hmmm... it very rarely gets taken out of my hottest tune actually. i wasn't able to dyno it on this tune b/c EGT's soared over 1200* just trying to light the charger below 1500 RPM. Oh and trust me when i say i don't take it easy on the truck. it has probably around 100+ drag strip passes and i take it to 4000 RPM on the strip now.

I'm not gonna lie. when i tow with a gasser it gets the RPMs put to it fo sho. Sorry your truck won't pull harder than a 5.4, but i honestly don't have that problem. an automatic powered gasser CAN take off from a light faster than i can simply b/c i will use 1st gear and take it kinda easy taking off, but once i catch 2nd, 3rd, 4th gear it's over. Then again i do not have a stock 7.3 and i have to say the stock 7.3 injectors force it to be quite underpowered.. they are pigs stock for sure. my tow tune is only about 280hp b/c really i don't normally need to floor it when i have a trailer, but i have taken off from lights in my street race tune several times with a load when i needed to really get moving and did take carry the RPMs out to about 3700 RPMs a couple times with a load(yes my 7.3 does carry the power out there with these nozzles)

You got this completely backwards. When i tow, i don't use anything near 400hp. When i'm running empty the truck stays in my "Hot" tune. Obviously that doesn't mean i'm seeing 400hp all the time b/c when i'm cruising it's not producing that power. it's just almost everytime i roll into it to pass ppl or racing dodges or coming down my street it does see every ounce of that power.

truck has seen plenty of trailers since i had it just not as many as it did before i got it. Before i got this truck it was attached to a trailer every day of it's life as a work truck for a fence company hauling pallets of concrete, posts, wire, tractors, etc. i know this and i know the trucks background b/c the previous owner is a friend of mine. it did not get modded til i got it, but you can ask any friend of mine and they will all tell you that they cannot see how this engine is still alive. technically the engine shoulda died already. it's seen many drag strip passes shifting at 4000 RPM on the poor stock bottom end, pushrods, and valve springs. anyone will tell you that should not be done b/c the pushrods will bend, valves will float, and the bottom end isn't stable enough stock. trust me, it should be dead already, it just won't give up. It even still has the completely stock ZF5 in it to this day w/ 314k miles on it.

Anyways. this thread is still going nowhere so i took up plenty of space with meaningless responses. Conclusions here is that the V10 with lots of gearing(stock chit) will tow, but it works harder than a diesel does to do the same work. So my favor goes to the diesel since i don't like my engine having to work that hard to do a simple job. It's all a personal preference deal. no sense in arguing it b/c it will stay that way. Jrfish007 likes his V10 for the way he uses it so thats his preference and it will stay that way until he finds something else he feels does that job a bit better and is happy with the terms of ownership(costs, maintainence, etc). The only complaint i can ever have on my diesel is the cost of an oil change, but that's no big deal. $80 every 3000k miles compared to like $20 for a gasser and that's ok with me b/c for my expectations the diesel does the job better than any gasser i've ever been behind the wheel of.

 

DIESEL IS BETTER!!!!!!!!

 

Short and sweet! but out of your collection, what PSD do you feel is better? not necessarily power wise but overall reliability and cost.

 

My understanding of the 7.3 is that it was detuned for the light truck duty. If this is the case, you are probably running at the power it was deisgned to run at. There is no reason why it shouldn't be able to handle that power.

The other thing I have to consider is reilablity. When I tow, I have my family (wife and 11 month old baby) and a horse. I'll tow 200-300 miles, if I break down at the half way point it could be disasterous. If thsi wasn't the case, and it was just me driving, believe I would have a truck like yours, although maybe not on so many steriods.

 

I've agreed with you for the vast majority of this thread, but you have this completely backwards.

All PSD engines are turned UP for light truck duty! The T444E(7.3L) International engine was available with ratings ranging from 175-230 HP. Info found HERE. The 7.3L PSD was rated up to 275 HP in the manual transmission trucks.

The VT365 was initially rated between 175-230 HP when it came out in 2002. Only the PSD variant was rated for 325 HP. Found HERE.

The 6.4L PSD, which is known as the International Maxxforce 7, when introduced in 2007, was only initially rated for between 200-230 HP when it came out! They revised the engine for the EPA 2010(AFTER it was discontinued for Ford pickups) they upped the power output to 300 HP. The PSD version was 350 HP from the beginning back in 2007, with the heavier duty F450 with 4.88 gears had a detuned 325 HP variant. Info found HERE and HERE.

Neither the 7.3L, 6.0L, or 6.4L engines were ever designed to be run at those power levels. A robust bottom end makes them do an admirable job, but 400 HP is FIRMLY in the Heavy Duty range. Heavy duty engines designed to make 400 HP normally displace between 12-15 liters and don't rev above 2,000 RPMs. The vast majority of tractor-trailers on the road have between 370-450 HP, which is why they can't maintain speed on hills or get up to speed quickly.

 

It's not just my truck, it's plenty of stock psd's of all varieties. I don't care about could've, should've, would've, etc. Simple fact is 97% of psd's came with autos and there is a very high percentage of those that if they pull up beside of my 5.4 at a stop light on a hill they are not going to get the load moving as easily.

I wouldn't say "lots" of gearing. I only have a 4.10 in mine and it does quite well.

That's one of the problems a lot of gasser guys have with diesel guys in this argument. They act like the gasser is working its a$$ off any time it tows anything. Just because the v10 CAN turn 6,000 rpm doesn't mean it HAS to turn that much to pull something. If the psd isn't full throttle with the turbo blowing full boost at 3,000 rpm then there is a really good chance the v10 isn't 2 gears lower and "screaming" up the hill at 5,000 rpm.

 

Indeed. My V10 truck rarely gets over about 3300 rpms or so to tow anything I've needed to tow. With heavy loads and a big hill, maybe a touch more, but I don't foresee needing to scream it to pull anything I'll ever need. But if I do need it to, it can. Here's another thing that I find interesting and I think anyone familiar with drag racing can appreciate: there's a local diesel shop that runs a 10-second diesel truck at the drags. Before you diesel guys get all full of yourself, know this: the owner HATES Ford diesels, his truck is a 5.9 Cummins Dodge. Seems as though he's a hard-headed as we are, go figure. Anyway, he took his truck to a local shop with a chassis dyno and pulled something like 900 hp and 1200 ft/lbs at the rear wheels! That's astounding, I don't care who you are or what your vehicle of choice is. My question is , and Josh can back me up on this: why does it only run mid-to-high 10's? That kind of power and torque in a gas vehicle of similar wieght would (in my experience) easily be low 9's.

 

Either the 6.0 or 7.3

 

Weight or they didn't give it all it had.

 

Correct. Put a diesel in a car that will hold a gas engine and the front of the car will be on the pavement. Also, a truck is like a brick. You have a lot more wind resistance than a car would have. Get above 60 or 70mph, that will make a huge difference.

Read an article some years ago about the Shelby Cobra. It was an open top car when built. About 150mph was all Shelby could get out of it, even though the engine still had some rpms left in it. Carrol Shelby found that by putting a top on the car, he got an extra 20mphs out of it. Wind resistance is a huge factor in racing. Trucks simply weren't designed for it, but it is fun to try!!!

 

I've been watching it for years, and trust, me, they run it all out, every run. It's only recently made it into the 10's and you can see it for yourself on YouTube running low 11's a while back. And it's also not all that heavy, it's totally gutted and stripped of every non-essential part to shave weight. For the astounding amount of power it puts out, it's fairly slow.

 

Yes, I stand corrected. Although, I do know the engine in his truck (which was similiar to the 7.3 I had) was retuned later for more power after the model change. or so I thought... could be wrong there too..

 

Actually I love the Cummins engine, it's just that stuff that's around it I don't like

Anyway, they can do it because of teh limited RPMs on the engine. People running 700hp on gas engine truck can hit the same times. I had a buddy with a 700 hp truck that ran into the low 10's. the guy that bought off of him could drive and got into the high 9's after only a few passes without changing anything on the truck. It was an '88 chevy with a 454 if you wanted to know.

It's the same issue Josh has been talking about, shifting. How many times does a diesel have to shift in the quarter mile versus the gas engine. And if it's a manual, it will have to rebuild boost making the shift take that much more time. The only way around it is to run gears that allow you to shift less, but put less force down (i.e. a 3.55 instead of a 4.10). That way they shift less, but they will put less power down. Diesel owners have to pick the lesser of 2 evils, while the gas guys can make do with less power because of higher RPM's thus less shifting.

 

the 6.0 leaker was a reilable engine?

 

Reliable if you don't mess with it and take care of it, My work has a 04 6.0 and its been perfectly fine so far but its all stock.