Forty thousand dollars. That's just about the average cost of a newer Ford Super Duty equipped with the new 6.0L Powerstroke. That's a pretty good chunk of change.
But you're towing a lot and that old 7.3L you've been driving for 10 years just won't get it done anymore. So do you just bite the bullet and sign your life away knowing that 350 hp 6.0L will be more than enough to tug that load around?
Well, not all of us are fortunate enough to have an extra $40,000 lying around and for some, a new truck really isn't a feasible option. What if we told you there was plenty of potential in that old 7.3L? With a couple of Saturdays in the driveway that 1994-97 Ford Powerstroke can be just as capable of towing your heavy loads as any diesel truck on the market.
We found a guy in this exact situation and decided maybe we'd see what we could do to help out. Dubbed Project Re-Stroked, the1996 7.3L we're working with has more than 188,000 miles on the clock and is completely stock, except for the aftermarket clutch and pyrometer and boost gauges that were previously installed. The old body style (OBS) 1994-97 Ford Powerstroke was the first real version of the turbocharged direct injection Powerstroke and performed great back in the day. But with the improvements made through the years on other trucks, those model year Powerstrokes have fallen behind from a performance standpoint. There are two main areas that need to be addressed on the OBS 7.3L Powerstroke: fuel and air.
First off let's address fuel. The â_~94-97 Powerstroke came equipped with single-shot 98cc injectors, quite small by today's standards. You can add a chip to adjust the fuel mapping for some added horsepower, but you can only flow so much water through a garden hose. Increasing the flow of the stock injectors will most often offer the best results in horsepower improvements. Beans Diesel Performance of Woodbury, TN, has specialized in OBS Powerstroke performance for quite some time, so naturally we knew they'd be just the guys to talk to about this build-up story.