I havent mentioned it but figured I would since a few people have mentioned how much better the 6.7 is. My end goal is not about making my truck a 6.7 killer and that was never the intention. With that said, I do have intentions to make my truck as good as possible. As mentioned a few pages back I am avoiding the Class 6-7 stuff. It all uses engines with similar power to class 4-5 stuff but with a ton more weight so they are slow as fuck. Class 8 is the way to go or stick with class 4-5 IMO.
I do have my first far away from home trip since April this saturday. That probably explains why I went this route. I put 2200 miles on the truck in 10 days in Feburary. Then it probably was driven 100 miles between that trip and April. In April I did 1000+ miles in 5 days, then it sat again from April till October. I probably put another 200-300 miles on it in 5 months. Now it will get used for 10 days, log about 2000 miles on it. Then it will sit till Thanksgiving get another 2000 miles and thats it for the year.
It probably spends a total of 40-50 days outside of the garage and in use....then it sits....so buying a 5k truck was the reason (even though I have way more then that into it unforunately) Vs. having a 35-40k 2012 truck sitting in my garage (and finding a crew cab 16 ft bed with stretched frame may be more due to the uniqueness) if I drove it daily, it would be a different story but I have a car that work provides and it comes with a gas card.
With all that said, I do love bench racing so talking about 6.7's and 7.3s and types of transmissions I definitely enjoy, I just didnt want people think this is a thread about how I want to make my 7.3 a 6.7....
In the end, I have had 3 long hauls (2 with my rig and 1 with my brothers) with this truck and it seems to be working so far, time will tell. The crawler on the back of a 450-550 truck is getting more and more popular from what I see on social media.
So I leave Saturday, last trip I had the boot issue. I drove it around and it seems fixed. My real concerns for the truck this trip is probably the stock intercooler boots, things like PS hoses, and the big concern is the rear end. Having a total of 13,500 lbs on the rear end that is rating for 13,500 when it has a slow leak around the perches, and has 385k on it has me a bit concerned. With time that will be addressed but hasnt yet.
Motor, Trans, t case and driveshafts have all been gone through.
I do need to check unit bearing play since I havent had the truck off the ground to tell their condition.
I am excited to have a 50 gallon transfer tank to try out and I have new AA Tunes from Andrew Arthur. They are both tow tunes, they definitely seem to accelerate quicker from a stop. Under load and already moving they seem comparable to the 1023 diesel tow tunes I have.
I do find it interesting the newer 450/550s are detuned and the old ones werent. I also wondered the same thing before and searched for info on detuning on grades and found nothing.
I agree, It would be cool if they had a "blackbox" for a gear vendors type deal. where you pull some parts out of a trans like you do for an NP241 and boom, you have a splitter.
With the flat power curve I would almost imagine a 6+ speed trans is even more important for a 7.3 then a 6.7. If a 6.7 had a 4 speed it will stay in the power band longer with the curve it has. With the 7.3 having a "crappier" curve it needs more gear options to stay in the optimal RPM range.
I will say I have talked to some guys that used the 6 speed allison trans swap from CAC Conversions and had nothing but AMAZING things to say, it was like driving a different truck. But at 12-15k for the conversion that would basically be more then my entire truck (including 2 truck purchases, all the mods and headaches) so I didnt go that route.
I will also say that the 7.3 I drive is probably different then what most people are comparing to when they compare their old 7.3 to their new 6.7. I figure most do a tuner and move on.
Between the injectors, tuning and a turbo meant to keep EGT's in check when towing I would guess my truck is different. I cant say I know what it was like as I think my 7.3 was fucked up so stock to now is tough to compare. My 0-60 stock (no brake stand to pre build boost) took 26 fucking seconds. LOL but remember it is 10-11k in weight stock and maybe fucked up. No brake stand to build boost and not on an all out tune or even full throttle launches (just aggressive acceleration) has me under 13 seconds. I am curious what a healthy stock 7.3 0-60 would be if you were pulling a 2-4k load (since thats about what my truck weighs empty.) I really need to be a boosted launch or full throttle non boosted 0-60 but I dont want to hurt things. It would be more for a comparsion on stock vs not...