I have been looking for rebuild parts for my 7.3. I have found many options. No one is specific if thier kit will hold up to my sidewinder turbo, and water injuection. Does any body have any recomended suppliers for me. Their is no advertisement like word of mouth. So if you have had good or bad experiences please tell me. Then I'll know who to steer clear of, and who to trust.

 

Royson12, you may be thinking about this to much, buddy. If you buy a rebuild kit for an NA diesel, the end result won't be any diffferent than installing the Sidewinder kit on a complete NA engine. The vast majority of aftermarket rebuild parts meet or exceed OE requirements, and Banks built the kit to be installed on a stock engine. You could buy the pistons intended for the '94 turbo, which were anodized and perhaps slightly better. The water injection isn't that stressful on the engine.

That's not to say there aren't better-than-stock parts out there. My engine is still going strong after owning it 20 years, so I haven't researched exact which parts I would buy, but the name brands will give you good service in all but themost extreme applications.

 

Thanks for the input. I just assumed the boost input by the turbo, would be better applied with better head gaskets and the such. Your saying I don't need all those high dollar head studs, turbo pistons, and such? That would save me a ton of money. I don't plan on pullin any sleds. I want good overall power, with fuel economy, and longivity. It is a daily driver. I appreciate all knowledgable input I can get.

 

I installed a Banks kit on my truck in 1987 when the truck had 6700 miles. Other than head gaskets (external coolant seepage- a common problem) in 1994, it's never been apart. It has just under 130,000 miles as of now and runs like a top (note the dyno test reading in the signature... comperable to a stock 7.3L Powerstroke). That's not a huge number of miles for a 20 year old but at least 70 percent of that is towing or carrying an overhead camper or both. Those are stock parts inside that engine and it ain't dead yet. It was maintained well, but I'm not **** about it.

If I were you, I would buy the best head gaskets you can buy (I'll let others like our moderator Dave comment on what those are today- I think I used Fel-Pro back in '94) and probably buy the ARP stud kit, which improves head gasket retention. I gather that with a 7.3 you want to bore as little as possible because they already have super-thin cylinder walls. Some advocate sleeving rather than boring. That might be a bit too much, but I think having the cylinder walls sonic tested would help make sure you haven't had any cavitation problems.

Your machinist is the guy that will make or break this job. If he's sloppy, lazy or dirty, you're gonna have trouble. Assembly is vital too.

Bottom line, IMHO, you could get good service under the conditionns you outline using standard parts. Good luck with the project and keep us posted.

 

can anyone tell me a good supplier, online, to get idi parts, rebuild kits, and such. I've been looking, not having much luck.

 

I used Fel-Pro gaskets in mine for all of them.
I used Sealed Power bearings, rings and pistons.
I bought my engine parts through the machine shop that did my engine work, they were better on the prices on most of the parts.
If I totaled up everything with prices I could get, the parts I could get cheaper myself was not enough to go through the trouble of ordering them seperately.

You can check ARP for studs, but I think they only have 6.9 head studs.

Be careful with the turbo pistons.
A NA 6.9 and 7.3 has a 1" wrist pin.
Some of the 7.3 turbo motors had a 1 and 5/16" wrist pin which will not work with your rods.
I don't think they are needed, they just increase the rotating mass adding stress to the rods.

I personally had nothing but bad luck with sleeves, so I would not go that route.
Three 7.3 sleeved motors, 2700, 9700 and 17000 miles before the blocks cracked from the sleeves dropping.
They shipped me a fourth motor under warranty, I tore it down before I installed it. While it was still bolted to the shipping pallet, never been fired I found the sleeves were all below the block deck between .002 and .007, so I refused the engine.

I bought a 6.9 salvage yard engine bored it .030 and built it, I am still smiling after 12,000 miles running high boost and lots of fuel.

With the cavitation issue the 7.3 block has in stock form, and the fact the smallest oversized piston is .020 over, I would have a hard time putting 2500 dollars worth of parts and machine work in a 7.3 rebuild.
That is a little less than I had for parts and machine work in my 6.9, but I did have a little extra work done to the pistons, I had them milled 40 thousandths off the piston crown to lower the compression ratio to 20.25 to 1 from 22.5 to 1.
Those numbers do not have any teardown or reassembly labor in them, I did all that work myself.

I will also tell you a lot of machine shops will not work on a 7.3 engine due to previous sleeve problems.
The shop I used did not want to do my 6.9 till I told them how and why I wanted to do it the way I did after all the sleeve problems I had.
It went something like this.
A 7.3 engine is a 6.9 block bored out 110 thousandths running bigger pistons and different head bolts.
7.3 engines have a cavitation issue from thin cylinder walls.

So if you took a 6.9 block, bored it 30 over and did not install sleeves the block would be 80 thousandths thicker than a stock 7.3 engine cylinder wall would be.
Head studs in a 6.9 block eliminate the head gasket problem the 6.9 had.
The shop owner considered everything I said, then replied I may be onto something with the IH diesel engine.
He agreed to do it with no warranty on the block as a test engine and would do exactly what I wanted done the way I wanted it done.
When I told him I wanted 40 thousandths milled off the piston crowns to lower the compression he did arch his eyebrows, but he builds a lot of race gas motors.
When I told him I was planning running boost numbers in the 20's and a 7.3 turbo fuel system with some tweaks he was worried again.

Now we are 8 months into the engine life, 12,000 miles on it.
I have run into the shop owner a couple times out on the highway in his Chevy gasser truck.
I have also stopped in the shop, his partner asks how it runs, the owner answers the question for me, fast truck.
They will now rebuild 6.9 engines but not 7.3 engines.

I am still smiling every time I fire it up.
It has outlasted my first two remanufactered 7.3 engines.
It is running over three times the boost the 7.3 engines were.
And it would blow any of the three 7.3 turbo motors off the road.
If I had paid for labor, the engine cost would have been close to what I paid for the reman engine which was 6600 dollars for a 7.3 turbo upgrade engine three years ago.

Sorry this was so long, but now you have most of the story on how I got to where I am with my position on IH diesel engine rebuilds and remans.

 

Well, Royson12, you heard DaMan! Hows that for going from worried to relieved and back to worried in one short day? Makes me glad I have a 6.9L. Holy suffering Rudolph, Batman!

BTW, Dave. What ever happpend to the original 6.9L in your truck?

 

Dave, I am confused! Are you saying a 6.9, 30 over is a 7.3 displacement. Are you also saying a lot of my 7.3 parts, like ip, injectors, starter,ect... will fit on a 6.9. I have heard bad things about both, dont know if it were from reputable sources. I was told that the 7.3 was a beefed up version of the 6.9 with bigger bore, beefier heads and such. I also had a 6.9 years ago, that was stock, never had any problems out of it. I just want a daily driver, with a little punch, that is dependable and economical to drive. My point is, I guess, is there a happy mix between the 6.9 and 7.3 parts. If I buy a 6.9 to rebuild, I still have this 7.3. Will any of the parts intermingle. I was planning on running dps performance injectors, and dps performance injector pump. I of course have to send them the cores, are they compatible with a 6.9. What can I salvage from my 7.3 for a rebuild of a 6.9. Will my tranny still bolt up, will my exaust still be the same, ect... Thank for knowledge, you didn't get to be a moderator, by bein no dummy.

 

The 6.9 has a 4" bore.
The 7.3 has a 4.11" bore.
So you bore a 6.9 110 thousandths and you have a 7.3 engine.

Engine to transmission bolt pattern is the same on all diesel engines from the 1983 6.9 to the 2003 7.3 Power Stroke, I assume the 6.0 trannies will also work, but I have not checked that yet. Yes a 2002 ZF 6 will bolt up to a 1983 6.9 engine.

Cranks, cam, lifters, bearings, seals, IP's, injectors, intakes, turbo's, timing gears, oil pumps, exhaust manifolds, water pumps, lift pumps, precups, oil coolers, pushrods and valve rockers all will interchange.
The only parts that will not interchange are the heads, head bolts, pistons and rings.

7.3 IDI valves will go in a 6.9 and is a good upgrade on the exhaust side, I have them in mine.
I am also running 7.3 IDI rockers, they are stronger.
I am running 1994 7.3 IDI turbo injectors and IP.

I used a late 85 6.9 engine, the earlier 6.9 blocks had a few issues. Look for a counter bored area around the block heater and a defined area for the dip stick tube on a 6.9 block to know if it is a later style block.

When I bought the reman 7.3 turbo engine I turned my original 6.9 motor in for the core.
That was a mistake, but it did teach me a lot about the engine.
For some reason you remember better when you break expensive parts like engine blocks.
It also gave me a lot of engine tear downs and swaps in two years which resulted in the engine build in the third year.

So my engine experience is a 7.3 reman engine causes headaches, empty wallet repeatedly and lots of worn out shoe leather.
A rebuilt 6.9 engine causes smiles, with a little extra money during the rebuild the smiles get bigger.

When I originally looked at all the facts, the 6.9 overhaul plus a turbo was going to cost about the same as the reman 7.3 turbo upgrade engine.
With the overhaul I was going to lose my truck for about 4 weeks, with the reman swap I was going to lose it for two days.
So I went reman engine.

After the whole thing is over, I would up without a truck for 5 months going the reman route, most of that was during the haggle period when I refused to install the fourth engine since the warranty period was almost up and I had found problems before it was ever fired the first time.

In the end, I would have been so much better off to rebuild the 6.9 in my truck, but I would not know near as much about the engine as I do now.

Good luck with the DPS parts, I ordered a set of Stage 1 injectors 6 weeks ago last Tuesday. Still no injectors, and my calls are all unanswered.

Here I thought they made me moderator because of my charming personality.

 

I will take all of your advise, it is well learned. It will take me awhile to do my rebuild, as I plan on doin it myself as well. All but the machine work. Yall will be hearin from me during the rebuild, I'm sure with more questions. Let me know how those dps injectors work out, I dont plan on purchasing them or the ip until the very end of my build. I'll be listening for more input about those guys for sure. Their performance ip sounds good, has anybody else ever used one of them, good or bad experiences, please elaborate.

 

I was very inspired by Mr. Sponaugles experience and totally glad I joined this forum. I have an 87 6.9L sitting on an engine stand as a spring project which more than likely due to time constraints I would have swapped it for a reman. But by the looks of things time would be better spent by doing what Dave did for his. Might even have to drop a quarter on his machine shop for the work?

 

I have my 1987 6.9L torn apart right now...

After doing some reseach I will be using the following parts:

Felpro:

HS8891PT head set
CS8891 lower engine set
MS96038 valley pan

Melling:

M165 oil pump
J2104 lifters

Sealed Power:

S110M-?? main bearings
3810CP-?? rod bearings
VS-693 valve springs
H654P-?? Pistons
E251K-?? Rings

Clevite:

IN17 Cam Bearings

Pioneer:

PE197BR frost plug kit

ARP:

150-4069 head studs

I will also be sending my cam out to be re-ground....