- Best recommendation in the comment section
is gonna win a free t-shirt.
They say that heroes lasts forever,
but legends never die.
- [Man] Heroes get remembered
but legends never die.
- After all that's why guys like Burt Reynolds
and Jerry Reed will forever be remembered
as the dynamic duo who ran from Atlanta to Texarkana
and back with 400 cases of Coors in just over a day.
God, I love that movie.
Burt Reynolds, a Trans-Am,
and of course the star of the show, in my opinion,
a long-nosed KW with a wicked cool Western paint job.
It just,
it just doesn't get any better than that, guys.
And much like the Old Bandit will always be remembered,
there are a few diesel engines out there
that just seem to never, ever die,
both figuratively and literally here folks.
But perhaps the most notable, most rememorable,
and dare I say the most legendary diesel engine
to ever be produced, ever,
came from the one and only Ford Motor Company.
I'm Dustin with Custom Offsets,
you guys can follow me on the Instagram @DUSTI.CO,
and today we are sitting down to chat about
the Old Reliable of diesel engines,
the iconic, and the legendary.
So you want a 7.3 Powerstroke.
(dramatic electronic music)
Now regardless which side of the fence you're on,
if you're a Dodge, or a Chevy, or you're even a Ford guy,
it's inevitable that you've at least heard of
the 7.3 Powerstroke and it's iconic nature.
You just can't escape it, it's everywhere.
But what exactly made this engine so iconic?
Why does it have a cult-like following,
because let's face it,
7.3 guys are basically a cult by all definitions.
And better yet, what happened to the old 7.3 over the years?
Good news here is we're gonna get to all of that
in just a moment.
But before we do let's have a quick chat
about where this legendary engine came from.
We have to establish a baseline, if you would.
Introduced in 1994,
the 7.3 Powerstroke would forever change the diesel world
as we knew it.
The love child of a beautiful relationship
between Navistar International and Ford,
Ford took the industry by storm
replacing the otherwise gutless 6.9
and 7.3 liter IDI engines of the past.
This new Powerstroke engine offered
significantly more reliability, more power,
and was overall a huge success for the old blue oval.
In terms of power they really put the numbers down,
making a staggering 210 horsepower
and 425 pound feet of torque.
While not extravagant by today's standards were-
- Mm, that's terrible. It's terrible.
- Some modern are putting out torque numbers
in the four digits.
At the time this was quite a bit more
than both Cummins and the GM diesels of the era,
which each put out sub 200 horsepower apiece.
Take that, GM and Dodge.
While not nearly as technologically advanced
as the diesels of today,
the 7.3 Powerstroke was a simple engine
and it just plain worked.
It featured a cast iron block and cylinder heads,
it had six head bolts per cylinder,
and had two valves per cylinder which is,
well, that's pretty standard back then, right.
This simplicity along with the fact
that this engine was actually built to be used
in a medium duty line of trucks under a different name,
the T444E,
is what helped keep these trucks running for a long time.
They were overly built, they were under tuned,
and they were simplistic by design.
There's just no denying that the 7.3 ran free
a long, long time.
There've been several cases of these engines
on the OBS F-250 and F-350 chassis
that have turned over half a million miles.
And word on the street
is that there's actually a few documented cases
of these trucks that have turned over a million miles
with very minimal inputs.
That's a lot of windshield time.
(bee screaming)
Despite being simple in nature,
at the time of the release the 7.3s did create
a few technological advances that would set the stage
for the diesel engines of the 2000s,
See, the 7.3 would be the first engine
to offer hydraulic electric unit injectors
or HEUI or HEUI or whatever you,
I'm not even really sure how you're supposed to say it.
But either way these injectors would be
electronically controlled but used oil pressure
to drive significantly more pressure in the diesel fuel
at the injector.
This created a better burn and ultimately made more power.
In 2003,
the 7.3 would also get an air-to-air intercooler
because those OBSs are not intercooled,
helping keep those intake temps low.
Aiding in the reliability of these trucks is that,
quite honestly, they just didn't make enough power
to tear themselves apart.
Because they were built so much heavier
than the power they made,
they truly didn't make enough horsepower and torque
to really push any of the engine internals
to a point where they didn't belong.
As we say around here though,
it's not always rainbows and unicorns
when we look at an engine,
and this is the case for the 7.3 Powerstroke.
Now while sure the 7.3 is a pretty reliable engine,
there are still a few known issues with them.
For example,
while the new HEUI injection system provided more power,
it also did require an HPOP
or high pressure oil pump, right.
You have to build the pressure
to make the injector go (mimics injector).
On that pump is an injection pressure regulator
or IPR for short.
These IPRs can go bad,
they can get sticky and they can leak down
if the seals start to wear out.
Along the same lines is the cam position sensor
or CNP for short because that makes sense.
It just tends to wear out with the age of the truck.
Outside of that though,
most of the common engine problems
that we've heard of what the 7.3
are mostly just maintenance related honestly.
Things like connectors on harnesses failing,
clogging fuel filters, and other pesky maintenance issues
can be expected with these trucks.
I mean, after all,
we are talking about a diesel that's older than Biggs here,
and I think actually older than Jared too.
Before we go any further,
just a quick reminder that we actually carry
some performance parts.
So if you have a 7.3 Powerstroke,
or really any other truck for that matter,
and you want a few extra horsepower we can help.
You can check all that out at customoffsets.com.
So where did this legendary engine go?
Why would Ford discontinue such an iconic power plant?
One word: emissions.
While the 7.3 was a great diesel engine,
it did leave much to be desired
when it came to fuel efficiency
and overall emissions performance.
The fixed vane turbo on the 7.3 meant that it didn't spool
until you were well into the RPM band,
and while it did roll a fair bit of coal
if that's what you're into,
it definitely didn't do these trucks any favors
in terms of overall emissions output.
Ford,
seeing all of the new emissions regulations on the horizon,
knew that the Old Yeller 7.3,
it wasn't going to cut the cake when it came time
to clean up our diesel engines.
Replacing the 7.3 with the ever controversial
six liter Powerstroke in 2003,
and well, we all know how that went.
We actually did a video on the six liter by the way,
which you can find here or,
yeah, it's here I think.
Maybe it's, I'm not really sure.
With all that being said, though,
why would you want a 27-year old diesel engine here in 2022?
Despite the fact that it's getting extremely difficult
to find clean examples of these trucks,
there is something extremely nostalgic about them.
I mean, most guys and gals my age
have at least one or two good stories
about how the dad or uncle or grandpa or neighbor
or mentor or friend or second cousins best friend
or something like that had one of these
when you were growing up
and you mobbed around the county lines with it.
Additionally, despite the fact that many of these trucks
have their fair share of miles on them,
making decent power in them is relatively easy
and they still remain,
for the most part, relatively reliable.
These trucks just kind of do it all.
They look good, they last forever,
and they'll pull a damn house if you hook it up behind them.
Just don't expect to skip any fuel stops
as they definitely aren't
the most fuel efficient engines out there.
Ask Jared, I think when we towed down
to Lifted Truck Nationals,
he got like seven miles to the gallon
with a Bronco behind him.
Still, how wicked does that dooley look
with the Bronco on the back?
I mean, it just looks so good.
Enough out of me, what do you guys think?
Would you own a 7.3 Powerstroke?
Let us know down in the comments section below.
And if you guys have an episode that you want to see,
(indistinct) so you want, let us know down there as well,
Best recommendation in the comment section
is gonna win a free t-shirt.
With that, I'm Dustin with Custom Offsets.
I'll see you guys on the next one.
Peace.
(energetic trap music)