Little background:
Last year I bought my '97 F-350 4door dually. $9,000 with 127k on the clock! I'm the third owner, never seen a winter in its life. Used to for a few months as a work truck, stored it for winter, joined the military, dad used it, now I got it back after almost 8 months with 138k on her.

My buddy recently bought a '03 5 speed 5.9 Cummins pushing 530/1100 HP/tq. He let me drive her and borrow his tuner on my truck. Well the tuner woke her up some so now I'm really itching to build the 7.3.

She's going to mostly a DD, and hauler of a 40' car trailer when needed. Maybe a 1/4 mile and a truck pull here and there, but she's mostly going to be babied. I'm looking to try (TRY) and push somewhere between 550 and 650 HP. BTS trans (unless otherwise recommend,) and maybe a 4x4 conversion.

The plan is to buy a junkyard motor, build it, swap it in a weekend so the truck isn't down for too long.

My question is where to start.
Forged rotating assembly?
forged push rods.
ARP head studs
S366? Turbo
Unknown injector size
Cam?
T500 Hpop
E-fuel
Aftermarket exhaust (4" DP?)
upgraded cooling system
Guages
CTS tuner?
Anything else?

I understand this might sound a little far fetched or dumb, but I'm just looking for some guidance in the right direction. It's either this or another bronco haha

 

For that kind of hp I would say:
s400 turbo
238/100 hybrid injectors
I haven't heard of any improved cams
Adrenaline hpop
5" exhaust
There isn't any upgrades to the cooling system. 6.0 trans cooler for the BTS
Intercooler


Other will be alone to help. Read signatures to get a better idea.

 

It all depends on your budjet. I'm running a stock 337000 mile mill ... Is it ideal maybe not.. It works tho. You will need a s4xx turbo and at least 238/100 like Glenn said. I really like my stix much better than the 100% nozzles I had before.
I will say 500 hp is much easier and cheaper than 650. The threshold between there is dang expensive.

 

I could write a very long monologue about this. To put it simple… to do it right is extremely expensive on a 7.3 when compared to an old p pumped 12valve 5.9. You can do it on the cheap but good luck keeping it going let alone towing. That brings me into the next thing. There is no way in hell the 7.3 will run cool enough and reliably, towing a 40' goose at 500+ hp let alone 550-650. If you have every drove a truck that puts a solid 350hp/750tq to the rear wheels you will know it’s more than you need to haul 15-20k lb loads through the rockies. At sea level, running cooler will be easier if you are not pulling steep grades at altitude.

We have built more big HP 5.9s than we have 7.3s, and I hate to say it but a 7.3 is at least twice as expensive as an old 5.9 to build, if not 3x in some cases. Before digging myself a deep hole below is what I’d suggest for a reliable 600hp build before even getting too deep into the motor. I will say rods and a fire ringed heads are not a must, but highly recommended at 650hp. Yeah you can go hit your panties on the dyno and pull 650 on stock rods, but not for long, but that is just my opinion…

Regarding your buddies 5.9, if he is a good buddy don’t do it, but if he is not, next time you have to go yank a good load around have him juice up that 5.9 and see how long he can actually stay in it towing a steep grade before he melts it to the ground. Egg him on :-) the 5.9s especially the P pumped 12 valves are the HS/college guys dream motor, its pretty easy to squeeze 400-450 hp out of them for under a couple grand. They will run extremely hot and smoke like a chimney, and that’s what 50$% of the dodges out here do. 

Below is just the basic big items for parts, Labor is up to you or can be even more expensive if paying someone else…

BTS trans 5300
At minimum a S467 FMW -1600$
Minimum 250/200 injectors – 2100$
Strictly Diesel Efuel – twin pump – 1400$
Billet Plenums – $250
Adrenaline HPOP or Bigger – 700-1400$
T4 Turbo kit w IC pipes and 4” DP/exhaust – 1500$
Chip and Tunes 500$
Intake- 100$
=13200-13,900


Motor w/labor
Ceramic top coat and DFL skirts 500
Rebuild kit -1200-1300$
Cam grind polish/ new bearings – 1000-1200
Ported Heads? – 1100-1700
Rods? – 1200-1800 depending on manufacturer
Fluid Damper – 300
Springs and pushrods 350-400$
Arp studs or $$$H11s– 580 -900
Fire Ringed Head – 500
Girdle – 900 or even more depending on what you want to do

I can go much further, always count on a couple extra grand for all the not big stuff :-) Plain and simple it’s pretty darn expensive. Yes a lot of motor work would need to be done to the 5.9 as well comparably, but as you can see that first number of around 13k just for the components is pretty steep. Toning it back to say a 400-450hp truck will cut that in half, and still be a lot more truck than most people ever get to drive.

Hope this helps a little. Sometime its worth dropping 10k on a built motor and then bolting your goodies to it. Half the machine shops out there have no idea how to build a 7.3 properly... go over to brass ***** palace of PSA... its pretty impressive how many guys built big HP motors that blew extremely quick due to lack of engine builder knowledge or cutting corners...in the end it always blows up! how soon is a matter of extra $$

 

Nick pretty much hit that on the head^ I'm just too lazy to type a whole lot from my phone.

 

So for a decent penny and a relatively stout machine to still haul with I want to look for the 400-500 range. That's good enough for me!

 

If you have a solid mill, you can get to 500 much cheaper than all the stuff Nik listed. However, like he said, it's when you start pushing these motors past that point that reliability in a tow rig is questionable at best. Reliability and big power in these motors takes a lot of money.

 

Where's the line in the sand in terms of reliability and power with these things? Right at 500HP?

 

I would say that's about right. There's a couple guys on here that push 500 and have bone stock bottom ends and 300k+ miles. But you'll need a healthy mill to start with and all the goodies to hold said hp. IE; pushrods, studs, valve springs blah blah blah.

Niks list was dead on. But those are also retail prices. If you can fab, you can save lots of money on the mount. I got a steal on my injectors as they were used and I was in the right place at the right time. If you piece an e fuel kit together and take your time, it can be frustrating, but it can also cost you half the price of dieselsites or irates.

 

What I can't fab I can get fabbed for the price of the steel pretty much.

I think I'll be aiming for a stout engine at ~450hp. She's got a pep in her step bone stock and a tune so I'm sure an extra 200hp will be fun!

 

It's pretty incredible when you add some power in steps. I did a chip and was blown away with the new power. Got board with it and added injectors. Then it was like holy cow! I can yank anything I throw at it with ease, but I'm limited on stock air. I'm probably in the mid to high 300hp as it sits. Now I have a new turbo waiting to go in and I can't wait to see how that turns out. I just hope I don't get board with that as I won't have a wallet left. Lol

 

I really don't think there is a "line". In my opinion, it is more like a large grey area. There are so many things it depends on like the combination of mods you choose, the tuner you use and their ability to tune your truck to your mods and for what you use your truck for, the quality of products you use, and if they are installed properly, etc. These are 20 year old trucks and most with higher mileage. I don't think there is anyway to guarantee reliability when you do the things some of us do to our trucks. There are just too many variables involved. You could buy the best quality proven products for your power mods, but if installed incorrectly, they won't be reliable. you could be sure the same high quality products are installed properly, but if the tuner you choose doesn't tune it right, it won't be reliable. Modding the truck for it's use is important. Improper use of the truck for how it is modded, or improper mods for how it is used could result in a melted down engine, or a windowed block. I guess what I'm saying is, in my opinion, these are 20 year old trucks, and anything we do to them is a crap shoot. I'm not saying that they can't be modded and reliable, I just think there is no way to guarantee it.

 

There isn't a line unless its drawn with dollar bills

Agree 100%. I was speaking more towards a 650hp on straight fuel that reliable and can tow. I also agree a lot of that was all retail some on the high end and some on the low. 500 hp is doable on a stock bottom end and top notch tuning...screw up the tuning...forget it.

It can be done much cheaper... do it in baby steps, I think the majority of us on here did just that. Start with injectors and a chip, it will force you to get a turbo down the road... and your tranny won't last very long at that so... the long road lies ahead of spendy way too much

Well put!

 

So if I'm looking for that 450+/- range what injectors should I look into? 160/100 or something bigger?

Also should I do injectors first? Or exhaust. Looking at that DP (forget the name) that goes 3" at turbo to 4" at the bottom to a 4" exhaust.

I'm trying to do research, but working 12+ hours a day in the Corps plus school after makes research difficult .

 

If you are going for 400-450 HP, I wouldn't worry about a DP for the stock turbo. You will need to upgrade the turbo to reach those numbers, and you'll just have to buy another down pipe. I would go for an S366 or S369, T4 mount with bellowed up pipes, intercooler, Rosewood Stage Ones, T500 or Adrenaline HPOP, E-fuel, exhaust and intake, head studs, valve springs, push rods, TS 6 position chip with custom tunes to your set up, and gauges to monitor everything. This will give you a fun to drive 400 HP truck that you can still tow with and keep EGTs in check. If you have an E4OD auto trans, it probably won't live long, so will need to upgrade that with a BTS or John Woods. Make sure the engine in stock form is leak free and in good running condition before you start doing any mods so you are building on a solid platform.