When doing my diesel conversion on my 78 bronco,I also looked at the 7.3. and the 6bt. I chose the 6bt from the first year in the dodges, An 89. I went with it for a couple of reasons. 1st, simplicity, The engine is all mechanical.except for the wires to the fuel solenoid and timing solenoid,and your sensors of course,which is just basically hooking them up to your wires. 2nd was just the size of it,NOT weight. They are pretty much close to 1000 lbs give or take. For me to do the 7.3 I would have to have to do an S load of wiring,(I was looking at the newer powerstroke,not the IDI). And being that I work on the 4bts at work on our heavy machinery I was quite familiar with them,more than the 7.3. And the 6bts and 4bts do share a majority of parts. The lifter cover,crankshaft,intake,injection pump(4cyl or 6cyl) ,and oil pan are just about whats different between the 2 due to the length of each. And another thing was reliability. The cummins engines have been used in industrial machines for a good while before dodge ran the 6bt. So its a proven engine. I drove a company truck for a little over a year. Its was a 2001 F350 utility with the 7.3,and I did like that engine. It moved that heavy truck no problem,and I didnt have any major issues with it. Like I said I used the cummins for it being simple. Hope this helps you somewhat..

 

Ive been doing a lot of searching and I dont see many people do a 7.3l powerstroke swap . Why is that?

 

Powerstrokes are a complicated engine (HEUI) with expensive parts. Lots of wiring involved in a swap.

I owned two 7.3 PSDs and got fed-up pretty quick. I have three 6BTs and a IDI now. Life is good.

 

If ya go with a 4BT Loctite everything!! But I would go with a 6BT. Very easy to find, and cheap. You can find a donor truck for $3,000 that is in decent shape. I found a first gen for $2,000 4x4 5 speed 160,000 miles with no body. You should really consider a 6BT... But if you are set on those two engines only, my vote is the 4BT!

 

I read an article about the 6btmoney and loved everything i read about it. My concerns with the 6bt is fitting it between the firewall and radiator. I have seen one person on here with a 6bt in a f150 here on the forums maybe i should pm him some questions

 

I'm swapping a Cummins in my '96 F150. Well, I'm swapping the Ford body on the Dodge frame. But I was going to swap the Cummins in my Ford and I have asked them questions. I know that the F150s that have the same body style as me, dont need a body lift. One of them said they had to pound the firewall a little bit with a hammer to get the last valve cover off.

 

Deciding which engine to go with has been a big issue. One day ill wake up and i have my mind set on a psd the next day i will be all for a 6bt. Ive tried talking to a few diesels guys and when i tell them im thinking about dropping a cummins in my f150 i always get asked why would i do that or just go with the 7.3 which i wouldnt mind going with but i havent seen many people do it and the wiring absolutely scares me

 

Now I'm a Cummins guy, so obviously I'm going to say go with the Cummins . But the wiring is very easy on the Cummins... I think I have a wiring diagram to hook up the starter somewhere. It is very easy to do.

Also about the clearance with the fan and radiator, some people have used electric fans for an easier fit, but I believe EasternAggie on here used the mechanical one.. But you might have to use a Powerstroke radiator. I don't know if you can use the Dodge one, I haven't got that far but I'm going to try and use it.