Speaking of working 5 jobs to support the cost...
That's what you don't do with a 7.3 in a real working environment, however, the non "outdated pos" engines that came after the 7.3 sure do seem to take a lot of money just to stay on the road at their stock power level.
As I've said before, the proof is in the pudding. You've got a 16,000lb backhoe sitting on a goosneck trailer and three trucks to the side of it. A 7.3 powerstroke, a 6.0L powerstroke and a 6.4L powerstroke.
A man holding a gun to your head tells you he will ride with you from coast to coast and if the truck stops for any reason other than fuel he will blow your brains across the cab.
Which truck do you pick smart ass? If you pick anything other than the 7.3... you're simply a moron.
For most people working a truck, downtime is a big time problem. Repeated downtime is simply unacceptable.
Repeated downtime has become commonplace post 7.3 powerstroke.
Seriously.
Cause a 7.3 don't give a ****...... LOL
Pretty much.
Bad fuel, dirty fuel, water in fuel, old oil, foamy oil, no oil, hitting poppet valves so on and so forth.
9 times out of 10 with EXTREME lack of maintenance the 7.3 will either just drive right on down the road like nothing's wrong, or at the very least limp along for weeks or months at a time until you can pull it in and fix the problem. It's much more likely that they will bring the load home rather than lay over on the side of the road.
Just last week one of our guys was giving me all kinds of hell about his truck losing power. With the truck being a couple hours away from me I was giving him the general rundown on checking fuel flow and such. He called me a few days later because it had eventually gotten down to the point where it would only idle and just barely pull around after weeks of getting worse and worse.
After verifying fuel flow and about two seconds of cranking it was obvious it wasn't making any ICP. The IPR was plugged in, nut securely on the IPR and with the ICP sensor unplugged still nothing.
I had already asked him before we even started if it had plenty of oil. At this point I told him to check the oil, and after a lot of bullsh*t about how he had already checked it he pulled the stick just to show me... and there was nothing on it.
After a little over 3 GALLONS of oil went in, it was back on the stick, lol. Fired right up and ran like a top. I told him he might as well toss a new filter on it now cause he was on brand new oil.
Point being.... it just kept on, and kept on, then when things were totally unmanageable, it saved itself before bearing annihilation and shut itself off.
That's not an outlier when it comes to the 7.3. Things like that when it comes to coping with extreme lack of maintenance are not the exception, they are the norm.
It doesn't make crazy power in stock form, but it can be turned up to the power of a stock 6.0 or 6.4 VERY easily, and at that power level will be far more likely to provide excellent service day in and day out, truck after truck. The others are very hit and miss. And when they miss, they seem to miss pretty hard. Like, new longblock kind of hard.
Well I'm the guy who started this thread so I appreciate the explanation of the differences. But all this oh my 6.4 pos with a tuner is so much better. Are we all forgetting that after the problems with the 6.0 and 6.4 that ford and international fell out cause they cost so much just to drive to your local walmart and get smoked by a 16 year old in his beat up 12 valve cummins farm truck on the way. All the while praying it would start when you came back out. My obs (apparently far inferior to all you badass' trucks) is pretty decent, it pulls ok and gets ok fuel mileage and parts are cheap and easy to come by so i like it and its loud cackle. So enjoy your tuned, starts if it feels like it $600.00 truck payment and ill just drive my paid for pos. So at least when that 16 year old in his cummins beats me i can tell myself its paid for and i just like it!
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Lol! I like that perfect cummins swap comment! And thanks for clearing up the ford/international fall out. Up until about 8 months ago i was a cummins owner so im a little foggy on it. I chose the obs 7.3 cause i like the body, the 7.3 is tough and for very cheap i could swap over stuff from wrecked and junked sd 7.3's and have a pretty tough truck.
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Budget OBS DD/tow formula: Early 99 intake spider, IC and pipes. 1.00 exhaust housing. Tymar intake. 3" DP to 4" open exhaust. Stage I injectors. 17* SD HPOP. Swamps, PHP, Tony wildman tunes. Reliable 325-350+ HP DD/heavy tow that will last 100's of thousands of miles. The OBS turbo is nearly bombproof and will hold that HP level and run cool with the IC doing it.
It ran pretty strong yesterday against my buddies 24 valve, so i may be happy for a while.lol.
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So does my lawnmower. I would set the bar a little.higher. Look to make a.smidge more than a stock, new truck makes.
I did a 38r, New international hpop, and stg II injectors(80&100% nozzles) and decided for the amount of money invested, it was NOT enough. I could have gotten more power out of the setup but found the sweet spot just above 400rwhp.
Next step, full fuel system ,srp1.1, and 275/200s looking for 450ish with just the 38r. Then this winter I'll get a trans built and add springs,studs and maybe pushrods. Hopefully this time next year I'll be compounded and making 5+.