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.:...
Forum Discussion
tatest wrote:
Early diesels were about lifetime operating costs, not about horsepower races for marketing purposes. Most of the high horsepower diesels in pickups today will scale back to sustainable power outputs not much higher than the ratings for similar size engines of the 60s and 70s, which were ratings for 100% duty cycle rather than ratings for drag racing.
Yeah, but they were really slow! The 350 gas engine in our family's Suburban at the time felt significantly more powerful than the 6.9 Ford and 6.2 GM. Funny how I hated driving the diesels back then!
(Of course, I was a teenager and could not have cared less about longevity or 100% duty cycles!)
