Very Expensive Lesson 7.3 owners

[tollen17]

I bought this 7.3 from a Buddie, friend of a friend. I picked it up about a 2 years ago. This is how long I've been noticing the under powered piece of crap! 2yrs. Well I have ordered 3 or 4 different Programmers. Super chip, an Edge, and TS, flip chip 'oh' sent the the TS Flip chip to Tony for his burn, so I put gauges in, "and had 4" exhaust ran on the 7.3." Built my tranny a big torque converter shift kit. It would Blow Black smoke all over the place,you would have to back out of the throttle and just barely feather it to keep the Turbo busy. I was miffed. Since I had so much money invested by now, I thought If I was going to get rid of the F-250 I would put another motor in it. I thought my 99 cc,psd would out run this thing in reverse. Well I took it to muffler shop RAY's Muffler in Salt Lake City Utah. he said I had 5 leaks I knew I had some, on passing a close building or the like, "not to bad though". I knew of one where I installed the infamous wicked wheel. right off the turbo down pipe. Well I just replaced the exhaust about a year ago in Rifle Colorado. $350.00 And thought my exhaust should be in pretty good shape. but what the hell, told the guy's at Ray's to go ahead and fix it. well I got a call and the exhaust tech. told me that I was looking at $800.00 bucks. MANIFOLD resurface (so they say) etc. etc.etc. Well a few hours later. He gave me a call to come pick her up. Christ that was it! The "F-in" Manifold leaking not getting all the Exhaust to the Turbo. Well now my life is better taught me a big big lesson. I tried to explain what was going on to Mechanics they would just look at me like I was crazy. don't know it was very hard to explain. But something to watch out for.

[MrJohnWayne]

well, Glad it's running great now! would of never figured you would need to resurface the manifolds...

[20stroker02]

That sucks it took so long to figure the problem out, how does it run now?

[symbols]

so what was your boost gauge saying?

[tollen17]

My BOOST numbers are like #'s 22psi Boost it's throwing OB codes though. Oh it runs like a striped azzed ape. Now I know what they say about leaving a little rubber, yeah "crazy crazy" stuff. Couldn't see the exhaust leaking or here it walking by. Now let one of those kids in a Dodge get up next to the Ford, It's on steroids if I can't out run it I'll knock it off the road.

[symbols]

It's at 22 now or was at 22? If it's only 22 now then you still have an issue

[tollen17]

To the best of my knowledge it's 22psi, I'll go take it for a spin and repost the #'s

[tollen17]

I when I shift OD I seen it hit 25psi. I unhooked the vacuum hose on the westgate it didn't hit 20psi.

[matter]

"exhaust tech"..............rofl ...........that was good...............but glad your truck is running good!

[CSIPSD]

Its a pressure line to the wastegate...

Thats a good lesson to not throw money at a problem without investagating where the issue lies.

Manifolds do warp, someone must have gotten the truck very hot at one point or another. A simple look around the motor would have seen, Soot from the leaking manifolds, and Soot around the up pipes. A quick drive hooked to a scanner would have shown low boost and lower drive pressures, meaning a Drive pressure leak or turbo issue...

I hate going to Ford, but if you dont have the tools to scan things yourself, it can really save a person money in the long run.