Here is some information you may find interesting. You can get good torque from those engines. I will take torque over HP any day unless I'm drag racing.

International T444E Specs & Info

 

I don't know where they got those numbers from, but I don't buy it one bit.
I've never seen a 7.3 come close to 2:1 torque:horsepower, and they are showing almost 3:1.

The only difference between the T444E and the 7.3 Power Stroke will be in the tuning, when comparing them in the same model year. The exceptions being the High Output T444E in the '95 - '97 years had Stage-1's from the factory, and the T444E had a slightly different turbo. Not better or worse, just different, for spool-up and working/usablility. Other than that the only difference is in the tuning, so I don't buy those hp and trq numbers.

 

I think part of the reason the HP numbers are so low is the 2600 RPM redline listed for those medium duty trucks (whereas the pickups get 3250?). Horsepower is torque applied over speed. Same torque, but less speed and you get fewer ponies which also changes the relationship of peak torque to peak horsepower. Peak torque numbers through 2600 RPM are probably close to or the same as peak torque would be through 3250 RPM, but peak horsepower is going to be lower since you're limiting the speed (RPM) of the motor.

All in all, I think the manufacturers do this for the purposes of durability. An engine that will do 500,000 miles at 215 HP should last even longer at 175 HP, right? Less stress on all the internals, less heat, and fewer RPM. Makes sense to me, but it also makes them pretty doggone slow.

 

 

This is a good point, thanks.

 

As a follow up to this mess, according to Bob, International will not flash the effing thing unless I drive the truck into a dealer and they verify that I have replaced and upgraded the spicer 5 spd and clutch, they then will take a few weeks to get the module sent in and flashed. The entire point was not to mess with McCandless here in Denver as they have redefined the meaning of corrupt and dishonest for service in CO since way back in the day. I refuse to let them touch one of our trucks.

So I'm not sure what idiots are working over at international, as I mentioned this trans is behind much bigger motors and is a hell of a lot more robust than the ZF5s/6s in our trucks. Not sure why international thinks this is necessary.

So I'm at a point of frustration and anger right now to leave them stock and deal with it, or find someone who knows what they are doing and literally cross over the donor truck electronics and get rid of the international chit. I'm not kidding I'd pay for a roundtrip flight and time spent on the truck if they could have this done in a couple days.... The chances of that are nill, so at this point its leave it alone or try for some nozzles if worst comes to worst.

Sorry for venting but that email pissed me off as all common sense does not apply to anything International said.... I get they don't want to reduce the longevity of the motor, its 16 years old and has seen 52k miles, at this point I'd be lucky to put 100k on it in its time of use with the business....

 

I worked in a customer complaint department for may years with a very big national company. It always surprised me on some of the policies that were in place on the complaints. Seems like they were set in stone because "that's" the way it was always done.

Long story short it took only one customer complaint to the president of the company to change that policy. The customer was right, the CEO agreed it was wrong and the policy was changed nation wide.

A short letter to International Corporate describing your frustrations can go a long way. As a hint, be nice, describe the issue and whom you have tried to resolve the issue with. Especially why you feel why International is not meeting your service expectations needs.

That's the key word service expectations, trust me.

 

That's to bad Nik, simple minds and not business minded at all!

 

Policies exist for a reason.
If they are concerned about your clutch, tell them you'll draft up a letter and have it notorized that you won't hold them liable if the clutch, OR ANY OTHER PART of the truck fails due to their re-flash to increase power.
That's all they are really concerned with anyway.

Policies...
I like the USPS website that says something like "If you are shipping live animals, please go to your local post office to complete your shipment."

There's a reason why they say that.

 

I agree, I did not vent on the shop owner by any means, after reading the emais I vented on here. We will see what happens.

Nope, not sure what engineer came up with that guideline :-)

Agreed. I understand the reasoning behind it, as myself and all business owner have reason behind their guidelines, but in this case i thought it was a bit drastic.

I actually stopped by McCandless today and spoke directly with a their mechanic foreman, he was under a truck himself. They are opening up a case file for the trucks, 520 to do the ECMs... I'm hoping they can simply get the file download and take care of it. I told them I would sign any waiver of liability they needed for both trucks as long as it didn't melt down the ECM...

I felt a lot better with talking to this fellow as he was aware of the driveline behind it and understood the motors were incredibly retarded even compared to a light duty truck. Crossing my fingers this goes somewhere.

Like I mentioned the second truck started up and ran much better than the first and had quite a bit more get up and go. Needs a bunch more work than the second on the body but mechanically I feel it was maintained better. The starters on those are quite different than our light dutys, it now has a push button starting system with a redundant toggle... needs a water pump i believe, or the current one leaks, fluids and filters and some panel welding and hopefully that's it...

I have a set of your premium rebuild AEs with 15k on them sitting in the donor truck, and I think they are going in truck number one. Truck number one may be sold to a business partner and invested towards another chipper.