I agree their a good engine, but ill never own one. Im very bullheaded lol. Grandpa and grandma were both Polish lol

 

All uniqueness and brand loyalty aside... From a cost and value perspective, the Cummins will come out ahead of the IDI build.

 

Not a thing wrong with that ... Tenacious!

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

true. i think someone just needs to take the time to find the cork in our motors.

 

It's been done ... 1200HP! (Or torque I forget)

I'll see if I can dig up the article.

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

i remember seeing that before, but i think it was an ungodly amount of money to get it, and problem prone if i recall correctly.

 

Has anybody seen a cat or detriot in one of these? Ive seen a detroit in a 75 f350 but it was gutless and it bellered alot. As far as the cat goes effectivly thats what we all have. Cat designed that engine for international. Its just a 3208 with internationals name. If CAT made a good inline 6 that size I would spend 10k to put it in but they dont so i will eventualy go with cummins.

 

6v-71 would fit except maybe the height. fitting an inline 6 of any diesel nearly, will require electric fans and/or different rad setup in a truck like mine at least. AFAIK

 

The 7.3 is supposed to be the same thing as a 3208? I don't think so.......

 

I keep hearing about how cheap it is to put a cummins into these trucks and make "big power" reliably. Trouble is all I see is talk and no proof. On other forums I don't shy away from controvercial discussions, and I've heard arguments built on empty "consensus" or "robust" assertions but in most cases, its total BS. Just because an idea is popular, does not make it true.

The best case senario is you find a good used engine for under $1000 if you are lucky.

Now you need another $1200 for an adapter kit, or maybe you can save a little by using the dodge transmission but you still have drive shaft mods to make that work.

So now you have a used engine, and now you are going to start modifying the engine without knowing the internals.

Paint me a skeptic but I will not deploy a used engine to my truck and try and nearly double the horsepower. I don't care how many people out there think the cummins is bullet proof, I will not place that kind of trust in an engine that is used and that goes for the IDI too.

Now if all you want is a Hp toy to bomb around in and don't care about reliability, then go for it. For my part, I would not try to break 300 Hp without a fresh engine that has known good parts inside. 250 Hp in an otherwise stock IDI other than a turbocharger has been done before if you are measuring at the crank shaft. There is nothing new there.

To the original poster's question.

keep an eye out for a used turbocharger kit and if its in good shape, run it. Ideally you would rebuild the turbocharger and refresh the head gaskets on the engine (unless you know for a fact that they are recent and good). With stock head bolts and a used turbocharger pushing 10 PSI of boost or less, you will be quite satisfied with the results and 230 Hp at the crank should be in easy reach.

 

You don't need to make big power with a Cummins swap. A stock Cummins is all you'll need and you'll be ahead of an IDI power-wise. If you keep your ear to the ground, you can pick up a wrecked first gen (side swiped or rear ended) for ~$2k.

I know a kid who installed a Cummins, tranny and transfercase in a Jeep Wrangler for a few grand completely finished, including gauges, exhaust and drive shafts. IIRC, he used Mercedes Benz diesel motor mounts (fluid dampers). He's a good welder / fabricator. I'd think that would be a much more difficult feat than in a full size Ford.

 

Im a bit concerned about putting a turbo on a 6.9 to the best of my knowledge there is no way to get the needed oil spray on the pistons to cool them. Granted I could just be overcautious or maybe even flat wrong but i dont want that kind of investment to burn down on me. The other thing I was thinking about is finding a wrecked 95 7.3 with the oem turbo rebuilding it and putting it in. As of right now I havent done reserch enough as to know if that swap would need to include a computer or not. At this point im leaning twords no. And about the 3208 question I have not seen it for myself but my uncle works at a CAT shop rebuilding CAT engines. Also has rebuilt his 7.3. Thats where I got my info from if he said it its good enough for me. I should also say that its loosly based on the 3208 not a clone thereof.

 

93-94 idi turbo. 95 is psd. Turbo won't work. The 93-94 is an ats turbo, they work fine, that's what I've got on mine. When ats gets their crap together they will be elling their turbo turn down and downpipe. It's 3" and not crushed. Gain extra boost and lower egt's.

 

Loosely based is a relative term....yes, they are v8 diesel's, both of which happen to be dry sleeve engines, but the similarity ends about there.

I wonder why there seems to be a rush of folks lately that have the 6.9/7.3 and want to make big power? These trucks aren't hot rods, they are fun, hard working trucks, that have a certain following.

Guess no-one's told them about the new IDI chip that is being developed yet though either.....

 

All 6.9s and 7.3s in this generation have piston squirters and all of them respond very well to turbocharging, I'm not sure I follow as to what you are concerned about. As you can see, lots of us are running turbochargers without problems. The only real risk you are taking is over boosting the setup but in most cases 7 PSI is the most efficient boost you will get out of an unmodified 6.9 anyway. You can push more if you pust the fuel pressure high enough though if you want to be adventurous.

I didn't realize you were after a big budget build though. Currently the highest dyno pull to date was a 7.3 IDI that pulled 204 Hp at the wheels using a turbo, hot pump and hot injectors. He did not however have an intercooler so there was room to improve on that.