What can you do with a 7.3 IDI?

[AMink]

My friend has a '94 F350 with the 7. 3 IDI engine. It is turbo charged. He is hoping to get some more power out of it, but wants to keep it reliable. What can he hope for out of that engine? It runs well, but is pretty anemic, especially up the hills with a load. It does smoke pretty good up the hills, like it needs more air. Any ideas?

 

[LBARTLETT]

try here and you'll get more information and responses, I have to go there every now and then to keep my wife's 04' 6. 0 piece of s**t running, it ran out of warranty in Dec. with 92k miles on it and I've spent $5,000 on it in Feb. & March to keep the damm thing running as she's buried in it in this used truck market, good thing I love her, I tried to buy her a Dodge



Ford Powerstroke Forum

 

[AABEN]

Yes go to banks and look what they have. A good frend in AZ had his set up with BANKS and it ran good and was a good work truck. Pulled 30ft fith wheel and a house boat at the same time and out ran all the new fords and out pulled then BAD. The 7. 3 was ford best engine!!

 

[radcam]

Is the engine gauged. Like any diesel you don't want to modify anything before you know what is going on.



That being said there isn't too much you can do to the old IDI to make it too much stronger if it is already turbo'd, and everything is working properly. You should never see more than 10-11 psi with the IDI, they are a very high compresion engine,(iirc 24:1) so any more than 10psi boost for any length of time and she go boom.



If it is a factory turbo it was made by ATS. You can change out the downpipe. The stock one is flattened out where the ATS aftermarket one is not. Not sure how hard these are to get now, but you use to be able to get them directly from ATS. Be warned they are a PITA to remove. Make sure the intake is as free flowing as possible. The pump can be turned up some, but it sounds like your friend isn't burning all he has now.



Check out Oilburners.net there are still some IDI guys that hangout there, and I'm sure your friend can get some helpful info there.

 

[AMink]

Thanks all. We'll be looking into those other sites.

 

[BDaugherty]

With the old IDI 7. 3s, massive power increases aren't realistic. However, gauges, less restricive intake and exhaust, and possibly a wastegate adjustment will allow you to adjust the fuel screw some. Start with very small adjustments and work your way up until EGT becomes and issue. Then back it off just a fuzz. These engines (to my knowledge) don't have piston cooling jets and can't take as much heat as our beloved Cummins. I seem to remember that 1200 is pretty much max for a IDI 7. 3... but don't take my word for it. Do some reading. The sites previously mentioned will be a great start.

 

[JUeckert]

the 7. 3 idi had a comp ratio around the 22. 5:1 ratio, and did have piston cooling jets. they did use the ats turbo unit, and put trq out around 385lbs ish. they hit the lots watered down, because the powerstroke was due the next year. getting about another 25 lbs was pretty easy with a turn of the fuel screw. if you have the auto option, you will need a programmer to adjust the shifting on it[ banks has one] or the auto will puke in short time. the 5spd was a good unit, but lacked a granny gear, takeing off with a decent load took a bit of doing. the beauty of these is that with a good inj pump and some tweaking, performance/throttle response could meet or beat early powerstrokes[stock]. as mentioned to much turning of the fuel screw will get you to high an egt. intercooler's can be had for these also.

 

[AMink]

Bummer!

Well, he took it into the shop and they said "New engine". Apparently, something's wrong with three of the cylinders. Not sure what; I'll get that info later. They said "bad fuel", but can't tell from when. It still runs, and the last time I rode in it, it sure didn't feel like it was missing 3 cylinders. :{ I'm going to try and help him see the light and come to the Cummins side, which he'd love to do, but boy, even used prices for a newer truck are still pretty high.

 

[JUeckert]

what about a 12v repower? cant really see bad fuel causeing your friend to loose three cylinder's, unless the fuel was doctored someway. injector failures were rare on these engines, as with most earlier diesel's. generaly it takes lots of miles, [wear] or lot's of bad fuel to get an injector on these. the inj pump is the weaker link. have your budy inspect the air filter intake system system. improperly installed filter's/lid's, are easy to over look on these. idi turbo's, and early powerstrokes both suffered from dusted engine's from poorly installed lid's, and dirty filters that caused the air to suck in through the lid sealing area. truth be know, this was a weak design on fords part. the powerstrokes became part of a recall ford issued in 97'. might see if the idi was covered also. if the turbo, air box lid, or connections to the turbo appear dirty, my money is on dusting.

 

[AMink]

I talked to him a little more last night. One cylinder with poor compression, 2 with fuel in them. Sounds like maybe a stuck or bad exhaust valve and some sticky injectors. A new engine is just daunting in a truck that probably isn't worth $5000 on it's best day!

 

[AHarris]

What can you do with a 7.3?

Answer: boat anchor or artificial reef. :-laf



If the rest of the truck is good I'd be looking at swapping in a Cummins!

 

[HBarlow]

Scrap metal is not paying very much right now. He might be able to park it in a shopping center parking lot and remove the license plates and VIN tag.

Anything he spends on repowering it would be money down the drain. Even running good it probably isn't worth more than $3000 - $4000 even if its really clean and well-maintained.

 

[AMink]

So, it turns out that he had a stuck injector that toasted the piston/cylinder. $5000 for a new engine, plus install. Not worth it. He bought a used 2003 (I think) 7. 3 PS F-250 4 door long bed. Looks like a nice truck. I've heard the last year of the 7. 3 PS's are good. There wasn't a Cummins anywhere around here in the same price range for a truck that is in as good of shape. It should do what he needs it to do.

 

[Mhannink]

drop a k and n filter in it then get a cheap wrench 9/16 i think but cant remeber. cut it and figure out the angle your gonna need to weld it at to fit on the injection pump bolt on the passenger side. then loosen the other 2 these are the pump mounting bolts. after the get a pry bar and put it on the left side of the engine. and push the pump to the right. if you look down where the pump mounts you will see that there are 2 marks one on the pump and one on the mount use that to judge how much the pump is moved over. then olt it all back down. this is going to advance the timing. typicaly you should only move it the thickness of a dime but ive gone lots more and never had a problem. the other thing to do is if you look on the right side of the pump you will see a little plate that looks like home plate take that off. it will spill some fuel just so you know. take the plate off and with a mirror or something look insde there and turn the engine over till you see an allen head screw twist the screw towards the front of the engine. ford advises 60 deg at a time or one flat of the allen wrench i just cranked it way up like 10+ turns and left it there. that about all you really can do. maybe exhaust and if you dig around a little you might find some different injectors but it can be pretty tuff.

 

[AMink]

drop a k and n filter in it then get a cheap wrench 9/16 i think but cant remeber. cut it and figure out the angle your gonna need to weld it at to fit on the injection pump bolt on the passenger side. then loosen the other 2 these are the pump mounting bolts. after the get a pry bar and put it on the left side of the engine. and push the pump to the right. if you look down where the pump mounts you will see that there are 2 marks one on the pump and one on the mount use that to judge how much the pump is moved over. then olt it all back down. this is going to advance the timing. typicaly you should only move it the thickness of a dime but ive gone lots more and never had a problem. the other thing to do is if you look on the right side of the pump you will see a little plate that looks like home plate take that off. it will spill some fuel just so you know. take the plate off and with a mirror or something look insde there and turn the engine over till you see an allen head screw twist the screw towards the front of the engine. ford advises 60 deg at a time or one flat of the allen wrench i just cranked it way up like 10+ turns and left it there. that about all you really can do. maybe exhaust and if you dig around a little you might find some different injectors but it can be pretty tuff.

Thanks for the tips. I'm thinking he'll leave it stock for now. He's pretty gunshy about mods. The increase in power over what the old 7. 3 had will hold him for a while. Then we'll figure out a cold air intake and some pump mods. With gauges, of course! Like how I'm bombing someone else's truck without his permission?:-laf

 

[JR2]

Tell him to get a DP Tuner Chip, get the 80 hp econo tune and drive it. I have that tune on my excursion and can not get my egts over 1000 pre turbo no matter how hard I try. It really wakes up the truck.

 

[Mhannink]

jr2 its an old idi no computer. think 6bt of the fords

 

[AMink]

He got an 03 PS. Chip'll work there.