I have a 1997 F250 7.3 4x4 5 speed supercab longbed 6" lift 315/75/16 tires. Just got my injectors back from Rosewood today with stage 1 upgrade, and I ordered the F5 chip/tuner from DP tunes with the following settings:
Modified stock

60hp tow for the camaro

60hp daily for highway empty

80hp daily for city empty

100hp performance for play

And a low fuel setting was added in because Jody reminded me I would need it to pass emissions with Stage 1 injectors.

My question is for people who had done anything similar, what their results were, and if they were running an intercooler or not. I currently have an intercooler in my truck, but no pipes hooked up. One of the previous owners modified it and installed one but looks like they never hooked it up for some reason. Not sure which one I have get but I can measure it and maybe somebody might know based on my measurements (if it's the 7.3 or 6.0 super duty, or aftermarket?). Running as far as I know, stock HPOP and the turbo is stock, stock mechanical fuel pump. Max (bubba Jones) thinks we can probably build an e fuel kit now that he bought one from Bar None, so I may be doing that sometime soon, as well as trying to find pipes and the spider for the intercooler. Already have EGT, boost, and fuel pressure glowshift gauges hooked up.

Just kind of curious what people saw in performance/ fuel economy. No complains or anything as I have not done any of the work yet, but I am just trying to get a feel for what I may be expecting. I think me and max might do a compression test on my engine just to see where my numbers are at since we will already be digging into the valve covers anyways.

 

I love my mods, I can hit 30+PSI but not for long. It will definitely wake your truck up and be a lot of fun to drive.

 

Are you still on stock fuel pump or e fuel?

 

Stock with bb mod and I only have measured idle fuel PSI around 69

 

Yeah I'm running the BB mod too. Downpipe is aftermarket and I have 4" exhaust all the way back. My buddy had the same setup I'm going to have when I put the injectors in and had do tunes just not as many as I'm going to have. He had no issues with fuel (at the time) but his EGTS would get to that 1250 threshold pretty quickly on anything higher than the mild bump in power. So on the 100hp setting without an intercooler, I probably won't be able to run for longer than like 5 seconds. I do have a manual so it won't shift as fast, but I'm not too worried about roasting the transmission either.

 

Need an intercooler and a better hpop.

 

Stock turbos suck. IMO stock turbos for stock trucks. Modify injectors will need an appropriate turbo to make the combo work correctly.

 

^^^^
Agreed.
However......
Stage-1's tuned properly are a great upgrade for even mostly stock trucks. My '97 I had years ago had Stage-1's, 17° pump, intercooler, and tunes, and I loved how that truck ran. Good mpg, towed well, I couldn't ask more of the truck for what I needed it for. I never once considered upgrading the fuel system or the turbo. I just didn't see the need for what I did with the truck. My poor Black Truck took the hit when I felt like modifying something.

 

My question sir is on a truck such as this with a stock fuel system what fuel pressure is OK. My reason is with my stock injectors I could run my in cab fuel pressure gauge down to 30 psi on a hard pull. It worried me enough to do efuel at that point. After only adding efuel I actually saw a 4 psi increase in max boost. I felt like I had a low pressure issue. That was with a new pump,tight system and a regulator shimmed to 75@ idle.

I I can just luck your brain how that relates to stock fuel on stage ones? You are much more experienced here and I may have skipped some of those in between steps in going the route I did.
Thank you for your time!

 

Kind of curious as well. I will be running the stock pump for now, but hooking up the intercooler soon and upgrsding hpop.

 

I wonder if your stock spring bends a little sideways with the bb mod in the regulator when you are asking for more fuel while you a running the engine hard. I just did the change to a stiffer [& a little shorter] spring that Knottyrope suggested. I also have installed a bb with this spring & I now have 72ibs pressure @ idle & 68 ibs @ wide open throttle in drive [overdrive off}@ 75mph. The gauge is oil filled & brand new . Friskyjake

 

My fuel pressure with stock mechanical pump and BB mod is between 70-80 according to my gauge. In WOT I think I hit as low as 40 ish.

 

running under 40 PSI at WOT isn't good. My spring bent with BB Mod after my second Camping trip. Fuel pressure dropped and once I inspected the regulator for crud, spring was shiny on one side from rubbing while bent.




I have link to spring in this thread
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...sel-truck.html

 

The 7.3's like to see 65 psi, no matter how you get there or maintain it. A little more or a little less is fine. 45 is no good, 85 is no good.

As for Stage-1's and fuel pressure, I mentioned "properly tuned". To me this means run in a 80 hp tune with stock fuel system and you should be able to hold good psi on a hard throttle run. What is good? Lots of variation between trucks. 45 - 50 psi on a hard throttle run for a few seconds shouldn't hurt anything.
If you switch to the 140 hp setting on stock fuel, you don't want to watch the fuel psi, blink and she's gone!
For sure even stock injectors could benefit from e-fuel, no question. But is...it...necessary...? No. Do these trucks run great with a chip, and should every OBS have a chip? Sure! But no it's not necessary, they just run that much better doing it.

E-fuel + stock OBS = better throttle response, better idle. (Not to mention maintaining good fuel flow.)

 

i was meaning more from a lack of fuel flow damaging an injector. Ie scoring a p&b from lack of cooling or lubrication. Seems like a stretch but with this kind of $ on injectors in relation to vehicle value I have to be cautious.