One of my favorite things about the V10 shows up in that dyno sheet.

The 7.3 has a 1,500 RPM long band that it makes a good amount of torque in. The V10 on the other hand? Its band is well over 3,000 RPM wide.

 

I agree with you Bill in the peak HP and torque curves are better with the V-10 as opposed to the 7.3. The 7.3 needs a tranny with about 6 or 7 gears to get the maximum benefit of it's torque and HP. Not necessary with the V-10, or most any gas engine for that matter.

 

Not sure about the V10 but my 7.3 redlines at 3000RPM so there isn't a whole lot of room to stretch that power band out. I know when I floor the peddle my 7.3 stays right in that power band area with each shift.

Not to mention the 7.3 has 100fpt more then the V10.

 

The reason it's only 1500 rpm wide is that a couple hundred more rpm past that and my engine redlines. I redline at 3400 rpm and if I get close to that it feels like the engine is going to fly apart. It's one of the sacrifices I make to have a big block (some of us have to overcompensate just to break even ).
I definitely agree there. A 5R110, 6R140 or ZF6 and life would be much better. To swap in one of the first two is well out of my budget and only 4% of '03 Lariats (7.3L) were manufactured with a manual transmission, so that quickly turned into a pipe dream since I wasn't buying new.

 

Because both of those cars have NEVER left me stranded, are built with high quality standards and are designed around the mechanic.

 

90% of the time the spark plug threads are the owners fault. Over torquing and the lack of antisieze lubricant are the usual suspects. My '99 has had one set of threads get pulled out due to a Gorilla of a mechanic at a local ma-and-pop auto service place that decided that 14 ft.lbs. was 90 degrees on a ratchet. Needless to say, there wasn't much left of the threads and the truck wasn't even running. 1 hour with a $114 timesert kit fixed that.

The coils are nearly ALWAYS misdiagnosed. Someone gets a miss and they think they have to replace everything to fix the problem. I have NEVER replaced a coil in 170k miles on my V10. Every single time I have had a misfiring problem it was the fault of the spark plug boot or a faulty resistor in a poorly manufactured spark plug. both of with cost less than $10 to fix. Oh, by the way this happened to me twice in 170k and was related to the engine getting wet.

Exhaust manifold studs I agree with. This is a problem for should have addressed long ago. When you used a weak stud in a head made of a dissimilar metal in the presence of heat and an electrolyte (water and road salt) you get stress concentration and galvanic corrosion. They should have known that was going to happen and yes, this did happen to me. You know how much it cost to fix that? Six hours of time drinking beer with my buddies and $14 in parts from the local hardware store.

Just to add, I regularly tow a 10k TT with the truck and haul bed loads of rock and dirt that squat the springs to near the bump stops. Until recently I did this with the horribly selected 3.73 gear ratio and 35" tires.

Some little facts about my experience with the V10.

1. I'm on my original transmission.
2. I'm on my original engine.
3. I never had to replace any components other than those listed above.
4. Now with the 4.88 gears installed, I get 7mpg towing my 10k TT and 12mpg unloaded on the highway.I'm sure the diesel guy is going to say "thats not good" but you pay $.80-$1.50 more for fuel per gallon, paid more for the truck and have much higher repair bills.

Do I call this a victory for the V10? Yes. Why? Because when I bought my truck new in 1998, I paid $4500 less than the diesel guy and got reliability, driveability and bearable out-of-warranty maintenance costs.

I once was a PSD owner back in 2004. Owned a 6.0L and was lucky enough to be one of the 500 owners to get a buyback. I can tell you, this was the most unpleasant experience I have ever had with a vehicle and nearly drove me out of Ford and American cars all together. Not only did I get a buyback, but they still had my traded in V10 at the dealer where I purchased the PSD. I got it back for trade in value since they f-ed me so bad. Never was so relieved about anything so much in my life.

 

Very true. Ford had a TSB out that said a huge percentage of replaced coils they tested weren't really bad, and the techs needed to actually TEST the darn things before replacing them under warranty. Now, just think what non-Ford-dealer techs, or DIYers are doing without the proper diagnostics procedures and tools:


05-22-8***WDS COP KIT DIAGNOSTIC TIPS - COIL ON PLUG (COP) IGNITION SYSTEMS - ENGINE MISFIRE OR ROUGH RUNNING

 

how do the 1/4 mile times compare from a stock 7.3 to a stock v10 equipt truck?

 

I will beat a 7.3 or a 6.0 towing a 8 percent grade any day. YOU BRING THE GAS. My old 6.0 would give up the power band when the EGT hit 1200 degrees. Thats how I win. The V10 is NOT in danger of Melting the head or the pistons.

V10 Wins.

 

I was on my last leg of our 8,000 mile towing trip coming from St. George, UT to Layton, UT. LOTS of long steep hills and a 6.0 hauling a 25' towbehind RV blasted by me and I was doing 65. The hill was maybe 2 miles long and when I hit the top, he was stopped on the side of the road. He hadn't got out of his truck yet so I am not sure what was his problem. I noticed when he passed me that it was a 6 leaker and his was one of the few 6.0's that have passed me hauling something.He must have had some mods as he had a large exhaust. I doubt that his 25' Rv was even 1/2 the weight of my Airstream, but never know for sure. Anyway, I wish him well.

We made it back to Bountiful, UT at our temp location without a hitch. 8,000 miles and no problems.

Pap

 

Pap good to see your trip was enjoyable and problem free.

 

That is the reason the the factory computer will not let you go above 1200 degress. If you chip a diesel you need gauges.

Does your Airstream have a slide out?? My wife wants me to upgrade our TT.

 

Lawd knows I tried to stay away.
This has to be one of the top 5 worst explaintions of why the v10 would win.
Sat. I hauled my JD 5300 w/ FEL and mx8 on my 32' GN up the backside of brently mountain. I don't know what grade it is but its a good one. Alittle short though I think somewhere around 5 miles. This combo grosses just shy of 22k and I stayed in the powerband all the way up. On my isspro pyro gauge from 1000-1200• Is yellow. I was in the yellow. If I had to make a honest guess of what temp was I'd guess somewhere between 1150-1175.
Your 6.0 may or maynot have defueled at 1200• But its the extended tempture over 1200 that'll start causeing problems. My truck won't defuel I don't know why maybe cause its an 04. You'll lose this battle if you think I'm gonna defuel. Then on top of this you can backout and lower egts.
On the crazy side a buddy of mine videoed his egts getting above 1200 and he put the pedal down instead of up and his egts lowered down into the high 1100s. I thought he was full of it and he showed us. I've came to releaze there's a lot more to this egts for me to learn.

 

Yes, Airstream made a slide-out from 2001-2009 in some 28',30',and 34' trailers. I don't personally like the 34'ers, but we love our 2002 30' Classic. An Airstream cost more than the "plastic box" but it holds its values and is a very tough trailer. Like a Swiss watch in alot of ways. Here is a good site that I frequent:

- Airstream Trailer Classifieds - Airstreams Trailers For Sale

 

Bill the problem is the head didn't have enough threads cut into it. You can call it what you want. Can the sparkplugs be installed w/ out spitting sparkplugs? So far yes. Ford made 2 mistakes in the triton motors that I call stupid and both of them involve the spark plugs. The early v10s and the 04 up 5.4 3v.