Literallynothing build thread

wat

 

Build has transferred from here to Ford-trucks.com hahaha

 

That's my life right now. Little man showed up on May 7th. PTO has allowed me to get my irrigation system and lawn edging installed... just need sod and aggregate.

*Edit - Sorry, didn't realize this was your build thread. Thought we were in the CO BS

 

Lol this is basically a sub of the CO BS thread

 

Most any thread with CO members is

 

Truth

 

I'm building an OBS 7.3. The truck runs well, but has a small leak from the front cover. To fix that, I have to drop the pan, to reseal the pan, I have to pull the motor, if I'm pulling the motor, I'm going to build the shit out of it. Going for a top to bottom build. All new parts throughout, ported heads, resurfaced valve seats, new valves, valve springs, push rods, ARP head studs, ARP main studs with girdle, cam, billet connecting rods, coated and delipped pistons, balanced rotating assembly 200cc/30% injectors with T4 366sxe turbo. All the parts I am going to use will be rated for 800+hp and 4500+rpm, but with the injectors and turbo I'll use I should be putting out about 600hp and 1200lb-ft to the wheels very reliably only turning 3000prm. Pretty much doubling what the truck is putting to the ground now. Should make it fully capable for when I end up with a big gooseneck race trailer rather than the little car hauler I'm using now. Basically want to bulletproof this thing and make it strong enough that I can focus 100% on the tacoma

 

^^

 

From what I've read, the guys running this turbo/injector combo with ported heads and headers rather than a manifold have never hit concerning EGT. One even said he pulls a 18k trailer like its not there in the mountains while never climbing above 1100 EGT. I guess these heads flow like shit so porting them drastically decreases EGT

 

To be honest, even if I'm at 400/900 I'll have a huge sense of comfort knowing all of the internals are insanely overbuilt for what I'm putting it through

 

Lol you probably heard me when I was changing out my high pressure oil pump.

The tech has finally come in the last several years to make these old 7.3s put down real power. The HEUI injection system on these trucks is different from modern diesels, rather than an injection pump it uses high pressure oil (3000+psi) to run the injectors. Difficulties with that as well as the crappy turbo mounting system, and fuel bowl filtration system with a mechanical pump really hinders these motors. I've already put a regulated return fuel system in with an electric pump, and will be switching to a Borg Warner T4 turbo mounting system so that I can fit a real turbo on this thing. Basically everything upstream of the motor needs to be upgraded to really see significant power increases (which is necessary to haul heavy, especially at this altitude because these came with 215hp and 450lb-ft from the factory). The nice thing is that once you add those, the motors can push decent numbers without many internal upgrades. Until 2001 the connecting rods were forged (switched to powdered metal for some reason) and the heads are clamped down well enough that you won't have head gasket issues until 40+psi. There are a ton of people who just throw an e-fuel kit, T4 turbo, and some hybrid injectors into these things and push 400/800 on all factory internals. From what I have heard, it does it pretty reliably too. But I figure with what I'm planning turbo wise, I'll be at roughly 45psi of boost at high RPM WOT, so I might as well dig into the weeds and build it ground up. I want to do it once rather than pulling the motor multiple times. Plus, the motor has 240,000 miles on it, so I'm sure it could use some valve springs, piston rings, etc.

But, take everything I say with a grain of salt. I'm new to diesels in general, as this is the first that I have personally owned. I had a 7.3 as a work truck a 5 or 6 years ago, and it was bone stock, so I've been shocked at how well some minor modifications can really put some pep in its step. But I have done an ungodly amount of research on these 7.3s since I picked mine up. They were complex in 1995 when mine was built, but compared to new vehicles, its as simple as it gets. Right now I have dumped a lot of money into this thing, but that was mostly maintenance, and upgrading as the factory parts reached the end of their life. Ford-trucks.com is my version of TW for that truck (there are several ford forums, but thats the one I signed up on) and the info is abundant (just like here), it's just a lot slower than TW. For example, on the OBS 7.3 sub-forum there's a few posts and maybe 2 new threads each day, but its a great resource.

 

That’s the best part about the injector/turbo combo I’m going with along with the ported heads is that it will burn super clean. With good tunes, I shouldn’t be over fueling, so I shouldn’t have any rolling coal issues. This truck is so primitive that I highly doubt it would even pass emission stick lol. My county is starting to spread emissions regulations (gas vehicles recently started to be tested in my area) but when that day finally comes, I’ll find a work around . I mean this thing didn’t even have cats from the factory lol

 

Oof, good luck to that guy. Do you work a diesel shop?

 

That is a great range to shoot for. You aught to have plenty of power for the passes without having to worry about blowing shit up.

FWIW my tow tune is supposed to be putting down 400/825 ish and it has no problem hauling my shit up Vail pass and keeping up with passing slow traffic.

 

Whose tow tune?

The best one I had for my 6.0l was the Quick Tricks transmission only tune. Anything else with added fuel was pushing way too much heat at altitude