Hello Gents!
As our season in the Catskill mountains is dwindling down my thoughts turn to the task of pulling our 9000# 30ft solar powered travel trailer, our full time home, back down to SW Florida. While our 1990 NA 7.3 idi F-250 e4od has made the trip a few times now, it's not an easy trip. It's a struggle on steep grades on the highway and with some of the back road hills, I've been forced to back up and get a running start to have enough inertia to make it up. The truck could use more power to be sure. It's in good running order and well maintained with just over 200k on the clock. After a cursory search, for new kits it seems that the options are the wastegated Banks or the Hypermax. Of course I could go on a search for used kits or individual components. I'm asking the collective for information and advice on which route to take, what precautionary upgrades are smart and what evaluations of the condition of the engine I should do to determine if a turbo is a viable upgrade for the truck without a rebuild. Finally, as much as I've come to respect and depend upon the old beast, for the cost of the turbo upgrade (not to mention labor), would it be a wiser decision to sell the truck and use the money plus the allocated upgrade funds to buy a different truck with adequate power?
Many thanks...
As our season in the Catskill mountains is dwindling down my thoughts turn to the task of pulling our 9000# 30ft solar powered travel trailer, our full time home, back down to SW Florida. While our 1990 NA 7.3 idi F-250 e4od has made the trip a few times now, it's not an easy trip. It's a struggle on steep grades on the highway and with some of the back road hills, I've been forced to back up and get a running start to have enough inertia to make it up. The truck could use more power to be sure. It's in good running order and well maintained with just over 200k on the clock. After a cursory search, for new kits it seems that the options are the wastegated Banks or the Hypermax. Of course I could go on a search for used kits or individual components. I'm asking the collective for information and advice on which route to take, what precautionary upgrades are smart and what evaluations of the condition of the engine I should do to determine if a turbo is a viable upgrade for the truck without a rebuild. Finally, as much as I've come to respect and depend upon the old beast, for the cost of the turbo upgrade (not to mention labor), would it be a wiser decision to sell the truck and use the money plus the allocated upgrade funds to buy a different truck with adequate power?
Many thanks...