what rpm's do you guys run in your trucks???? what is considered being "hard" on it

[Agnem]

Oh don't get me wrong. I'm not saying they can't turn 3300 RPM all day. That's a known fact, and proven by lots of people. BUT, they do this because they HAVE to. Unless they throw more gears at it, they are stuck. I had the same problem with the Moosestang, and I had to turn 2500 just to do 55MPH. That's 1000.... 1000....1000 RPM's more than the Moose Truck or the Lady Moose turn at the same speed. One Thousand . That translates into 30,000 more cycles per hour then my other trucks. 30,000. That means on a trip to some place like the rally this year, That truck running with the other two will have over 360,000 MORE cycles and injection events than the other trucks. Almost 100 million more round trip! Now ask yourself this question. You want to buy an IP and Injectors when they are worn out, and you plan to do this.... when? When 5 years are up? When 80,000 miles are up? Or when X number of cycles are up? Well lets face facts. The IP and the injectors have no idea how many miles are on them. But you can be damn sure they know how many injection events have happened, and every injection event is a wear event. So on average, we say an IP and injectors should last a max of 100,000 miles right? Let's just think about that a minute. That means a truck with 3.55's will have 4,500,000,000 injection events.... Yes that's over 4.5 BILLION injection events in 100,000 miles. But a truck with 4.10's will have 4,635,135,135 injection events. That is over 100 million more cycles! This is of course, assuming your doing 60 MPH over the life of the 100,000 miles, which we know is not true. In all likelyhood it is more than this. Given this fact, is it fair to say that a truck with 4.10's can go 100,000 miles between a fuel system refresh? I think not. Actually I think asking that pintle to open 1 billion times is really asking more than anyone could possibly expect.

 

[DeepRoots]

so im like the onnly one pushings the limits on these engines at the moment, and so far they seem to hold up well

With all due respect Mr Young..... ******** on two accounts.
First you are NOT the only one pushing limits. I have spent some cash on making sure my engine runs perfectly, and also on a top grade fuel system with gauges monitering everything. The few people on this forum who have driven my truck can attest to the fact that it is indeed a far different animal than most 7.3idi's.
On the other hand, you chose to abuse an engine without any way of knowing what the engine was doing. If I recall even your speedometer didn't work. I doubt you had even an oil pressure gauge or a pyrometer.

The second bs flag was on the 'so far they seem to hold up'
As recorded on this forum you destroyed the first engine. If you want to blame it on ether, or cuz it was cloudy that day is irrelevant, you oversped it, and it died a miserable death.
But I'm not here to rag on you, or tell you what to do, I just don't want you giving bad advice.... as that is dangerous to other people.


Back to the subject at hand, with the c6 I ran the truck 3200rpms all day, with no ill effects.
With the Zf5 I shift around 2500 or so. Due to my fuel setup I need at least 2200rpms if I intend to give it much throttle, otherwise it'll smoke fairly heavy.

Drew

 

[gonecrazyi]

I tend to shift around 2-2.5 k depending on how I feel or if Im in a hurry. Ive found that if I baby the truck I begin to lose power after about a week. Once I hook up to a loaded trailer and run her hard I pick the power back up and the truck seems to cruise down the road much easier.

With new injectors and a baby moose IP, I tend to get between 16-18mpg if I drive gently without blowing much smoke, but I can drop down to 15 really easily. This is with 4.10's.

Same with running on the highway, 60-65 seems to net the best mpg's, but when Im cruising around 85 mph the milage really suffers drastically. I was hammering it hard for about 25 miles and burned through 1/4 of a tank with 90% highway driving. I dont do it often unless Im in a hurry.

When Im pulling I tend to run the rpms up high just to keep the truck rolling down the road easily. Why lug it when there are more rpms to be had so that the next gear isnt such a drastic drop?

 

[hesutton]

Not trying to beat a dead horse here, but like stated, power falls off at RPM over 2800-2900 RPM.

Look at the dyno curves I posted HERE. Torque starts to fall off drastically after 2300 RPM and HP falls after 2800-2900. The DPS IP and the Moose IP both governed at 3200-3300 RPM and for good reason. Nothing is happening beyond these RPM.

Heath

 

[gonecrazyi]

I agree that nothing really happens and the truck stops pulling as hard, but without a turbo, those few extra rpms allow a better shift into the next gear without lugging the engine.

With a turbo Im sure that it is much different, but Ive never hauled with a turbo idi. Ive only ever driven one, and it was diesel jd's and was only for a couple miles.

 

[towcat]

With my F450's, I run at the governor all day long.(3500-3800 rpm's) the trucks are 4.63 or 5.13 ratio'd in the rear. If you have a load on the motor, they don't care where they run.
My F350 will pull hard all the way to 3800rpm but there's nothing normal about the motor or the surrounding plumbing. before IC, the power would fade out at 3k rpm, not so after IC install.
you results may vary. but one thing is consistent, I work my trucks hard within the factory limits and have gotten good service out of my trucks.
one motor was condemned at 400k on the odo and did not recieve any oil changes just to see how far before it dies. it finally died at 650k on the odo.

 

[FORDF250HDXLT]

I work my trucks hard within the factory limits and have gotten good service out of my trucks.
one motor was condemned at 400k on the odo and did not recieve any oil changes just to see how far before it dies. it finally died at 650k on the odo.

wow!

 

[gatorman21218]

Ill shift at 2500 or until i hear the cackle. How ever if johnny law is behind me or camped out beside me, you know damn well Ill shift at 1800. I cannot afford a noise ticket, but I CRAVE the sound of a 444 CID high compression diesel with no muffler winding out. Ah such is life I suppose

 

[yARIC008]

one motor was condemned at 400k on the odo and did not recieve any oil changes just to see how far before it dies. it finally died at 650k on the odo.

250,000 miles without an oil change? Nice... I don't feel so bad about going a little over my 5,000 mile oil change interval now,

 

[fields_mj]

I love the experience levels that the members here bring to this site. From guys who have been driving and working on these engines since they were new to guys who have been making a living off of them just as long. From guys who are just scraping enough together to get themselves their first (hopefully) reliable work truck/daily driver, to guys who, for what ever reason, have a few trucks to spare and can afford to really see what kind of abuse it takes to kill one of these motors. Personally, I can't afford for mine to die on me, but it's good to know that so long as I have an ounce or two of common sense left in me and maybe half an ounce of luck, the engine will be the last part of the truck to die.

 

[vegas39]

In the almsot two years I have had mine, I had it up to 2900 once.

I drove to Cali last weekend and back and ran at 2700 rpm or less.

 

[towcat]

250,000 miles without an oil change? Nice... I don't feel so bad about going a little over my 5,000 mile oil change interval now,

here's the backstory.
the motor was the orig in the truck when I bought it with 150k on the ODO. At 200k, "trusting" the factory oil pressure gauge(I since learned never to do that) I pulled the motor to check out the bottom end. bearings looked fine. by 400k there was enough blowby and the the back of the cyl heads seaping coolant. at that point, this is going to be my test mule for neglect testing
no oil changes, it only got new oil when needed. As far as the seaping gaskets, it got Bar's leak. One bottle every two months. the headgaskets was the motor's eventual demise. One morning, it hydrolocked. 650k on the ODO.
ohyea...Truck: 1989 F450 w/ Century 17ft alu carrier deck. 7.3 na ZF5 4.63 rear.

 

[punkmechanic]

^^^^
That is absolutely fricken amazing. I see all kinds of craziness at work (a mostly truck dealership gets some ABUSED stuff!) and that puts anything it got to pasture.

My hats off to you cat, Im know sure that these things can last virtually forever.

cockroaches, twinkies and me with the pearl... oh what a day thatll be. .

punk

 

[The Warden]

Just make sure you save enough Twinkies that you don't have to start eating any of the cockroaches

 

[Agnem]

That IS impressive Calvin. The Moosestang goes through about 4 quarts of oil a week. Maybe I'll just stop changing it and put a new oil filter on every now and then.