7.3L Conversion

[DiamondSCattleCo]

The neighbor is trying to sell me his <gasp> Ford 3/4 ton 7.3L Diesel to be used as a work truck. I've had some experience with the 7.3s, and I know they're a pretty tough engine, but this is the non-powerstroke variety and underpowered. What I was wondering is if anyone had turbo'ed and intercooled a standard 7.3. Flaboy, you ever heard of anyone doing this? From what I remember, about the only difference between a standard 7.3 and the Powerstroke was the Powerstroke had slightly smaller injectors.

Rod

 

[Herefordcross]

It's far easier to get a 7.3 powerstroke engine out of a salvage yard and drop it in but, make sure you get the computers/sensors and everything else off of the firewall. Some years they would bolt right up others they would not.

 

[DiamondSCattleCo]

Hereford, I'm not really all that interested in turning this engine into a genuine Powerstroke, especially not with a whack of electronics. Bolting on a turbo and intercooler and adjusting a manual fuel pump is pretty easy work, I just wanted to ensure that all the necessary mounting holes are where they need to be. Nothing worse than pulling everything down only to find out that you need to custom fabricate a bunch of stuff.

Rod

 

[cfpinz]

The neighbor is trying to sell me his <gasp> Ford 3/4 ton 7.3L Diesel to be used as a work truck. I've had some experience with the 7.3s, and I know they're a pretty tough engine, but this is the non-powerstroke variety and underpowered. What I was wondering is if anyone had turbo'ed and intercooled a standard 7.3. Flaboy, you ever heard of anyone doing this? From what I remember, about the only difference between a standard 7.3 and the Powerstroke was the Powerstroke had slightly smaller injectors.

Rod

The powerstrokes use electric-over-hydraulic injectors where as your old 7.3 and 6.9s use manual injectors. Not even in the same ball park. I have seen a few older motors with the banks turbo units installed and most owners are pleased but say they are still not as powerful as the powerstrokes. I bought a used banks kit off ebay 3 years ago to put on one of my old 6.9 trucks but the truck hasn't set still long enough for me to put the turbo on it yet. If its not going to be loaded a majority of the time, I prefer the old mechanical engines, much easier and cheaper to work on. Plus they last, I've got one 6.9 with just under 350k and another with just over 200k. The 350k motor has never had a head off.

cfpinz

 

[dcara]

About the best I could offer is this link to the user group web site. Someone there could probably tell you what you want to know.

http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/forum ... forumid=31

 

[DiamondSCattleCo]

your old 7.3 and 6.9s use manual injectors.

Hmmmm, I didn't realize this. I thought the older 7.3s still used those goofy hydraulic injectors, only the actuator, instead of being electric was controlled by a lobe on the camshaft.

As far as the Banks stuff goes, I won't go near it with a 10 foot pole. I've still got some smaller turbos kicking around here that we used as secondaries on twins. I'll fab that mounting hardware, as long as the exhaust and intercooler off a Powerstroke will bolt up.

Rod

 

[flaboy-]

Rod, all of the 7.3's I have dealt with use both high pressure fuel (as you know) and high pressure oil for the injector system.

The Injector Driver Module will supply the voltage to the injector to open the poppet valve allowing high pressure oil to flow into the intensifier piston. The end result is the fuel gets pressurized in the injector. When the proper PSI is reached the fuel is released into the cylinder.

I think the old 6.9 operates manually though.

When buying an old 7.3 my biggest concern would be IF the owner knew to put FW16 or DCA4 in the radiator every 15K miles. Without this the 7.3 had cylinder cavitation problems.

 

[cfpinz]

Rod, all of the 7.3's I have dealt with use both high pressure fuel (as you know) and high pressure oil for the injector system.

Have you ever seen any of those injectors in a '88 to early '94 model 7.3? The way I understand it, Ford (International) went to the newer electric/hydraulic injectors when they introduced the powerstroke engine in late '94. The earlier 7.3s and all 6.9s used mechanical injectors. My cousin put new injectors in a '91 with a 7.3 for a man a few years back and when I rebuilt the injection pump on my '87 6.9 the shop said my injectors were trash, so we put the '91 7.3 injectors into the 6.9 with no issues. They were better than the ones I had and I didn't feel like shelling out $35/piece for new injectors for a truck with over 250k on it at the time. The '94 and up powerstroke injectors hover somewhere around $250/each. Ouch.

cfpinz

 

[flaboy-]

Rod, all of the 7.3's I have dealt with use both high pressure fuel (as you know) and high pressure oil for the injector system.

Have you ever seen any of those injectors in a '88 to early '94 model 7.3? The way I understand it, Ford (International) went to the newer electric/hydraulic injectors when they introduced the powerstroke engine in late '94. The earlier 7.3s and all 6.9s used mechanical injectors. My cousin put new injectors in a '91 with a 7.3 for a man a few years back and when I rebuilt the injection pump on my '87 6.9 the shop said my injectors were trash, so we put the '91 7.3 injectors into the 6.9 with no issues. They were better than the ones I had and I didn't feel like shelling out $35/piece for new injectors for a truck with over 250k on it at the time. The '94 and up powerstroke injectors hover somewhere around $250/each. Ouch.

cfpinz

No, my dad had a 6.9 but I never had to work on it. I will FREELY admit I am not an expert and my knowledge or lack thereof is 94 and up. I was playin with gas engines prior to that.

 

[DiamondSCattleCo]

When buying an old 7.3 my biggest concern would be IF the owner knew to put FW16 or DCA4 in the radiator every 15K miles. Without this the 7.3 had cylinder cavitation problems.

Thats one of the reasons I'm seriously looking at this truck. Its got an almost brand new engine, and a brand spankin' new transfer case. And the price is going to be right. Ford's have no value in my neck of the woods, and there was nothing wrong with the old 7.3s and 6.9s (or the Powerstoke 7.3s for that matter).

I'm glad to hear that the old 7.3s used a manual fuel pressure pop-off injector. That means I can pull them easily, and the injector pump itself should have timing/tuning adjustments on it somewhere....

Rod

 

[cfpinz]

The injector pump will have a timing mark on the top of the round mating surface in front which corresponds with the mark on the top gear cover to which it bolts. You'll have to take an access cover off in front to remove the bolts (12 pt) that hold the gear to the pump shaft (dowel pin aligned) and then remove the three nuts holding the pump to the gear cover. The bottom two nuts can be a bear to get to, helps to have a 30/60 degree angle wrench like the ones Snap-On sells (http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item...3&group_ID=560&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog). Sometimes its necessary to remove the top studs in order to get the pump to come out with the lines attached but not always. Between my father and myself, we own 4 6.9s, I can do this in my sleep. I timed myself last time just for shitts and giggles, under 30 minutes from popping the hood til cleaning tools.

cfpinz