Chasing a bit more power

[AUSPowerstroke]

Hey guys, I'm sorry if this has been asked before, I'm new to the whole powerstroke thing and have only had mine for about 6months, basically the truck will be off the road for the next 6months and while it is I figure what better time to do a bit of work to it.

It's. 03 7.3l with 160,000kms on it, no problems with it at all, currently it has a snorkel, edge tuner, and a 4"straight through exhaust, wanting to know what is the best way about getting a bit more power out of it but keeping reliability as I do a lot of traveling, usually in remote aera's and do a fair bit of offroading.

Have been looking at intercoolers and intake manifold, turbos, injectors but I know very minimal about these trucks so thought I'd ask here

Thanks

[The Stig]

Anything to help keep your EGT values lower will help with power. For example water methane injection, 6.0 intercooler swap, etc. Intake manifold I heard doesn't do much for power. Just keeps the EGT values lower. Injectors obviously will help with power.

Larger turbo (GTP38R)
Air Dog 2 for better fuel source

A lot of these things will add a little power but if you want big power you are looking at injectors, a bigger turbo and intercooler, better oil pump to have enough pressure for your bigger injectors, and forged internals.

[blderman]

Ditch the Edge tuner and get a custom tune from PHP, Beans etc. That right there will give you more power. You have powdered rods so you are going to be limited to how high you can go. Tuning advancements have increased the threshold but the general consensus states a max of 400 RWHP before you risk throwing a rod. I personally will not go over 350.

[Justin@DP-Tuner]

Do you have a HP goal you are shooting for? We can get you setup with everything you need to create the power you want.

Intake, exhaust, gauges, and custom tunes are the first step to building power. From there you are looking at turbo, injectors, regulated return fuel system, and transmission upgrades.

[AUSPowerstroke]

Cheers for the help guys, I'll check it all out.

In wasnt chasing any hp figure in particular, just want to do get it moving a bit quicker but I don't want to go down the path of rebuilding the engine AT ALL, that's expensive over here

[AUSPowerstroke]

What do you mean by powdered rods

[blderman]

Starting in roughly 01 International switched to powdered connecting rods for the 7.3. In Lehmans terms they are metal, in powdered form, that is subject to high pressure and heat. In the case of the 7.3 they weren't designed correctly and can't take high cylinder pressures. Do a google search for "7.3 PMR failure" and you will find plenty of info.

Go with a PHP 6 position chip and you will be smiling....trust me.

[AUSPowerstroke]

Originally Posted by blderman

Starting in roughly 01 International switched to powdered connecting rods for the 7.3. In Lehmans terms they are metal, in powdered form, that is subject to high pressure and heat. In the case of the 7.3 they weren't designed correctly and can't take high cylinder pressures. Do a google search for "7.3 PMR failure" and you will find plenty of info.

Go with a PHP 6 position chip and you will be smiling....trust me.

Cheers, just had a look and had a read about them, also found a site that show how to check if you have them or not, so might check to see if mine does

Thanks

[hydroman]

PMR ( powdered metal rods) are actually stronger than forged rods in some aspects but they are more brittle. All powerstrokes have PMR's after about mid '01 including the 6.7 at 400 HP stock, but they do have a different configuration / shape to them to redistribute torsional forces

[The Stig]

So when rebuilding the internals on my 02 7.3, would it be better to go with upgraded PMR's? Or forged? When I will be upgrading for HP above 400, I hope to be pushing around 45-50 peak psi, with 205 or 250 injectors, with the 6.0 intercooler and all the goodies (oil pump, air dog 2, TW 6 position chip, etc)