I couldn't resist posting this picture.

[DonFitzwater]

Funniest thing I've seen in a while.

 

[JMetzger]

I love it !!!!!!!!

 

[mwilson]

Two Thumbs Up!!!!!!



Mike.

 

[dieselpowered]

That's great.

Henry.

 

[TFucili]

"... keep Triple A, my friend"!

 

[Slow Six]

This would apply to some Power Stroker along I-15 south of SLC today pulling a fiver and a toy. He was on the shoulder with hood up. Don't know what was wrong as I couldn't stop due to traffic. It does feel good to be driving the little six banger.

 

[KB0OU]

I have had plenty of V8's, both gas and diesel. I'll keep my 6... ... .

 

[JR]

Thats good stuff!

I hauled a Mustang 300 miles down to Cincinnatti for a friend about a month ago. We were cruising along at about 70 mph when I noticed a nice shiny Ford coming up on me pretty quick. He was hauling a pretty good sized Case backhoe on a monstor dual wheeled tandem goose neck trailer, had to be close to a 40 footer. He blew by us like we were standing still. My friend jokingly poked at me and said "You need one of them rigs from the looks of it" I said no thanks, Ill stick to my baby at least I know well make it home tonight. It wasnt maybe 100 miles down the freeway and there he was sitting on the side of the road, truck hitched to a tow truck and another truck hitching on to the trailer. I looked over at my friend and smiled . Nuff said.

 

[Grizzly]

Good one!!!

 

[Missouri Mule]

The 6. 9,7. 3 and 7. 3 power stroke were good engines but the 6. 0 on up are junk!

 

[Wayne M.]

The 6. 9,7. 3 and 7. 3 power stroke were good engines but the 6. 0 on up are junk!

Been chuckling the whole thread. Isn't it something that back in the day we hated the 7. 3, but in hindsight it really isn't a BAD engine like the junk that came after it. :-laf

 

[MLee]

Their still trimg to create the engine that shOULDa, Coulda, Wooda, OOOOOOh Darn, not another one!!!!!!!!!

 

[Wayne M.]

This is the truth. In 2005 or 6 my job was getting 6. 0's in various trucks. With it came official Ford fleet training by who wound up being an awesome instructor. A Ford engineer. I remember soon after we got out of the bottom end and into the heads and fuel system etc, he started making excuses and started begging not to kill the messenger etc. he knew the engine was going to be trouble. He stood up for the transmission though.

 

[AClayton]

You can always detect a 6. 0 with problems in front of you on the Interstate when you start noticing that nauseous smell coming through your vents! All you need to do is look ahead for a Powerstroke powered bus or pickup to locate the source. That smell is so toxic that it always gives me a headache! I will be so glad when those trucks finally start disappearing off our roads.

 

[TFucili]

The 6. 9,7. 3 and 7. 3 power stroke were good engines but the 6. 0 on up are junk!

As the previous victim/owner of two 6. 9s, '86 and '87, I would take them off the OK list.

 

[Wayne M.]

I took care of 6. 9 & 7. 3 Ambulances moons ago. The only 6. 9 issues I remember we're the injector o rings and glow plug issues. Another true story. At said establishment, it was ALWAYS an issue to get these buses started and out of the barn if it was even chilly.
At the time I had my '92 CTD, and the EMT's couldn't believe how it started cold compared to those buses.

 

[rscurtis]

I had both a late "B" model 6. 9 and an early 7. 3. Both weren't bad engines. The 6. 9 was a better starter, but not as clean running as the 7. 3. Everything on a 7. 3 had to be perfect for a cold start. A lot of the money that was saved on fuel went back into glow plugs and controllers. I finally learned my lesson, and bought the OEM Beru GP's from Ford. I would venture that a lot of the starting problems were a result of aftermarket GP's. Mechanically, it was a good engine, and better than anything GM had at the time.

 

[mwilson]

I had both a late "B" model 6. 9 and an early 7. 3. Both weren't bad engines. The 6. 9 was a better starter, but not as clean running as the 7. 3. Everything on a 7. 3 had to be perfect for a cold start. A lot of the money that was saved on fuel went back into glow plugs and controllers. I finally learned my lesson, and bought the OEM Beru GP's from Ford. I would venture that a lot of the starting problems were a result of aftermarket GP's. Mechanically, it was a good engine, and better than anything GM had at the time.

We had some of each, the 6. 9's were equipped with 6 volt glow plugs. Any little glitch in the controller and the GP's would fry.

The 7. 3's had 12 volt GP's so after we got tired of buying controllers, timers or whatever they were we installed push buttons on the dash to control the GP's. As they were 12 volt you could hold the button in as long as you wanted without fear of burning them out.

The last couple of 6. 9's that we had I unhooked the GP's completely and used a little squirt of starting fluid instead. Way cheaper and more reliable.



Mike

 

[rscurtis]

Most every diesel engine except the early '78 Oldsmobiles uses low-voltage glow plugs. It was done to reduce the glow time to what the public would tolerate. IIRC, the early Olds used 12V plugs which took 90 seconds to warm up. By using 6V plugs, glow time could be reduced by pulsing the power- until things went wrong as you pointed out. A mechanic on one of the Ford truck forums I used to frequent tested some different make GP's to see what would happen when they were fed a straight 12V without modulation. Some would quickly fail (and expand), but the Beru's would not. That's when I started using OEM parts. I had been using Champions or AC's or whatever the local NAPA store had, and was always chasing one or two burned out GP's- which on the later resistance-based systems, would render the GP system useless. Earlier systems that sensed coolant temperature would at least still work with a couple of bad GP's.

 

[TFucili]

The '86 ate glow plug relays like Doritos. I always carried a spare in the glove box. The '87 never had that issue. I think I replaced the glow plugs in the '86 once, so that was not a big issue. Both had terrible oil consumption issues. We got the '86 in a hurry because one of our drivers had totaled another unit. It was transferred in from an out of state dealer and got to us with 400 miles on the ODO and it was two quarts down. That rate of consumption continued, as I fought with Ford for 18 months. They re-ringed it and it abated for a short while and then returned to its old ways. The '87 was not quite as bad, but still had an oil consumption problem. Both engines had the nylon retainer on the timing advance control fail and send debris through the pumps at very low miles. There was more, but suffice it to say I found them to be very disappointing engines. Would have done better with 460s and just kept exhaust manifolds in stock...