Cab-forward design.
If not for that, most of these hard to reach places would be much easier.

 

Passenger side valve cover interference when trying to remove. It is blocked by A/C pump, Dipstick, and dash and fan boxes.

But then I did work on E-350. Baby's butt and uppipes are piece of cake. The rest...well, what is "sux times 10" ???

LOL. Great thread idea

 

Something else to blame Lee Iaccoca for....

 

1. Oil pan dipstick tube adapter o-ring
2. Stock upper rad hose through the belt
3. Factory aluminum t stat housing
4. Hub/bearing assembly
5. Vacuum actuated auto locking hubs
6. Non-serviceable Idle Validation Switch
7. A locking system that is a thief's dream
8. No factory installed zerk fitting to grease the slip yolk
9. Battery cable clamps


Luckily, all these can be can be improved with the vast aftermarket vendor support we still have today. End of the day, it's still Built Ford Tough.

 

Adding oil pan gasket replacement requires pulling the engine due to interference during removal.

 

ESOF that shifts into 4-Low when it darn well feels like it.

 

 

If you ever met them, they would probably take your hand and walk you over to a 6.4 engine stuffed in one of those trucks and ask again what your complaints were while they pointed out those parts on a 6.4.

The first time I saw one of those, I thought I bet I could pitch a handful of marbles under the hood and I'd be surprised if 3 of them made it to the ground. The 6.0 had issues too. How about pulling the FICM, coolant reservoir, CAC tubes, turbo, oil filter housing, and EGR just to get to the HPOP?

You should look at the 7.3 as glass half full.

 

Just go and raise the hood on a 6.7 equipped truck. Then go back and love the 7.3 all over again. 😁

 

 

 

...and utter the comment: Most of this is a useless drain on power, performance, and mpg. Thank your Congressman. LOL

I am quite happy with my LEV Excursion, sans CAT/EGR/DEF/etc.

 

I've read this kind of comment before. How were the buses or other vehicles "tuned more" i.e. what were the main differences between the pickup truck 7.3 engines and the ones the other vehicles got? Silly me but it seems to make sense that all one had to do was to replace the "untuned" bits on our pickups with the "tuned" bits from the other vehicles, then we too would have "tuned" 7.3 mills. What am I missing?

 

Well there is the obvious things like them coming from factory with AC code injectors.
Then there's little things like

• 200g fuel tanks without screens in them needing the H&H.
• More room under bus/dump truck hoods for bigger way better than our stock air intakes and bigger air filters (possibly 6637 sized).
• Room for the larger turbo ( was it D66? )
• lower gearing than 3.73;
• non-Ford warranty guaranteeing, defueled for mpg wars, "safe" pcm programming for more power
• No wastegate

Which is pretty much the basic nearly required stuff we all do anyways once we get our new to us 7.3's with nearly every "mod" giving us more SOTP power

 

Subscribed! I love my 7.3 and plan to add three more to the stable in the next few years, but some of these problems are great to know about before I get to them.

I'll add that the springs don't seem heavy duty enough in the front to handle the weight of the engine.
Tie rod ends seem to go out often.
Brakes drag or freeze up