i wanna crack 800 hp.... on a budget

elrodalexander73 · Dec 8, 2014

800hp, reliable and driveable on the street maybe two different things, will it daily drive ok? yup. There's enough guys on here doing it, do they have the coin in it in the right places? yup.. Cheap, not so much... There are gobs of threads on Rods, Girdles, block fills, you'll need a top notch machinist, and if you don't have one locally there's a few shops on here that do top notch work. And it depends too, are you trying to do it on a single, or twins, single you'll need headwork and a cam, and tuning both setups need to be done "live" to get it to live, not to mention the driveline upgrades that are going to come soon after if you don't get them done prompto.. Be happy and build an affordable 600hp and play first imop, then see how much more you can stomach with just the bill to get you to that number and "live"..

gnxtc2 · Dec 8, 2014

To the OP, have you driven anything with high HP on the street? I'm not doubting your driving but most have no idea that having that much HP for the street is looking for disaster. There is no reason why you need that much power for going into the woods. If you're racing, sled pulling or other competition, then fine.

I have around 450 HP and it's more than enough to tow 23k. I have to slow down pulling hills while towing because I come up to traffic that can't pull the hill.

Just my two cents worth but it's your truck.

Billy T.
[email protected]

superpsd · Dec 8, 2014

First I'm not the OP . Second this thread got resurrected from the begining of the year. So I joined in to throw out an opinion not tell everyone with more experience on how to build a 7.3. I have not had a truck at those power levels. Only a few mustangs and camaros under 500, turbo and NA. The highest hp diesel I only rode in was a just almost 500hp lifted on 37s Duramax which was plenty enough on the street. I only put an opinion that if I was building a HP 7.3 even above 600 i personally would not use the factory block with bandaids of strength and tuning to turn down cylinder pressures. Just because you have a streetable 600+ horse 7.3 dosent mean you will be hot rodding everywhere you go. But if the block cracks it may not fail when your using all that power. You might be in the woods playing , use a little bit of torque to climb a hill and that fatigue block comes apart or even cruising down the highway. Some of these block failures have happened well under even 400hp so I have read. I also read a few posts from Swamps and other builders through the forums that a block must be thourouly checked out to even be a canidate for a high power build due to loose tolerances and porosity. So to start out your build may not even be able to use the block in your truck for a build. No problem a search for a junkyard used block will run a couple hundred. Add in machine work, block fill, girdle or bedplate costs the cost difference of the CGI block just came down some. I just stated that if I ever built a 7.3 for gobs of power I would rather have the CGI block so as to not rely so heavily on deleting torque down low to keep a weaker cast iron block from becoming two blocks.

elrodalexander73 · Dec 8, 2014

Do you know what the cost of a 7.3 CGI block is, enough to justify tuning and alot of other things like girdles and block filling, not to mention you're already gonna be using billet stuff at that point, alot of engines not just the 7.3 tune the cylinder pressures lower in the lower rpm where piston speed is lower and the ability to bend rods and crack blocks is. The almighty Cummins 6.7 suffers the same fate, they are cracking lower cylinder bores because of toooo much torque... Torque we are a equally making with P-pumped 7.3s, so it doesn't matter which platform you build, tuning plays a huge part in making live. I only know of two trucks, lunatic fringe and double o that ran CGI blocks and they are both north of 1500hp... 600hp and good tuning can be had for a long time as long you drive it with reason and monitor back pressure and know how to drive your truck... Contact swamps and see what they say..

bruce · Dec 8, 2014

Should have just bought Luke's hrt engine. 7500 was cheap!

02BigD · Dec 8, 2014

bruce said:
Should have just bought Luke's hrt engine. 7500 was cheap!

Made me wish I had a need for it.

Just a thought about cgi vs factory block...one still have to go through all the same machining for each block. So it really boils down to do you want to spend all that extra money on something that has proven to be reliable at 600-800 hp? It's not like 7.3's are splitting blocks like 6 liters blow head gaskets.

Powerstroker7.3 · Dec 8, 2014

elrodalexander73 said:
800hp, reliable and driveable on the street maybe two different things, will it daily drive ok? yup. There's enough guys on here doing it, do they have the coin in it in the right places? yup.. Cheap, not so much... There are gobs of threads on Rods, Girdles, block fills, you'll need a top notch machinist, and if you don't have one locally there's a few shops on here that do top notch work. And it depends too, are you trying to do it on a single, or twins, single you'll need headwork and a cam, and tuning both setups need to be done "live" to get it to live, not to mention the driveline upgrades that are going to come soon after if you don't get them done prompto.. Be happy and build an affordable 600hp and play first imop, then see how much more you can stomach with just the bill to get you to that number and "live"..

You are completely right about all this. I got smokinstroker92 to build my motor. A lot of money was spent to ensure I wouldn't grenade my motor. I also have head porting and a cam to make my single spool well but I agree it is a good dd but would not be the best heavy tower

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psduser1 · Dec 8, 2014

Good god this thread is a mess....

dieselmandustin · Dec 8, 2014

I understand the whole rather be safe than sorry concept. If your going for big hp it gets really expensive really quick and most only want to build a motor once. But a good factory block with a girdle or bed plate, billet rods and a partial fill should hold anything that you can throw at it. And if your concerned about overheating while towing you could always have the block and crank cryo treated rather than fill it. And still have less in it then a cgi costs.