We have a 6.9 international here at work.What a gutless wonder!!I am wondering how these hold up with the banks kit on them??We use it as a hazemat truck and it won't hardly go up the grades with all the stuff we have to carry.Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.Kyle

 

i don't think much can be done to the 6.9's they came i believe as 130 hp engines they have no turbos....but at least they last....u gotta row through the gears with that motor....maybe u can find some injectors for it...

 

I know one person who has an ATS? turbo kit on his 6.9. I think that it works well for him, and gives his pickup the ***** that it needs. I have however heard that an aftermarket turbo on a NA 7.3 IDI can cause scoring of piston walls or something along those lines. My friend has a Furd which had a reman 7.3 IDI that needed to be replaced after 40,000 miles due to scoring of piston walls. It has a banks kit. Maybe there is some truth to what I heard.

The people over at www.thedieselstop.com would certainly have much more info than I do, so maybe go check that out.

 

Thanks guys!Got some prices.Now just getting through some of the red tape to get it done.Kyle

 

Talk to Ken @ http://www.dps-performance.com/

Hes hard to get ahold of but hes got some good mods for these engines.

 

I to

had a friend with an ATS turboed 6.9, and injectors as well as a PUMP.. HOLY COW THAT THING WAS FAST!! it would outrun my ATS turboed IDI like nothing, even with a trailer hooked on.... A good turbo, pump and injectors from Ken, (land yaught on TDS...) will really wake that sucker up.. and fast...

oh ya, Ken is that guy garrett mentions... Very solid reputation in the IDI forum at TDS... Agnem, and Argve (yes our travis) as well are good guys for IDI....

Tx

 

I wish you luck with your 6.9. I had a 85 Ford F250. No body babies a truck like I do. But it still would not hold up. Every 50,000 miles it had to have an injuctor pump. It is a lonely feeling to be sitting on the side of the road and all the engine will do is idle. Then at 132,000 it ripped 6 teeth off the crank gear and when it got out of time the whole engine tore apart. $3,000 later and back running and it made it another 32,000 before it tore apart again. Ford would not even look at my truck and just told me to have a nice day. So long Ford.

 

I had 2 6.9 Fords, great engines, but as you know, a little lacking
in the HP department. A turbo will help a lot, Hypermax, ATS are 2 others to look at besides Banks. 6.9's can't take a lot of boost. Also these engines
have head gasket "issues" in stock form, actually the only real draw back on the 6.9.
Small diameter head bolts. Some guys go to ARP studs when they have the heads off.

 

I worked at an International dealer when 6.9's were still common, and whoa lots of problems with head gaskets blowing, inj. pumps, cranks etc. Also if DCA level was not up to proper ph level, block would soon be shooting pinholes of coolant into cylinder(even though it has no liners). Had lots in the ford trucks that dealers couldn't/wouldn't fix, not a good engine imo .

 

I tried to talk the bosses into doing a conversion to the little ole 6 cylinder but they think it will cost to much money.If it was my personal truck that is what I would do!!It doesn't see alot of miles every year, it gets serviced regularly so hopefully it should last awhile.......Kyle

 

Hopping up a 6.9 is asking for trouble! My '86 had two new heads, a new injection pump, and three water pumps in 100,000 miles. Why do you think they went to the 7.3?
Ford seems to have a habit of saving a few cents in production and costing the buyer a fortune. Always making things a cheap as posible and letting the public pay for the mistakes. No thanks.
Get a Cummins.

Wetspirit

 

I have an 85 F250 With the origional banks turbo kit (not sidewinder) It has been a pretty good machine, 289Kmiles and never had a head off. Did do 1 water pump. 1 injection pump and lots of glow plugs. If the injector pump is cranked up they will produce pretty good top end power, used to enjoy pulling 6% passes in top gear pretty well loaded at 70mph.
Could pull about 20mpg with a light foot empty. The weakest point in my 85 was the transfer case, failed in major ways 3 times (never ever not even once drop your left foot off of the clutch pedal at 2500 rpm.)

 

I've got 230k miles on mine, bought it with 100k less than that. Drove it for 2 years back and forth to school and another 2 across country when I worked construction, still has the original clutch unless they replaced it before I bought it. And I thrashed it in the mud holes on a regular basis too. The thing would never stop going. It might do it slowly, but it'll do it. I remember the guy I worked with had a 01 CTD and we'd both have about the same load on the trailers hauling through mountains, I'd go flying by him downhill to about 90-100mph (it won't go above 85 unless it was downhill) and he'd pass me still doing 65 in overdrive at the crest of the next hill when I hit the top at 45mph screaming in 3rd. It has been an awesome truck, I abused it, VERY badly, in ways that make me cringe now when I think about them (I.E. 10k mile oil changes ) or WOT uphill runs where the water temp just seemed to never stop rising. She uses oil like gas and smokes white at WOT instead of black, but sounds wicked straightpiped and like I said, she might do it slowly, but she'll do it. As far as turbo's I have no clue, never tried. I turned the fuel screw up a little but that's about it. Not even enough to make it smoke unless I lug it off the line. But never had anything go in the motor cept for glow plugs and a waterpump.

 

I had a 86 C class motorhome with a 6.9 I installed a banks sidewinder and the exhaust system Banks advised me to replace the head gaskets and head bolts but I ignored them as there was no sign of a leak but before I went 10,000 miles there was . I replaced the head gaskets with the latest change up and I used ARP head bolts and drove it aproximatly 125000 miles. I sold it because I was afraid that I would have to do the head gasket thing again and that ain't fun in a Furd van. The guy I sold it to has put 80,000 more miles on it and has been to Belize twice but he finally had to replace the gaskets again just recently.
Jim O