Ford Powerstroke 94-98 7.3L Discussion of 94-98 7.3 Liter Ford Powerstroke Turbo Diesels

Cheap Power

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Old 02-28-2013, 11:26 PM
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Default Cheap Power

Hello Diesel Bombers,

This is my first post on here so forgive me if I'm asking what a million others have already asked. I looked for a thread about how to make cheap power and couldn't find any ways to do it.

So what I have already learned pretty quickly just from looking prices up online, the words "Diesel" and "Cheap" cannot be used in the same sentence. However, I was wondering if there are any, and I mean any, safe ways to build power no matter how slight of a gain it is? I know there are Banks Turbos, custom tuned chips, different stages of injectors, and a million other ways to do it, but they all cost quite a bit of money. I helped my buddy recently "tune" his injection pump on his 12-Valve Cummins to gain a little bit of extra power, so I was wondering if that is possible with a Powerstroke? I've tried to find threads on that, but have come up with no results. I'm pretty handy with tools and know my ways around vehicles quite well so I popped the hood and was looking for my fuel lines and couldn't find them leading to any injection pump like on my buddies 12-Valve.

So to finish this off, I ask again, are there any relatively cheap ways to build power? I currently have a pretty much bone-stock 7.3 Powerstroke, the only modifications I have done are a 3" Diamond Eye down pipe which leads into a 4" straight pipe, and a K&N air filter, not a cold air.

Any advice would be much appreciated!
 
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Old 03-01-2013, 06:18 AM
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There is nothinug you can do with fuel on a powerstroke short of changing injectors or getting tunes, Intake and exhaust are first, sounds like that is done, to go much farther you will have to spend some money.
 
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Old 03-01-2013, 02:05 PM
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get a 45 degree elbow with an outside diameter of 4", PVC pipe will work fine (hell I nabbed one from a plumber I know). go spend 30 bucks on the napa 3367 air filter. it's a ****** honking chunk of filter element.

ya won't notice much (I didn't) but that's the thing about cheap performance, it's not a big thing.

after that, try some stock sized tires. big tires add a ton of unsprung weight. you'd be surprised what an extra 80 pounds of unsprung weight can do to a truck. plus, smaller tires, better fuel economy.
I have a set of Summit Trail Climber A/Ws on order. they are much lighter than my 285/75/16 all terrarin T/As.

after that, well. . .a stock truck 6 position chip will run you about 300 bucks from beans diesel.

beyond that, well, it's money time.

I'm running into the same thing with my truck. My logic is, make it reliable first, then beef it up, then get the power into it. so maybe try that first.
 
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Old 03-01-2013, 06:42 PM
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you can do a 10k icp mod and it will help throttle response, but a chip would be much better and there are plenty cheap and used ones out there.
the wix 46637 filter will make more noise but the factory airbox should flow enough for stock injectors
 
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Old 03-01-2013, 07:42 PM
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with a powerstroke you can only go just so far before you hit the fuel wall the international motors injection pump runs on oil pressure unfortunately the oil pump only goes so far so before you can get any real power gains youll need a piggy back hpop ik you said cheap but you really can only do the basics wich are intake manifold cfm makes an awesome 7.3 intake manifold looks awesome tohttp://powerstrokesolutions.com/images/F41169198.jpg
a nice volant intake idk much about the programmers but we had an edge in ours and ir and pretty good
 
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Old 03-01-2013, 07:50 PM
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10k mod is less than a dollar and can gain 10-40hp in the lower rpm ranges
 
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Old 03-02-2013, 09:24 PM
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wtf is a 10k mod?
 
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Old 03-02-2013, 10:26 PM
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A resistor on the ICP sensor
 
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Old 03-04-2013, 07:45 AM
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Honestly when my truck was stock (except exhaust. And intake) I found my self unplugging the map sensor. I'm not sure if it did anything but it felt like it, as well as smoked a bit more. Oh we'll it's free so might as well try it! Every truck is different tho... Do it and post the results!
 
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Old 03-04-2013, 10:26 PM
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I think I may just suck it up and buy a custom TS chip from Swamps. I'd rather get one from them instead of a generic chip from a company such as Edge, or Banks since Swamps custom tunes them depending on your year, make, model, transmission type, and most importantly, injector size.
 


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