Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire More on Ford's 7.3 L Motor

Every time.


The auto versions of those pickups were terrible. The manual pickups ran better.


Not great...especially for the fuel burnt...but better than the autos.


Flat beds were worse yet.


You dont have LED's in the bed do you? If so you need some resistors.

No LED's. It's got about 75K miles on it now.

I thought about a Cummins swap on that pig but I have a $2100 pto on the Ford auto tranny and I didn't want to lose that investment, as well as all the $ it takes to convert one to Dodge and stick. Just not practical. It's a pig of the worst order. Did I mention I hate it?

Sometimes, with a flat bed and of course rear lights that are not stock, the trans controller starts acting weird.


Like it will lock the converter when it should be unlocked and vice versa.


The fix...or at least a partial fix....was to install a resistor in the line to the tail lights.


Usually with LED's, but would also act up with regular incandescent bulbs.

Something to check I guess.

From what I’ve heard, the new super duty trucks with the 7.3 will be available with 4.30 gears.

All low speed, low gear grunting, work, I presume?

I have an '11 w 3.73 rear. Pull g a trailer and GVW of 22K, I get at least 13 on a round trip.

Please update when you get the work done.

Trans controller is that big ugly thing wiggling the shiffer lever!

Hemi.. gear rear end correct for projected weight .. roll on

You might not need the 4:30s with the 10 speed auto it will come with. At least not for daily driving.

Very interesting, Jim.
I've got a '91 motorhome with a 460 and the cruise control gets wonky when the lights are on.
Also seems to run a little funny with lights on.
What resistor works for you?

Regards,
Bob.

Joe said he could not resistor any longer.

I'd give them about 4 years to work out the kinks

like spitting spark plugs and oil sludge

If yer not towing, yes... But hook up a camper the size of mine and that gas engine truck will need another gas tank in the bed so ya won't have to stop every 50 miles and fill up.. BTDT... IF (or when) I stop towing anything with weight, then I'd get a gas truck..

And if a gas engine is so great (and cheap) compared to diesel - why does every semi on the road have diesel engines?? And I think every tractor of any size today is run by a diesel. IIRC, IH stopped offering a gas engine after '68 or so..

I really wanted one, tried to order one. But no delivery until January at the earliest wouldn’t work for me so I went 6.2. Maybe here in a few years I’ll be ready to trade and I’ll get one then.

Quick math here - gas is $2.60/gallon here.. Diesel is $2.89. I.e., gas is 90% the cost of diesel.. Last time I towed the camper I got 7.9 mpg with my 6.7 PSD.. IF I had that gas engine, I'd be very, very lucky to get 5 mpg.. Go 1200 miles and the cost would be 240 gallons @ 2.60 = $624.00 . That same 1200 miles in diesel would be 152 gallons @ 439.00.. That's not far off $200..

5 mpg with a 46 gallon tank (the size of my truck's) would get me 200 miles before I'd be desperate to be at a gas pump.. Even daily driving short distances, I average about 14 mpg.. No way would I get that with a big-engine gas truck - best estimate is 12 mpg, but I could certainly be wrong. And is a gas engine really going to last as long as a diesel when it's worked hard? Local cattle-hauler friend of mine is going to order a new F-350 SRW.. His current F-350 SRW diesel has a bit over 300K on the odometer.. He's had to spend a bunch on truck maintenance, but nearly ZERO on the engine itself other than oil/filter changes..

Maybe I'm all wet - as others will surely tell me..


And re: that 10-sp..... is that thing gonna be hunting for gears every 50 feet - especially if towing something heavy? I'd be leery of that - at least until it's got 3-4 years of use and see how it holds up.. But that's just me..

I have a couple Dodges, a 2004 with 190,000 and a 2018. I like them.

Google up Flatbed Ed on the Ford forum for gas longevity info. He had like 430k on his when he lost a cam and he’s got about 700k on the truck now with the new engine. We run 6.2s at work to 150k before we sell them and have almost zero engine or transmission issues in a decent size fleet. We unload the diesel trucks at the same mileage BTW. Better tolerance and engineering has made gasoline engines last a long time these days. Lots and lots of 250k Chevy LS motors out there running around too.

I would think....with it properly set up...the 10 speed would feel a lot like a really well modulated powershift.

Doubt you would feel it hunting much.

I have the F350 6.7 Powerstroke.

It gets somewhere just under 15mpg. (4x4 dually)

If that new 7.3 gas motor has the power and reasonably close in gas mileage, I'd have one.

Driving a "diesel" per se has no hidden charm to me...

Spitting spark plugs is from 20 years ago. I have 194k on my 2000. Pulled my trailer from SoCal to Denver area and my plugs are all where they are supposed to be. Changed them out just because before we left too. Oil sludge is poor maintenance not an inherent design flaw.