Hey guys getting rid of my 4x4 7.3 excursion for a van.
Will be my daily driver slash tow truck about 10000 lbs. Would like to do the unjoint 4x4 conversion on it one day as well. I'm having a hard time thinking which one to get. Diesel is much cheaper out here in LA then gas at the moment.
Please help pros cons which one do you think.
Thanks

 

For me nothing but gasoline is the way to go, admittedly an anti-diesel engine kinda guy though.

Diesel engines for the average driver especially in a truck are too maintenance intensive, far too many must do steps to avoid catastrophic failure of one of the usually simple systems. Reading a few threads on another site where E-Series are converted to 4WD and mini-RV's the amount of money spent to keep even the newer engines running or costs of otherwise simple repairs is somewhat staggering.

To me the slight advantage of lower fuel cost is greatly offset by the outrageous cost engine maintenance can be. While many tout their uber-reliability and longevity that seems 100% tied to religiously keeping to the maintenance schedule---unlike gasoline where a small bit of inattention doesn't lead to huge repair bills.

If you're not already a diesel mechanic they're just not practical for the average driver, especially a vehicle that might also double as a daily driver too.

Mind you this is my completely biased opinion and perhaps way more experience with gasoline engines over diesel----for good reason I'd add!

YMMV

 

10,000lbs is the max for a V10. Maxing your V10 will not yield the results you desire. You'll need the diesel.

And I'm also very opposed to diesels, for the reasons mentioned above by JWA. Plus they stink and are noisy.


YMMV (whatever that means)

 

Well I have a diesel now. So it's not that big of a deal to work on. Yeah to change the oil cost 80 bucks but still 17-20 mpg is way better then 8-10.

 

You'd be the perfect owner then----already familiar with their maintenance although most diesel E-Series do complain heavily about the limited or nearly no access for some parts of maintenance.

Good luck with your hunt---share with us what you end up with!

 

Is this a peculiarity of the 7.3 IDI and PSD? The chief reason we don't have a Diesel van is there are none in our price range. I can't imagine a gasser Suburban would cost less in money or effort to maintain than our '97 6.5 simply because we haven't spent anything on it over 8 years/50K miles. It'll wake the dead on cold start but it's no noisier inside at speed than our '93 Chateau and with OE emissions equipment (no stacks or truck b@lls) it'll idle all day without fogging or stinking the neighborhood. Seems like it'll idle all day without warming the coolant either. I can't imagine GM was ever so far ahead of Ford in truck refinement.

For the OP's benefit, can a 5.4 be supercharged reliably and at reasonable cost for 10,000 towing capacity? Can an underdrive be fitted to a 4WD conversion?

Sixto
93 E150 Chateau 5.8 193K miles

 

Your Mileage May Vary

 

There has been some for 21000 with 60k miles and some cargos for 9000 with 160k. I would like the extended one better why not have the extra room.

There's alway the Duramax cricket cricket

 

I paid $5500 for my 100k mi V10 cargo. 3 years ago.

I agree with JWA. The diesel vans are very loud inside as well. I've towed 8k lbs and it was fine, but I wouldn't want to do 10k regularly.

I'm driving it to Vegas (from SF Bay Area) with our startup's booth for the consumer electronics show next week .

 

Maintenance ? What maintenance ? Somebody's mislead you. There is nothing to maintain other than changing oil. I change the oil in my 300K mile 99 7.3 once a year. It holds 4 gallons of oil and I bought a half dozen FL1995 filters online for $10 each. I buy the oil when it's on sale or have coupons to knock the price down at O'Reilly's. This works out to be damned close to what I spend changing the oil in my 96 E150's 351 twice a year. So there is no difference there. The difference in the fuel mileage (19-23 diesel vs 11-17 GT40 headed 351) and power wipes out any difference there could be. As for the noisy diesel ? There really isn't any. Just a little sewing machine sound. You forget all about it when you go to pass someone while towing, you don't even need to downshift the 6 speed manual, just nail the go pedal and wait a second or two for the boost to buildup, then it takes off. Put it on cruise and there's also no need to downshift every time it encounters a hill, it'll go up and down the hills in OD with no effort at all. I love the 351 in my van but it don't hold a candle to the 7.3 in my F250

 

The V10 has 95 more horsepower and roughly the same torque as the 7.3 in the van.

 

If you believe that I've got a bridge to sell you. The only reason the V10 has those numbers ? Look at the rpms they're achieved at. The 7.3 tops out at around 3000 rpms. It makes it's numbers well before then. The HP figure is the result of torque multiplied by rpms. So it's really irrelevant to compare it to the 7.3. My 331 in my 77 Comet generates 400 hp, so did the 400 Cummins in my 85 Pete. The 331 would never be able to pull the weight that my Pete did (80,000 lbs at up to 90+ mph). The 351W in my 96 E150 generates more HP than the 7.3 does in my 99 F250, but it will not pull the same weight at the same rate of acceleration. I looked up both in the only Chiltons I have and in 96, both the 351 and the 7.3 made 210 hp, the 7.3 made this at 600 rpms less. The 7.3 generated 100 more ft/lbs at 800 less rpms than the 351. I don't know what numbers makes with it "turned up" but I do know it performs far better than a factory tune V10 does.

 

My opinion is that the rpms that torque is generated at only matters under about 10mph. Above that you have rpm and gears to manage the difference.

I don't care if I have to shift more.

 

And lets not forget the most important thing: the fuel mileage in both, the diesel is roughly double the gas mileage of the V10. And at this point in time both are about the same price per gallon, making the diesel half as expensive to operate.

 

Put both side by side with the same weight and you'll never be able to downshift enough to keep pace with the 7.3 on any road, any grade (uphill)