Ford 7.3 Diesel...only 185 HP

[v10superduty]

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.:S

Then came a Turbo IDI, still gutless but tough and a puller.

Then came the one many on here call the "best" diesel Ford had, the
7.3 DI Turbo so there was basically 3 versions of the 7.3 over the years.

For you younger guys who weren't around then, the 7.3 was NOT Fords first diesel.
That was the 6.9 IDI at about 160 HP in the early 80s.

Just reminiscing after reading bout all the 500HP high tech, high maintenance, high cost, current diesel engines here on the RV forums.. :B

[majorgator]

Turtle n Peeps wrote:

majorgator wrote:

ib516 wrote:

The only thing you can fairly compare it to is a 96 Ford or GM diesel which were even more gutless.

As an owner of a '96 F350 PSD, I greatly disagree with such a comment 😉
I think the sticker on the side of my 7.3 says 215 HP, but after only a few mods that joker will put you in the back of your seat just as good as many of the newer diesels. I'm at about 270K miles now, and have ZERO interest in upgrading any time soon. The most I've pulled was about 9K pounds without trouble. I've been considering moving to a 5th wheel in the 9k to 11k weight range, and the only thing I would add for pulling this is an intercooler (due to the aftermarket stage 1 injectors).

Well ya, look where you live! LOL, you live in the pool table state. Try towing that 11K up a few grades in Co and see what happens. :E
It only takes about 100 to 125 HP to tow that load on the flat and level at 60 MPH.
Take it to a 6% grade and see what happens. You will meet Mr. 20's MPH real quick! :B

Nah, not really. I've had it on some steep grades and no trouble maintaining speed. Its all about the EGT's and lack of intercooler. The only times I've ever slowed down was just to be running out of OD so the EGT's wouldn't climb so high.

On a side note, people always seem to think of FL has a flat state. Well, that's not exactly true. While we aren't climbing mountains up here in North FL, there are many steep hills very close together.

[nevadanick]

I pulled my 35ft King of the Road with a 97 Ford PSD and going up 50 towards Lake Tahoe i never went under 55. A CHP kept pulling along side me in the passing lanes and then drop back when it went to single lane. He finally stopped me and when he came up to the truck told me i had done nothing wrong, he just wanted to know about the truck as he was in the market for a new one and couldnt believe i could maintain the speed limit. That truck had a chip added.

[Tystevens]

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!)

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

majorgator wrote:

ib516 wrote:

The only thing you can fairly compare it to is a 96 Ford or GM diesel which were even more gutless.

As an owner of a '96 F350 PSD, I greatly disagree with such a comment 😉
I think the sticker on the side of my 7.3 says 215 HP, but after only a few mods that joker will put you in the back of your seat just as good as many of the newer diesels. I'm at about 270K miles now, and have ZERO interest in upgrading any time soon. The most I've pulled was about 9K pounds without trouble. I've been considering moving to a 5th wheel in the 9k to 11k weight range, and the only thing I would add for pulling this is an intercooler (due to the aftermarket stage 1 injectors).

Well ya, look where you live! LOL, you live in the pool table state. Try towing that 11K up a few grades in Co and see what happens. :E
It only takes about 100 to 125 HP to tow that load on the flat and level at 60 MPH.
Take it to a 6% grade and see what happens. You will meet Mr. 20's MPH real quick! :B

[majorgator]

ib516 wrote:

The only thing you can fairly compare it to is a 96 Ford or GM diesel which were even more gutless.

As an owner of a '96 F350 PSD, I greatly disagree with such a comment 😉
I think the sticker on the side of my 7.3 says 215 HP, but after only a few mods that joker will put you in the back of your seat just as good as many of the newer diesels. I'm at about 270K miles now, and have ZERO interest in upgrading any time soon. The most I've pulled was about 9K pounds without trouble. I've been considering moving to a 5th wheel in the 9k to 11k weight range, and the only thing I would add for pulling this is an intercooler (due to the aftermarket stage 1 injectors).

[hotpepperkid]

I have a 2000 F-350 with a PSD 7.3 with 200,095 miles. It have been chipped since about 30,000 miles and I have the original transmission. It pulls my 11,000 lb 5er just fine. Talked to a guy last summer in Bryce Cyn who was pulling I think the largest TT I have ever seen with a 2000 7.3 and he had 350,000 miles on his. My 14 yr old grand daughter wants my 7.3, its hers in a few years.

[colliehauler]

You know the new motors have lots more power and how long the last is yet to be determined. I'm sure they will have longevity. My old 7.3 might be underpowered by today's standards but it has always pulled my RV just fine and always made it home.

Unless Ford builds another Excursion (highly unlikely) I will keep my old 7.3.

[kevin_shelly]

This is a great discussion. What tatest said got me thinking. I have a 1996 Powerstroke with the 7.3 that I have done some mods on. I have a 60 hp chip, and am always tempted to add more power in order to pull my fifth wheel up the grades faster.
However, the addition of larger injectors and other power adders must have an affect on engine longevity and durability, don't they? How about today's high horsepower engines? Will they have the longevity of the tried and true engines that had the potential to go 500,000 to 1,000,000 miles?

[tatest]

RobertRyan wrote:

ib516 wrote:
When dad had the GM dealership, we had a 1982 2500 tow truck with a 6.2L diesel, 4.11 axles, and a "farmer" 4 speed standard. It had L-1-2-3 and Reverse. It could barely go hwy speed without red lining. It had enough power to pull a car or another truck, but that's about it, and hills when towing required a lot of patience. It was rated at 130hp/240tq :E

Then we got a 3500 DRW with a 6.5L turbo diesel, and a 5 speed stick. It was a rocketship in comparison! It was somewhere around 190hp/380tq. Still pathetic compared to the monster power makers we have today.

Now you have 3 litre diesels putting out 200hp and 400ft lbs for Pickups. 3 litre V6 SUV's putting out close to 300hp and 540lbs ft of torque

SUVs that use about 40 HP of that 300 to cruise at 70-80 MPH.

[tatest]

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.

[Hannibal]

ib516 wrote:
The only thing you can fairly compare it to is a 96 Ford or GM diesel which were even more gutless.

This is true. I raced my friend in his SD diesel. I took him by one car length and was grinning from ear to ear until the Prius blew around both of us.

[ib516]

JustLabs wrote:

The Mad Norsky wrote:

Hannibal wrote:
Back in '94 folks said of the Cummins Ram, if you can hitch it to it, hit'll pull it. So I bought a '95 Cummins Ram. Couldn't wait to tow with it! What a disappointment. And the speedo was 5mph off so 65 was actually only 60. Foot to the floor in O/D economy gear because it couldn't downshift to use direct towing gear. But it was a Cummins Ram so I made all the excuses for it and bored my family and friends to tears with how wonderful it was to have a big rig engine in my pickup truck.:B

I had a 96 Ram 2500 Cummins. 3:55 rear axle. Great, I mean really great fuel economy. But OMG it was gutless.

Had a little, oh gosh memory fades now, but small Komfort fifth wheel we towed. Less than 30 feet if memory serves me. Truck would get to cruising speed of say 60 MPH fairly good, but that's all it had, nothing left to accelerate with. did I say gutless???? :B

I always get a chuckle when someone tells me how great the old Cummins were to tow with. My buddy had an early 90s Ram for quite a few years. That thing couldn't pull a greased string out of a cat's butt.

The only thing you can fairly compare it to is a 96 Ford or GM diesel which were even more gutless.

[Hannibal]

JustLabs wrote:

The Mad Norsky wrote:

Hannibal wrote:
Back in '94 folks said of the Cummins Ram, if you can hitch it to it, hit'll pull it. So I bought a '95 Cummins Ram. Couldn't wait to tow with it! What a disappointment. And the speedo was 5mph off so 65 was actually only 60. Foot to the floor in O/D economy gear because it couldn't downshift to use direct towing gear. But it was a Cummins Ram so I made all the excuses for it and bored my family and friends to tears with how wonderful it was to have a big rig engine in my pickup truck.:B

I had a 96 Ram 2500 Cummins. 3:55 rear axle. Great, I mean really great fuel economy. But OMG it was gutless.

Had a little, oh gosh memory fades now, but small Komfort fifth wheel we towed. Less than 30 feet if memory serves me. Truck would get to cruising speed of say 60 MPH fairly good, but that's all it had, nothing left to accelerate with. did I say gutless???? :B

I always get a chuckle when someone tells me how great the old Cummins were to tow with. My buddy had an early 90s Ram for quite a few years. That thing couldn't pull a greased string out of a cat's butt.

They had enough flywheel torque to pull a cat inside out butt, once you cut that 400 ft/lbs of torque by 31% through O/D, you had a mere 276ft/lbs to the drive shaft. The cat wins.
On the positive side, my '95 12v Cummins Ram did lose it's fuel cut off solenoid one day while on my work route. Being mechanically inclined, I knew to rap a tie wrap around the solenoid to hold it up so I could start the truck and head for the Dodge shop. Luckily, they had one in stock and it was an easy replacement.

[RobertRyan]

ib516 wrote:
When dad had the GM dealership, we had a 1982 2500 tow truck with a 6.2L diesel, 4.11 axles, and a "farmer" 4 speed standard. It had L-1-2-3 and Reverse. It could barely go hwy speed without red lining. It had enough power to pull a car or another truck, but that's about it, and hills when towing required a lot of patience. It was rated at 130hp/240tq :E

Then we got a 3500 DRW with a 6.5L turbo diesel, and a 5 speed stick. It was a rocketship in comparison! It was somewhere around 190hp/380tq. Still pathetic compared to the monster power makers we have today.

Now you have 3 litre diesels putting out 200hp and 400ft lbs for Pickups. 3 litre V6 SUV's putting out close to 300hp and 540lbs ft of torque

[The_Mad_Norsky]

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.