I was thinking about tradeing my 97 F-150 off on a 96 F-250
powerstroke. But I don't know if these engines are good, and what they get for fuel milage, its a 5- speed standard. So are they good??? And what are the pros and cons of a deisel?
Thanks guys.

 

i got around 16-17 mpg in the PSD, they have loads of tourqe. that truck has 50,000 miles and it did have one problem, but it was an easy fix. the only thing about them are the maintance cost. i did not have a bucket big enough to catch all of that oil, so i took it to get it done everytime. it was about 50 bucks every 3-5,000 miles. all in all i loved it

 

I am on my second PSD. I love it and when done with this one get another. Its the only engine I will run in a SD truck.

Only problem Ive had is with my tranny, nothing at all on the engine itself.

 

Its the best engine ford makes.

 

The engine is made by International (Navistar)

I've owned a Ford with the 6.9L , a two Fords with the 7.3L naturally aspirated engines. Loved them!!! Now I have a 2000 Ford with the 7.3L Power Stroke. So far it is the best of the bunch.

The one thing that I would check or have checked is the level of FW-16 in the coolant. FW-16 helps prevent the tiny air bubbles in the coolant that cause pitting in the water jacket, which can eventually cause you to get coolant in a cylinder, coolant in the oil and compression in the radiator. Guess what, you have to buy a new block. Ford did not start telling the engine owners about this stuff until just a few years ago. (Fortunately for me, I used to work on Cummins engines and already knew about the stuff and was using it in my vehicles from day one. I used Nalcool, same stuff, different name)

If the truck you are looking at is high miles and there is no indication of the additive in the coolant, you might want to dig into it's history a bit. If it is low mileage, you can add the FW-16 to prevent further pitting inside the water jacket.

96 Power Stroke.....hmmmm, I can't remember it they had an intercooler or not. If not, you won't have quite as much horse power as the newer intercooled rigs do.

 

Thanks guys, the 96 I was looking at got sold on me so i'm looking at a 95, reg.cab 5-speed. it has 273000 km on it. how much longer do you think the engine will last? I've heard of peaple getting 600000 km on theres but not sure to belive theme. thanks again!!

 

No, 94-97 Powerstrokes do not have intercoolers from the factory. I don't think that the intercooler itself gives you any more power but it does reduce the exhaust gas temperature so the engine can be given more fuel , which does give more power. The intercooler was not avaliable untill the 99 model year. As far as the 7.3 engine being a good engine, Does a one legged duck swim in a circle??

 

it seems to me that the intercooler adds something like 7-8% more power. not much but it would add up. I have seen powerstrokes that are at 300000 miles, and still running strong, the only problems that I have seen are a water pump every now and again (normal wear)

 

No intercooler on 94.5 - 97 PSD.

The intercooler will not add hp but will alow you to add more fuel and that will get you the power. The added restriction of the intercooler will drop your boost about 2 lb. Unless you do heavy towing or change injectors you don't need a intercooler on the older strokes.


Neil,

The newer truck injectors dump more fuel than the older strokes. That and a few other things is where the power comes from.

You can get a lot of power out of these powerstrokes. I dyno at just under 340 hp and can get 20+ mpg if I keep it under 70 mph.
My problem at the track is hooking up with 235/85 16 tires.

I love the smell of diesel in the morning. It smells like victory.

 

Scar--sounds like you know your stuff,
International makes the best medium duty engines...7.3, 466

Mine runs on propane and will get it..Will kill most truckss on this site...

Have to take care of the trans or it will shell...

Its amazing that Ford shoehorned a medium duty engine into a light truck and detuned it...

All you have to do is retune it and it will blast...Torque--will pull anything and shred the tires as well...

and at 20mpg, my 4.6 has problems getting that!!!

 

My cousin has a 95 F350 dually 4x4 w/stan. tranny has a 12' flat deck, & tows up to 12,000 lbs he makes that PSD work with no problems he may get a new 1 soon has over 200,000 miles on it

 

Thanks for replying guys, guess i'm going to sign the papers on saturday, and drive her home. Wish I could keep my truck, but the payments are too high *pouts*