When the warranty on my truck expired I found a tremendous sense of freedom...I didn't have to worry about what the dealer would say if I took it in for service. If it breaks I'll take it somewhere with real diesel mechanics, I'll have to pay for it anyway. Since I'm not going back to the Ford dealer (I'm really not impressed with the only dealer in town) I'm free to work on the truck as I see fit. That means I can make some modifications to get a little more power/performance/maybe mpg out of the enormous potential of the 7.3l turbo diesel...
The
most abitious modification has been a 4 inch suspension
lift. I bought a Skyjacker
lift from the local offroad shop (West
Texas Offroad) and installed it myself. I love the lift. I actually installed
it to cure the problems with the stock front springs (saggies), and because
I wanted it. It rides great (my wife says its smoother but she still can't apply
make-up while riding). It looks awesome.
I know it isn't
much of a mod, but when you lift your truck some of your passengers might complain
about getting in and out (more complaints about getting in, they can always
fall out). Some grab bars (my teenage daughter calls them "OH SH*T bars)
might help. I installed some stainless bars from Autozone. Pretty cheap, easy
to install, and they look OK. They do help getting in and out!
When
I added the lift kit I also added slightly larger tires. The new tires are 255/85R16's.
Factory tires are 235/85R16. The new tires are a little taller and a little
wider than the original. They look a whole lot better than the factory tires,
especially with the lift. Hopefully the new tires will give a little more height
without reducing my mileage too much. These tires are also a lot more agressive
than the ones I was running. Surprisingly they don't give too much vibration
or noise. On the highway they aren't even noticeable. I hear the new version
is even smoother. As you might guess, traction is great.
I actually made the change before the lift, but in this picture you can see that there are manual hubs on the front end. This truck came with Ford's automatic hubs. Those are worthless...locked when you didn't want them, unlocked when you did need them. They left me stuck on the beach when they unlocked. I replaced them with Warn Premium manual hubs. No problems since.
Ford
obviously spent WAY too much time listening to their marketing people and not
enough time listening to engineers when they designed these trucks. One of the
really weird decisions was to equip the manual transmission trucks with a Dual
Mass Flywheel. These flywheels are famous for failing. I replaced mine with
a LUKsingle mass flywheel and clutch from Dial-a-Clutch.
I did the replacement
myself. Wasn't too difficult, no more than any clutch replacement. The change
was definitely worth the effort and the expense. Clutch pedal effort
was much reduced and clutch engagement is much smoother. It also got rid of
a lot of vibration and the whole truck seems smoother.
To
get any sort of improvement in performance out of a turbo-diesel you have to
let it breath. More air in/more exhaust out = better performance. One really
noticeable limit to performance is the turbo downpipe. The stock downpipe is
flattened to provide an absurd amount of clearance between the pipe and the
firewall. A much larger pipe will fit, and several aftermarket manufacturers
provide them. I bought mine from Hypermax.
The install
was quite easy (done with the LUK clutch) and it definitely improved performance.
If
you are getting the exhaust out faster, you will need to get air in faster.
The stock airbox is actually pretty restrictive. There have also been a lot
of reports of dirt leaking past the filter (bad). Just replace the whole thing.
This is a Badwin PA2818 filter attached to a 4" exhaust elbow connected
to the intake hose. Flows a LOT more air. With this and the downpipe you will
find a LOT MORE power (not more peak, but the turbo will spool up quicker and
you'll have more low rpm torque and better throttle response). I built this
system myself, if I had to do it again I'd by a TYMAR system from Dale
I.
If
you are working on improving exhaust and intake flow, you're going to start
thinking about that restrictive catalytic converter. If only there was some
way to reduce or remove that restriction and decrease the exhaust backpressure.
I certainly wouldn't recommend removing the catalytic converter (since that
wouldn't be legal), but if you did it would really improve exhaust flow and
performance. Remember that the backpressure the engine sees is a function of
the turbocharger. Anything you can do to improve flow downstream of the turbo
will improve performance.
You
can dramatically improve the performance of your PSD by adding a "chip"
that changes the program of the Powertrain Control Module (PCM). I added one
from Hypermax. I really
like the way the truck runs now. Sorry I didn't take any pictures, I was pretty
excited about the install and forgot. It didn't look like much anyway. There
are good directions for the installation out there on the web.
The
injectors in the Powerstroke engine are driven by high pressure oil (electronically
controlled, hydraulically actuated). This high pressure oil runs in a gallery
in each head. As the injectors open and close the pressure in the galleries
can fluctuate. You can improve performance a little by adding a hose that connects
the high pressure galleys in the two heads. Innovative-Truck-Products
even makes and sells a kit for this modification. They've also got some graphs
showing the improvement in the oil pressure.
You
will have to have some gauges
to monitor the performance of your engine now that you've modified it. Besides,
they look so cool and they are a lot of fun!!!
The usual disclaimers...I have no affiliation with any company mentioned in this page (except as a satisfied customer). I'm not a professional mechanic, engineer, nor any other professional qualified to give advice regarding transmission, suspension, exhaust, or other modifications of Ford pickup trucks. I have merely provided some information about my experience for your information and amusement. If you maim/injure/kill yourself trying to imitate anything contained in this web page...don't come crying to me. (My wife calls that the West Texas liability release.)
Updated 6 June 2002