ok. first of all I love the fact the flames have been kept to minimum in the replies. In more detail...as I understand it (meaning there are more smarties out there)...the EBPV works with the exhaust back pressure sensor and the computer in the truck to decide when to open the EBPV to change the flow of air through the exhaust. I live in a climate where we get winter temps in the 20s and 30s. when the oil temp sensor (I have a 97 F250HD) is below a certain number, the sensor will close the valve as a way to increase heat in the engine. My exhaust sensor was bad....when I replaced it, I noticed...CLEARLY...my engine, and heater, came up to temp much more quickly. I no longer needed to drive 50 miles before my oil temp and interior heat was effective. if you get an OBD dongle to talk to an app on your phone, you will see how your 7.3 does not put out expected power until your oil temp reaches around 150 deg F. The exhaust temp sensor, working with the EBPV and oil temp, tells the computer to stop increasing exhaust back pressure when motor is up to temp. I have measured the exhaust back pressure via the OBD sensor and see the back pressure is kept high until the motor is up to temp. this has resulted in my truck providing better heat to my frozen hind end driving to work in winter.

 

i see your Point but it gets just as cold and colder here. It got to -13 for a high this winter and started up without plugging in because I forgot lol. I was impressed after a few cranks and sittings it fires up. Nevertheless even when it’s 10s and 20s in the winter by the time I get to town 2.5 miles away my heater is mostly warm. Once I get on the highway for another 2-3 miles or so it’s nice and hot. Having it off is just less parts to maintain and less exhaust restrictions in my eyes but that’s just my opinion

 

And that was along the lines of what was expected, but wanted to tease out.

Will allow much better experts to correct me, and here goes . . .

As touched on, the only purpose of the EBPV is to warm the motor and it requires very specific conditions for engagement. IIRC, they are automatic transmissions with the transmission in Park and for manual transmissions it is when the Parking Brake is engaged and X amount of time since the brake pedal was touched. For either transmission, the truck has to sense that it is under a set temperature which is likely measured from the oil.

As an example, in my SD (with a ZF-6) when it goes into warm-up mode, as soon as I touch the brake, the EBPV releases and idle drops. Have no experience with this in the OBS as we gutted the valve when I bought the truck (it had lots of oil leaks).

To help pre-warm the truck and minimize need for the EBPV, plugging in the block heater is rather effective. Despite perceptions, the cost of heating with electricity is minimal.

In practice, the best noted way to warm the 7.3 is to drive it. But people in colder climates do not always like this as the perception is the cab is slower to warm. So, people start the truck, let it do its thing of trying to warm itself, and then getting in the cab after a fair amount of fuel was burnt. But at least the cab is warm. Which leads us to the next topic...

FWIW, letting the truck idle and then go into high idle with an exhaust restriction can lead to wet stacking which is another topic. From experience, I can safely state that wet stacking is a real thing.

 

@JayTheCPA I've never heard the term wet stacking, is there already a topic on this? I tend to get in and drive as to not let the truck excessively idle.

@Tanker1 I appreciate the logical explanation behind your comment

 

Here is a good conversation on wet stacking:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...-stacking.html

In my case, SD was used to power an inverter for a few days after a storm took out electricity and I did not want spoiled food. Even had the neighbors bring their food over to my fridge. Sure, the SD was overkill for the electrical load, but it was what I had and the fridge was inside the alternators' envelope.

After power was restored, took the truck out for an Italian tune-up as I had already known about high idling risks. After a warm-up drive, I went to the local highway, got to where I could put it in 3'rd at the low side of the RPM band (in order to get as long a time in gear as possible without busting the speed limit), gave it WOT, and did not expect the result. The highway in back of me completely disappeared from a dark gray cloud. And this was from a bone stock truck and stock tune.

Since then, I bought a generator. Right tool for the right job.

 

With my experience in MN with the EBPV it didn't help it warm up while it was idling forever. When I would drive it for the first 10-15 minutes I could hear it choking the exhaust and really hamper any kind of acceleration. Maybe mine needed adjustment or that is that way it suppose to work. Either way it is getting the Axe, my opinion the less moving parts less points to leak with minimum reward makes it a no brainer. I don't drive my truck in the winter unless I absolutely have to so there's that to consider.

 

The 1995-97 trucks do not close the backpressure valve at low idle which is stupid. That's where the most good would be done - sitting in the driveway "warming up".

It's "fixable" in the tuning....as is the annoying way it decides to close under light load driving around.

 

As mentioned, I looked forward to the education!

 

Tanker1 probably is correct that the heater, oil, etc. warm up faster with a functioning EPBV. If your normal driving makes heat a priority, and you're not putting in much power early in the drive to get some heat into all that cast iron, coolant, and oil, then it makes sense to retain it.

My experience was that in winter temps cold enough to activate the EPBV (Baltimore, MD area), I could barely pull out of my driveway, get up to 25 mph, and make a left turn a quarter mile up the road without getting T-boned or rear-ended. A mile later, it was still sluggish pulling out from a stoplight or merging. Working EBPV REALLY affected drivability for me, and letting it idle for a bit didn't help.

Gutting my EBPV really improved cold-start drivability for me. Start truck first, let it idle while putting on seatbelt and glasses, and it's ready to get on the road. Not full power yet, but I don't need anywhere near 50 miles to get full power and heat. I'm almost always out of stoplights and up to highway speed in 5 miles or less. If you're in a lot of low-speed or stop-and-go from a cold start, I can see that a working EBPV may be useful to get the engine and driver warmed up faster. But for me, unable to safely pull out of my driveway or make the next left turn because I have so little power with the EBPV engaged meant it came out. I did not notice any improvements in power once warm... but that also was with the stock downpipe, and maybe down a few glowplugs (those have since been rectified).

So different folks might reach different conclusions about their EBPV, based on different driving needs.

 

I love the fact you people pay attention! I can speak to my situation here in the Pacific Northwest...north of Seattle...my daily commute of 20 miles to work, this has made a diff in my truck warmup. My toes are not frozen when I get to work. Prior to fixing my exhaust temp sensor (and tube) my truck would not move the needle off "cold" before I got to work. After replacing the sensor and tube, which works with the turbo valve, truck heated MUCH FASTER. For those of you who want to eliminate the turbo valve for power reasons...I would suggest there are other mods...easier! and less costly to do first. From what I have read and seen (YouTube), removing your turbo to fix the back pressure valve is a huge job, that may introduce more problems than it solves. But hey, I'm over 60 and it hurts to lean over my motor for more than 20 minutes.