterwards traded it for a 2001 Ram 2500, again with Cummins, but 4:10 axle and a five speed manual. Good truck, but the five speed really, really could have used another gear.
My worst time with it was pulling the fifth wheel one day, doing about 60 MPH and came up on a SLOW vehicle on a two lane highway.
Of course I knew I needed a lot of space to pass, so had to wait for a long open stretch of road.
Things finally opened up and I pulled over to pass and floored it. Yep, almost nothing happened. Seems like it took forever, just barely, gradually increasing speed up to the 65 MPH mark and to where I could pass the very slow vehicle.
I knew at that point the truck didn't have anything left to give me. Horrible feeling, being stuck passing on a two lane road with no power left to accelerate with and get safely back into your lane.
Mind you, liked the truck and not long afterwards traded it for a 2001 Ram 2500, again with Cummins, but 4:10 axle and a five speed manual. Good truck, but the five speed really, really could have used another gear.
