Hello I am buy another Powerstroke I think, and find that she is build in October 2000. Will these be the Power Metal rods or the Forged?

Thank you

 

Should be forged. IIRC, the change happened mid 2001.

 

You will NEVER know without checking. Engine replacements and build dates are completely uncertain.

 

Also FYI, it is powdered metal rods, not power.

 

Thank you Sir, if nobody tells I will not learn. My fingers are damamged by a welding accident so I type bad.

 

Is there a reason you are concerned about the rods? From what I have gleaned here, they are not an issue like they used to be as tuning has improved to the point where they shouldn't get overstressed and fail.

 

An October 2000 build date is a 2001 model year. You will need the Engine Serial Number to make the determination of Forged or Powdered rods, assuming that the engine is all original to the truck that is being considered.

The 2000 model year is often more sought after due to having all of the 99.5 engine updates, while still having traditionally forged rods.

The question (and answer) assumes that the truck is all original, and the numbers matching engine has never had the rotating assembly in the short block serviced.

Roughly approximating the production dates, the 2000 model year was manufactured between June of 1999 to June of 2000. So roughly half of the 2000 model year was built in 1999, and the other half was built in 2000.

Generally speaking, if the Federal Safety Certification Sticker on the door jamb indicates a truck build date of any month in 1999, then the it is very likely that the original engine in that truck came with traditionally Forged rods.

For example, my 2000 Ford Super Duty was built in 11/99. Even though it is a 2000 model year, it was among the approximate half of 2000 model year production built during calendar year 1999. The 1999 calendar year of production is the quickest and easiest method of determining if a 2000 model year truck was originally equipped with a 7.3L PSD having traditionally forged rods.

But what about the latter half of 2000 model year production that were built in calendar year 2000? This is where the Engine Serial Number can help. More than 2 Million 7.3L diesel engines were manufactured over a 10 year period of time, with the first one being produced in 1994 in Indianapolis, and the last one being produced in 2005 in Brazil. The Engine Serial Number breakdown between Forged and Powdered are as follows:


0000001 thru 1425746 are Forged Rods
1425747 thru 1440712 are Powdered Rods (Trial production run of 15K units for evaluation)
1446713 thru 1498318 are Forged Rods (Waiting period for failure feedback, 51.6K units)
1498319 thru 2XXXXXX are Powdered Rods


Returning to my 2000 truck again as an example, my engine serial number is 1208xxx. We see that this falls under the first group of engine serial numbers, prior to the experimental trial production run of Powdered Rods that took place much later on, in calendar year 2000. So that is now two points of confirmation of this example having Forged rods.

With an Engine Serial Number of 1208xxx combined with a build date of 11/99, some 217,000 more engines were manufactured prior to the trial run of Powdered Metal rods, which didn't occur until Engine Serial number 1425747. Hence, we see that it also isn't probable for 2000 model year trucks manufactured in the first few months of calendar year 2000 to have Powdered Metal Rods either.

If I were shopping for a 2000-2001 model year all original creampuff today, I would first ask the seller for a photo of the door jamb sticker. If the build date of the all original and non molested truck is 5/00 or earlier, I'd be fairly confident that it came with Forged rods. If the build date is 6/00 or later, then I would ask the seller for the Engine Serial Number, and be guided by the chart above.

There is a third way to determine the presence of Forged vs Powdered rods, by removing a plug from the engine block. As this is an impractical procedure to perform prior to buying the truck, I won't waste words with detail, but will include a video link (I haven't watched the video, just passing it along for the convenience of anyone interested).

Speaking of practicality, @cleatus12r described the reality of 20 year old trucks... especially those that are as popular to modify as the 7.3L PSD proved to be. The well worn rug doesn't always match the drapes. The engine in any given 20 year old truck could have come from a 25 year old van, or an 18 year old school bus. It could have Hypermax Ultimax insanely strong forged rods, or junkyard rods rescued from a farm kid's sled puller running propane, that are but one power stroke away from fracture.

So, assuming grandpa gave up his driver's license and is selling his turn of the century pickup that he kept garaged all of it's life save for the annual trip to see the grandkids... the Engine Serial Number is the most telling clue on original Forged or Powdered rods, and the truck build date provides a rough probability to determine whether the extra step of asking for the Engine Serial number is even required.

 

With that said, the serial number is located above the oil filter on the machined surface for the oil cooler...right below the plug (5/16" square drive) that can be used to without-a-doubt accurately determine which connecting rods were used at assembly. You're there anyway scraping 20 years of grime off trying see a small dot-matrix punched number.

Furthermore, why even bother caring? Run it and drive it. There's no easy way to "swap" them and millions of them are running around perfectly fine with either variant.

I know of two early (one 1996 and one 1999) pickups driving around my neck of the woods with PMRs....I put them together from later cores.

 

Ya, that was kinda my question being a 7.3 newbie. What's the difference. My '02 has 245K on the original engine. I'm the 3rd owner. I have known the truck for over 10 years. I know it's all original. I'm guessing by this thread it has powdered rods. Doesn't seem to bother it at all.

 

PMR vs. forged rods are not a concern for 99.9% of 7.3L owners. If some one was intending to build the engine for 500+ HP, then forged rods would be desirable.

Although, the by then, the pile of money spent would probably include some new shiny internal parts anyway.

 

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