When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Can't do that around here. Back when I was N/A with the F250, I put on a short, basically straight through "muffler". Well I was loaded up, pulling a big grade, had it to the floor, 25 to 30 mph and revving against the limiter. By the time I got to the top, I was blue lighted. He let me off with a warning, after fishing to see if I modified the exhaust for the sound. That's when I swapped to the Walker big truck mufflers. Latter I'd add a turbo of course and that made it much more quieter still. I don't recall it adding much more power with it to the floor, cus it was still very slow up hills N/A. I even modified the y pipe to be a true y-pipe, rather than the horrible T design, but nothing made much difference, until I installed that banks kit. That's when I knew, diesels belong turbcharged.
A few years latter, I'd buy the F450 (N/A too) and I had forgotten how much speed bleeds off on the hills, even while empty. It didn't take me long to bolt a banks kit on that one either.....before I even drove it again in fact. I only ran that one N/A for the ride home after buying it.
These trucks go just fine, if you don't have any hills to climb. It's the hills where they fall flat without a turbo. On flat ground, like out west, I've always said, I wouldn't even bother. I'd just run N/A.
I always said the turbo was as if I put another half an IDI engine under the hood. Massive difference. Rather than downshifting to 2nd and revving to the moon, and maybe slowing to 25mph, the F250 just kicks out of OD into 3rd and just maintains the speed limit. Whole different truck. I had a bull moose IP on it for many years and well over 100k miles. I got the turbo spec moose on it now and it's just as powerful, just less smokey while downshifting (in fact no smoke at all w/ the smoke puff limiter). I still never need to hold that truck to floor for the weight combo this truck sees.
Last edited by FORDF250HDXLT; Mar 20, 2026 at 12:49 PM.
Ill take a look at that webpage wonder if ill be able to find any locally or not. Would be nice to get the turbo system at least. I think building his short block would be the bet for me since itll have all new bearings and will be fresh compared to a 250-300k mile engine.
If you find a truck with a turbo don't forget that they are manual/automatic specific.
" Im suprised you say that you can get up and go decently with yours. "
Yeah, I love my motor, it get's and goes fine,
it's faster than average speed, certainly no dawg, at regular driving,
but, if you *hit it, and accel hard, there's not a lot of *extra go fast. ..
It kinda just kind of do what it want to do, which is actually a great to drive,
it's my favorite motor, n/a ..
It's just not *fast ..
You'll just have to try it out . ..
6.9 T19 3.55 is my combo it's great, just, a truck, not a sports car,
perfect for back roads and trails. ..
You would probably be happy towing with an idi, mine doesn't as much notice if it's empty or loaded.
If your putting in an OD you'll be right to hit any speed just fine. So doesnt matter on the top end anyways.
Yeah, really putting studs on it is one of the best mods you can do.
Bq then you can turn up a turbo, but you might try it without a turbo,
it's okay just naturally aspirated, but, everyone puts a turbo, so, I get it, I know I'm weird like that.
People here in South Tennessee drive 90 miles an hour. ..
They usually hate for going 75-80, I *can go faster, but really I don't like going super fast,
So I only avoid highways anyways. ..
There are a million 55 60 roads, here with no traffic,
I always only avoid highways, so no problem for me anyways.
I'm excited for your build, congratulations, the idi is a solid reliable motor, and fun to drive.
My 84 has the same drivetrain as yours Ill know if I like it when I get it running eventually. Itll be going long before I get around to swapping these engines into my 73 so itll be a good early teller.
Yeah im not worried about top end on my stuff I think the fastest ive ever gone in the truck is about 85 anyhow.
I think im going to need a turbo on mine since I do plan to tow regularly with it with my 7-10k pound truck behind it with some sort of flatbed trailer under it.
Realistically that truck weighs around 9k I would guess since the truck i want to swap a idi into weighs 6.6k as it sits with the gasser in it and that other truck is the same truck but it has a D60 front
axle, 460 engine, and a holmes 440 wrecker bed on it. My truck that weighs 6.6k has a 390 and a d44 front axle with a regular bed.
I wont ever go 75-80 with this truck especially if I have a trailer behind me unloaded I may go closer to 70 but no more than that.
With my gears, tires, and a zf5 I would in theory be turning around 2100 rpms going 70. I think that would be perfect.
Thanks man I cant wait to build it either and I look for the reliability of it and a bit better mileage with it as well.
Originally Posted by tjc transport
not exactly sure what the difference is between turbo injector pump and NA pumps, i have only used the NA pumps.
also no idea what HP is on my engine, but it would haul a 17,000 pound mini excavator anywhere i want it to go on a 3000 pound trailer with no problems. that was with a 5 speed trans, 4.10 gears, and 37 inch tires.
i switched from the 5 speed to a C-6 at around 400,000 miles when the chain in the transfer case snapped in 05. the syncros in the trans were going and it was cheaper to put in the rebuilt C-6 i already had than to find a 5 speed.
my truck is all original engine and never opened up. the turbo was put on with under 400 miles on it.
only things changed on the engine is 3 sets glow plugs, injectors, and injector pumps, and 1 oil cooler. all replaced with stock parts.
with the 5 speed, it would easily do 110 mph.
with the C-6 it will still do 80 mph, but i usually keep it down around 55mph in the right lane.
engine currently has a little over 300,000 miles on it
Dang man that sounds like exactly what I need to have my truck setup like. excavator weighs alot more than my wrecker does thats for sure. 4.10s and 37s is exactly what I have at the moment and I had planned on running the zf5 with it as well.
What all did you have done to that engine when you were running it like that and how did it like hills? I assume injection pump was turned up and you had a turbo of some sort? What PSI did you push? I dont have many hills around here however there are grades ill hit if I go on a roadtrip.
Dang 110 is crazy ive never gone that fast in any of my 4wd trucks.
Originally Posted by FORDF250HDXLT
No, the internals are different between the two pumps. During a reman, an N/A IP can be turned into a turbo IP, but it has to be changed and calibrated inside. There's nothing you can do at home to change it's timing curve; like we can calibrate and tune a dizzy on our 390's and 429's. Yeah, like 600 to 650 EGT pulling grades full of logs. This truck is massively under fueled (unlike my F250 loaded, I can and often do have this one to the floor on some hills). No highway driving with my trucks. Rural back country roads w/ 45mph max speed limits, with a few 55mph zones mixed in from time to time, so both trucks can keep up with traffic when loaded, without any issues. Not even the new 80k priced trucks with "godzilla" or modern diesel engines, running empty, can legally pass me, so. We're all limited by the same speed limit signs.
I see, I may want to get one of the turbo IP's for my truck when I go about building it up. How do those overpriced trucks do in the logging industry?
Originally Posted by BigBlue2
My 6.9l with the Banks Power Pack is NA. The power pack was poor man's turbo, but it's not a turbo charger. They don't offer it anymore but all it is, is a high rise K&N air filter on the intake and a 3" exhaust system with a more open muffler. Just let's more through put of air over the stock air filter and exhaust and adds about 25 hp. Improved the fuel mileage by about 2 MPGs. It was also offered with an optional pyrometer which I did not order as it was too expensive. So far I haven't burned up anything. LOL
Thats interesting, makes sense though make things flow for better power.
Originally Posted by tjc transport
just deleting the muffler alone is good for about 25 hp at higher loads.
Sounds like I should chop the muffler off of my 84 when I get it running.
Originally Posted by FORDF250HDXLT
Can't do that around here. Back when I was N/A with the F250, I put on a short, basically straight through "muffler". Well I was loaded up, pulling a big grade, had it to the floor, 25 to 30 mph and revving against the limiter. By the time I got to the top, I was blue lighted. He let me off with a warning, after fishing to see if I modified the exhaust for the sound. That's when I swapped to the Walker big truck mufflers. Latter I'd add a turbo of course and that made it much more quieter still. I don't recall it adding much more power with it to the floor, cus it was still very slow up hills N/A. I even modified the y pipe to be a true y-pipe, rather than the horrible T design, but nothing made much difference, until I installed that banks kit. That's when I knew, diesels belong turbcharged.
A few years latter, I'd buy the F450 (N/A too) and I had forgotten how much speed bleeds off on the hills, even while empty. It didn't take me long to bolt a banks kit on that one either.....before I even drove it again in fact. I only ran that one N/A for the ride home after buying it.
These trucks go just fine, if you don't have any hills to climb. It's the hills where they fall flat without a turbo. On flat ground, like out west, I've always said, I wouldn't even bother. I'd just run N/A.
I always said the turbo was as if I put another half an IDI engine under the hood. Massive difference. Rather than downshifting to 2nd and revving to the moon, and maybe slowing to 25mph, the F250 just kicks out of OD into 3rd and just maintains the speed limit. Whole different truck. I had a bull moose IP on it for many years and well over 100k miles. I got the turbo spec moose on it now and it's just as powerful, just less smokey while downshifting (in fact no smoke at all w/ the smoke puff limiter). I still never need to hold that truck to floor for the weight combo this truck sees.
Thankfully if I stay with 1975 or older for gassers or 1997 or older for diesels theyre smog free so I dont have to follow the smog laws for those technically. Since I plan to swap the idi of this forum into a 73 im in the clear.
Didnt know turbos made it quieter.
less smokey sounds good to me even though its technically legal to build my truck this way I dont want to draw a ton of attention to myself driving it around.
Originally Posted by Olds64
If you find a truck with a turbo don't forget that they are manual/automatic specific.
Dang man that sounds like exactly what I need to have my truck setup like. excavator weighs alot more than my wrecker does thats for sure. 4.10s and 37s is exactly what I have at the moment and I had planned on running the zf5 with it as well.
What all did you have done to that engine when you were running it like that and how did it like hills? I assume injection pump was turned up and you had a turbo of some sort? What PSI did you push? I dont have many hills around here however there are grades ill hit if I go on a roadtrip.
Dang 110 is crazy ive never gone that fast in any of my 4wd trucks.
.
"Rattletrap" is still all factory stock except for the added turbo.
i do have an international 195HP engine in it though, but it came that way. truck was special ordered in Virginia with 9 others by a construction company. 3 weeks before delivery they tried to cancel the order as one of the partners played "grab the money and run" leaving the other two partners in DEEP financial trouble. my local dealer bought all 10 trucks, and mine was the only one that made it to New Jersey, the others were sold on the way up here. mine pulled in the dealer lot as i was there with a blown engine in my 86. the dealer owner said i actually have a diesel coming in, it should be here any time. as i turned around it pulled in. took it for a drive and bought it on the spot. title says 2 miles, but it had 400 when i left the lot.
drove straight to a friend shop that was a Banks dealer/installer and had the turbo put on with exhaust delete. ran it home with just the down pipe, and put stacks on it with no muffler.
as for boost, i can easily hit 16PSI if i run it hard but i usually keep it around 10 psi.
now i have a 3 inch flowmaster 50 series muffler on it between the downpipe and stack splitter and it dropped boost to around 8 psi.
the 50 series is a single chamber muffler so it does not produce as much backpressure as normal muffler do so the engine still "breaths" good.
injector pump is a stock NA unit turned up 3 flats. pulling that mini excavator up the 1/2 mile long steep bridge i would drop from 5 gear 55MPH to third gear 35MPH on the one, all others would just be drop to fourth and around 45-50 MPH.
this is a picture of the truck waiting to go out plowing snow when it was still fairly good shape before the bed and cab rotted off it, i think it was 16 years old with around 350-375 k miles on it at the time. it now has a little over 496,000 miles on it and is waiting for weather to warm up so i can put the new cab on it
in the picture you can see the hood front lip, and the middle of the rocker panel starting to rot out.
the rocker is now completely gone along with about 8 inches of the floor, 3 inches of a pilar and 5-6 inches of b pilar and cab corner.
that poor girl saw a tough life plowing snow for 30 years besides running heavy equipment escort all over the NY, NJ, PA, and delaware area, and she also did WAY TOO MANY salt water rescue/recoveries for the township police. twice i was 1/4 mile out in the atlantic ocean towing back drunken idiots swamped rigs after deciding to go "wheeling" in the water with incoming high tide.
plus at least 15 super high tide flooding rescues where the roads flooded and people drove around the barricades closing the highway, or the old folks that said i have been here 50 years and never got flooded out, then called police when water started coming in the front door of their house.
i had the only rig that could drive through 4 foot of water and come back out without ingesting water in the engine. i am 6 foot tall, and the fender tops above the front wheels and bed rails at rear wheels are at chin level.
Last edited by tjc transport; Mar 25, 2026 at 07:57 AM.
Reason: fix typos
"Rattletrap" is still all factory stock except for the added turbo.
i do have an international 195HP engine in it though, but it came that way. truck was special ordered in Virginia with 9 others by a construction company. 3 weeks before delivery they tried to cancel the order as one of the partners played "grab the money and run" leaving the other two partners in DEEP financial trouble. my local dealer bought all 10 trucks, and mine was the only one that made it to New Jersey, the others were sold on the way up here. mine pulled in the dealer lot as i was there with a blown engine in my 86. the dealer owner said i actually have a diesel coming in, it should be here any time. as i turned around it pulled in. took it for a drive and bought it on the spot. title says 2 miles, but it had 400 when i left the lot.
drove straight to a friend shop that was a Banks dealer/installer and had the turbo put on with exhaust delete. ran it home with just the down pipe, and put stacks on it with no muffler.
as for boost, i can easily hit 16PSI if i run it hard but i usually keep it around 10 psi.
now i have a 3 inch flowmaster 50 series muffler on it between the downpipe and stack splitter and it dropped boost to around 8 psi.
the 50 series is a single chamber muffler so it does not produce as much backpressure as normal muffler do so the engine still "breaths" good.
injector pump is a stock NA unit turned up 3 flats. pulling that mini excavator up the 1/2 mile long steep bridge i would drop from 5 gear 55MPH to third gear 35MPH on the one, all others would just be drop to fourth and around 45-50 MPH.
this is a picture of the truck waiting to go out plowing snow when it was still fairly good shape before the bed and cab rotted off it, i think it was 16 years old with around 350-375 k miles on it at the time. it now has a little over 496,000 miles on it and is waiting for weather to warm up so i can put the new cab on it
in the picture you can see the hood front lip, and the middle of the rocker panel starting to rot out.
the rocker is now completely gone along with about 8 inches of the floor, 3 inches of a pilar and 5-6 inches of b pilar and cab corner.
that poor girl saw a tough life plowing snow for 30 years besides running heavy equipment escort all over the NY, NJ, PA, and delaware area, and she also did WAY TOO MANY salt water rescue/recoveries for the township police. twice i was 1/4 mile out in the atlantic ocean towing back drunken idiots swamped rigs after deciding to go "wheeling" in the water with incoming high tide.
plus at least 15 super high tide flooding rescues where the roads flooded and people drove around the barricades closing the highway, or the old folks that said i have been here 50 years and never got flooded out, then called police when water started coming in the front door of their house.
i had the only rig that could drive through 4 foot of water and come back out without ingesting water in the engine. i am 6 foot tall, and the fender tops above the front wheels and bed rails at rear wheels are at chin level.
Dang dude not many original owners with these trucks anymore thats pretty cool.
Do you know what was different between the 195hp engine and the regular 7.3 with 180hp I think.
I wonder how much power its pushing at 16 psi.
Thats alot of miles before I owned my wrecker I had never seen something with that many miles thats awesome your able to get that many miles on it.
Are you still on the original idi at 500k miles?
My wrecker has been through a few engines and a bunch of other components im sure from what ive gathered its got 570k miles on it.
I love your truck that is a clean setup that you have. To bad about the rust but oh well thats what happens to work trucks especially in snowy/icy areas.
Thats crazy out in the ocean with the truck did you have lockers or spools in the axles to be going out and doing that?
That truck is pretty tall, my truck is also on 37s and im 6'2" and I can rest my arms on the hood and bedsides of the truck with no problem.
I do plan to lift my truck delete the factory style "highboy" 4" lift blocks and put 8" lift super duty springs in the rear and whatever the equivalent is in the front with the 99-04 super duty leafs.
i do not know for sure what the difference is between ford and international IDI 7.3's, but the 180HP ford was set for light duty trucks like our pickups, and the 195HP international was designed for medium duty trucks.
my engine is all original and never opened up. only bolt on external parts were changed.
i never had my 88 on a dyno, but the 90 was setup almost the same except for the 180HP ford rating and that dynoed at 296 hp.so i is safe to saysay mine is at 300 HP area too at 16 PSI boost..
no lockers or spools, but i did/do have limited slip diffs in it. but at 500k miles, i am pretty sure the clutches are shot by now. of the 6 IDI trucks i had between 88 and 92, all but one are still on the road. one of the two 89's was crushed by a large oak tree about 10 years ago, and the driver i sold it to decided to part it out as he felt it was not worth repairing.
the other 4 all have over 350,000 miles on them.
i did oil change every 3,000 miles, and trans fluid, front and rear diff fluid, brake fluid, power steering fluid, and coolant fluid change every 25,000 miles. snow plow pump was flushed and fresh fluid put in every November for plow season.
i also have a 78 and 79 F350 with 351M engines, both with close to 200k miles on them. an 02 diesel F250 with around 250k miles on it.
i have since sold almost all of the cars and trucks. 13 ford falcons age between 63 and 65, 2 99 crown vic police interceptors (1 was my fathers and one was mine) the 97 grand marquis in 09, and the 09 mercury milan last year, (both moms) 04 F350 flatbed rack body, the 2014 F250, and the 2018 explorer in the past 9 years.
i now only have the 78, 78, the 88, and my 2021 F150 run around rig. plus the 65 falcon V8 2DR hardtop, and the 66 7 Litre 4 speed convertible.
i do not know for sure what the difference is between ford and international IDI 7.3's, but the 180HP ford was set for light duty trucks like our pickups, and the 195HP international was designed for medium duty trucks.
my engine is all original and never opened up. only bolt on external parts were changed.
i never had my 88 on a dyno, but the 90 was setup almost the same except for the 180HP ford rating and that dynoed at 296 hp.so i is safe to saysay mine is at 300 HP area too at 16 PSI boost..
no lockers or spools, but i did/do have limited slip diffs in it. but at 500k miles, i am pretty sure the clutches are shot by now. of the 6 IDI trucks i had between 88 and 92, all but one are still on the road. one of the two 89's was crushed by a large oak tree about 10 years ago, and the driver i sold it to decided to part it out as he felt it was not worth repairing.
the other 4 all have over 350,000 miles on them.
i did oil change every 3,000 miles, and trans fluid, front and rear diff fluid, brake fluid, power steering fluid, and coolant fluid change every 25,000 miles. snow plow pump was flushed and fresh fluid put in every November for plow season.
i also have a 78 and 79 F350 with 351M engines, both with close to 200k miles on them. an 02 diesel F250 with around 250k miles on it.
i have since sold almost all of the cars and trucks. 13 ford falcons age between 63 and 65, 2 99 crown vic police interceptors (1 was my fathers and one was mine) the 97 grand marquis in 09, and the 09 mercury milan last year, (both moms) 04 F350 flatbed rack body, the 2014 F250, and the 2018 explorer in the past 9 years.
i now only have the 78, 78, the 88, and my 2021 F150 run around rig. plus the 65 falcon V8 2DR hardtop, and the 66 7 Litre 4 speed convertible.
Interesting I wonder why they made different engines for medium dutys and light dutys I would’ve thought they’d been the same.
Thats awesome I wonder how much more boost I could safely push if I was running studs like I had thought about doing if I were todo this.
300hp sounds pretty good to me lol. That’s what 550-650lbft that should be plenty for what I’m doing.
Dang oil changes every 3k that’s gotta be heavy on the pocket with how much more oil these use compared to gassers.
Are your 78 and 79 both 4wd’s with the D60 front axles?
I loved the 64/65 Falcons but I really want to get a 65 Comet 2dr. I’ve got a 65 Mustang Coupe but I think Comets and Falcons are cooler.
Thats funny you had some old Vic’s I’ve got a 98 P71 that’s a retired Orange County Sheriff Department car. I’m guessing it was retired around 2005 due to the previous owner getting it from auction in 2006 the year I was born.. That’s supposed to be my daily driver but I havnt gotten it street legal yet it hasn’t been registered since 2009 and has 870$ in back registration so I’ve got that plus tires and insurance.
yes, both the 78 and 79 are D60 4X4's.
luckily for us here in jersey we do not have commifornias silly back registration due fee.....yet.
the red 99 was a friends company lease vehicle. is 2000 the company started downsizing cars, and Joe did not want to other guys thinking he was special so he downsized cars also. we arraigned the lease buyout with ford and i bought it for dad as his old impala was falling apart. it had 12,000 miles on it when i got it for $13,000. since he liked moms grand marquis, i knew he would like the P71 also. my silver 99 was the police chiefs car.( my cousin) he did the same thing for detectives, switched from crown vics to taurus as the bad guys saw a crown vic and ran. the taurus worked better as undercover cars.
the chief said if the small car was good enough for them , it was good enough for him too. so i got a 3 year old P71 for 9 grand with 16,000 miles on it.
yes, both the 78 and 79 are D60 4X4's.
luckily for us here in jersey we do not have commifornias silly back registration due fee.....yet.
the red 99 was a friends company lease vehicle. is 2000 the company started downsizing cars, and Joe did not want to other guys thinking he was special so he downsized cars also. we arraigned the lease buyout with ford and i bought it for dad as his old impala was falling apart. it had 12,000 miles on it when i got it for $13,000. since he liked moms grand marquis, i knew he would like the P71 also. my silver 99 was the police chiefs car.( my cousin) he did the same thing for detectives, switched from crown vics to taurus as the bad guys saw a crown vic and ran. the taurus worked better as undercover cars.
the chief said if the small car was good enough for them , it was good enough for him too. so i got a 3 year old P71 for 9 grand with 16,000 miles on it.
Thats awesome thats the best front axles you could get with those trucks. To bad theyve ended up costing so much to buy them these days.
I plan to put a D60 front axle under my 73 eventually but with how much the factory axles go I think im going to try to throw a 85-91 D60 Kingpin Axle under it.
Yeah dont bet on the back registration crap seems like theyre all out there to get us so any way they can get money out of us they will.
Dang dude 12k miles is nothing! $13k isnt alot especially with it being a basically a new car like that thats awesome.
Yeah the Vic's kinda got a reputation of being the go to cop cars so that makes sense switching to Taurus's.
Surprisingly my Vic is fairly low mileage with it being 27 years old when I got it at only 112k miles.
my 88 has an 86 kingpin D-60 under it. truck started life as a F-SuperDuty 4X2 cab chassis. i get a REAL GOOD price on it so i grabbed it.
drove rite to my friends shop and had the turbo put on it. then pulled the 10 lug rear out, put the D60 up front, and an 88 sterling rear axle under it.
i traded the 10 lug rear for the 86 D-60. had to put all new seals in it because the truck burned up. then put the pickup bed on it.
price to put it on the road was a hair under $19,000.
Any idea which style this exhaust is? Went up to my buddies house today to look at his IDI stuff and he actually had some parts of a turbo setup.
Not sure which turbo setup this is or if it was a custom made setup im not sure.
Originally Posted by tjc transport
my 88 has an 86 kingpin D-60 under it. truck started life as a F-SuperDuty 4X2 cab chassis. i get a REAL GOOD price on it so i grabbed it.
drove rite to my friends shop and had the turbo put on it. then pulled the 10 lug rear out, put the D60 up front, and an 88 sterling rear axle under it.
i traded the 10 lug rear for the 86 D-60. had to put all new seals in it because the truck burned up. then put the pickup bed on it.
price to put it on the road was a hair under $19,000.
Dang dude thats quite the setup though!
Heres some pictures of the engines im looking at getting. The one on the stand is supposedly in good shape just need a hone and some polishing to the crank. He seems to think he has all the parts to put both of these Idis back together
He has new rings bearings and gaskets/seals to reassemble the one engine on the stand. Looks like I may be buying a 85 super cab long bed off of him as well so ill get a complete "running" 6.9 idi out of that as well which ill throw into
one of my trucks. His 85 has alot of parts my 84 needs so its going to be a parts vehicle for me. In the bags on the table is rebuild heads for that 7.3 IDI on the stand as well.
