Can you guys save me from browsing the ford forums? A guy at work has an old 7.3 ford dually with no turbo and he smokes when pulling. He wants a turbo kit of some kind and is looking at Banks

Is there a good way to add a turbo to an old ford or any other recommended mods? Do they have a bhaf??

 

Stans Headers makes headers for theses trucks and really opens it up. Had them on my old 91 f-250 4x4. Other than Banks turbo and playing with pump can't do to much to these trucks.

 

Go to the Hypermax website. They make decent turbo kits for the old IDI 7.3 engines. Their prices are much better than the Banks stuff.

 

a guy has a non turboed powerstroke 6.9 with an ats kit in it that he brings into my dads shop all of the time im sure ats makes something for a non turboed 7.3

 

ATS makes or at least did make a real nice turbo setup for the 6.9's and 7.3's.

Jeff

 

or find one of the old IDI 7.3 that had a turbo on it and and take it off or just order the parts from ford for the turbo'ed truck and bolt'em up

 

i had one and i did a shift kit from transgo and that made the most difference.tc locked up 99 percent of the time
turned the fuel up one flat of/on the allen wrench.

http://www.members.shaw.ca/k2pilot/I...%20article.htm

replace fuel lines and caps they are prone toleak and a little spot of a leak will kill a idi power

cut air cleaner front out and get green filter add ram air if needed
beware its soooooo loud so dont cut the back/firewall side cause youll never be able to hear the radio again or talk to the guy next to you...lol

advance timing
since i had no timing equip and no shop would touch it iwas on my own.
first mark the pump so you know where u started
have timed mine by ear a few times, if you get the timing too far advanced it will hammer pretty good. So try backing it off a little (rotate top of pump towards the drivers side). If you timing marks are correct you will end up with the one on the pump at about 1/16th of an inch towards the passengers side. But these marks will change if the pump has been changed out and mean basically nothing at that point. But like I said rotate her a little and see what that gives ya. if it feels a little dead loaded on a hill and wont accellerate backit off a little.

i have pics on here some where https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...95#post1251395
. i wish i had a pyro in it cause we would tow thru the mountains wide open 2nd gear in a auto on big hills. temp past h for miles and it never blew up or sprung a leak. it had 365k never let me down

 

My Dad installed a ATS turbo kit on his '93 IDI 7.3. Ran about 8psi and it did help the performance. Could have cranked it higher if a aftercooler was installed.

MikeyB

 

I have had several of them before I went to dodge. One had a ats and it spooled kinda slow, one had a banks and I cooked the motor in about 40000 miles with the fuel turned wide open. It would peg the 15lb. boost gauge and run real good.
CUMMINS FREAK is giving you good enfo, the factory setup runs pretty decent and there ought to be some of them around. Bumping the timing helps some and if it has alot of miles on it a set of injectors could help the smoke.
I used to keep one freshened up all the time and would usually put one in about every year from turning the fuel up to much and pulling to big of a load.

 

where there's smoke there's fire. Let her burn. hehehehe sorry. I'll be good now. If it is smoking, it's over fueling, has it been turned up? Has someone checked the air filter? Is the exhaust plugged? EGR on the ol girl? is it stuck open? check the boost on it, see if there is any?

 

As stated not much u can do to them

I had one, 93 IDI 4wd, 5 speed, 2 door long box. Pullin sonvabuck with the 4.10 gears, I had an ATS turbo system on it, hit only a whopping 8 lbs of boost, wasnt very fast, but compare it to the little engine that could per say. It wouldnt quit..

I know u can get injectors from them, Land Yaught, Ken i do believe is his name on the other site was wicked for makin some 7.3's and 6.9's into the 400 horse range. They do make a mild injector for them over stock, and they arent that expensive,

U can also get an exhaust for them, a K&N, they have the square airbox on top of the turbo, i havent seen any running a BHAF or anything like that,

U can also max out the pump screw on it, and it will be a nice kick to it, but the turbo is not that efficient out to 15 lbs, and the pyro would get on the toasty side. Truck did run well tho with that mod, but it wasnt intercooled so it was useless really

Finally u can get the turbo kit from ford, or as stated, off a turbo truck, the kit does bolt on directly, ATS, banks, and Hypermax make turbo kits for these trucks...

Hope this helps

Rick

 

If ATS still makes thier kit that is the one to get, Ford actually installed it as a dealer option for a while, and based the factory turbo setup they put on the 7.3IDI on the ATS setup. The Hypermax kit is nice too, the Banks would be my last choice. You could buy the parts from Ford and wind up with pretty much the same setup as the ATS kit, but I bet it would cost a lot more then just buying it from ATS.

 

One thing I forgot to mention if you install a turbo better upgrade the tranny. The Ford 4spd auto is very weak and can't handle the extra power. My Dad burned the tranny fluid on the first tow with the turbo installed. He had to install a larger tranny cooler from B&M and a shift kit.

MikeyB

 

What colour is the smoke?

Lots of good advice from everyone here....
If he is just looking for more HP, then he should know that the stock IDI 7.3L with a factory turbo produces 190 HP while the same engine NON-turbo will produce 185 HP. So not a big deal. This data is from the factory, so if it is old, then it will be a little less. Of course, not sure what a Banks or ATS (ford factory used this, but 'crushed' the downpipe to fit) will do, but....

The turbo is wastegated, so getting more then 7 PSI boost you need to mod the wastegate actuator rod. Oh yeah, some stuff has to move too (glow plug controller, CDR valve, re-route at least 1 of the return fuel lines) so if you buy anything, buy a kit that includes that (new valve cover, 'boomerang', oil sensor, etc).

But really, if he is serious about adding power to an IDI, my thoughts are don't mess with it too much. Your going to be looking at resleaving the cylinders soon (it is an old engine after all) and adding a turbo, downpipe, exhaust, gauges, tranny cooler (if auto, add this anyway) is a lot of money to be pouring into an old Ford. I should know.... But that is just my opinion. Before he does anythign, add up the costs, PLUS the labour even if he does it himself, cause these old fords are a pain to work on.

Oh yeah, change the rear glow plugs under the turbo, before he installs it, even if they test good. Trust me, trying to wrench them out there is a pain in the neck with the turbo installed.

But what colour is the smoke????

 

I purchased a 86 F-350 with headers on it and it was gutless. Sounded was cool though. I started looking for a turbo for it and was supprised that they are quite available, and all were on trucks that the motors were blown. I decided to go for the Dodge when it all added up to way more than $$$$ to keep that old diesel going than buy a truck that can handle a load. The other lesson I learned was that an auto tranny sucks all the power, I got 10 mpg loaded and 12 empty. I've got a 454 chev that only gets 7 mpg but costs less to drive than that old ford, parts cost big money!!