IDI VS early PSD

[94turboidi]

If you want a solid front axle and want to keep coil springs, and our 8 x 6.5 bolt pattern look for a 78-79 dana 44 axle. I had one that was setup for coil springs like the f150 would have had for those years but it had all dana 44 hd outers, 8 lug dual piston calipers, etc. I don't know if someone converted the outers or if thats something you can find with coil springs. I would think leafs would be typical. I put it under a 90 f150 and removed all the original coil spring buckets and radius arm mounts and got the ones to fit a 78/79 f150 and put them in there. The only problem I had was I should have spaced the coil buckets out some because the frame must be wider on the older f150's. Just a thought.

 

[NapaBavarian]

If you want a solid front axle and want to keep coil springs, and our 8 x 6.5 bolt pattern look for a 78-79 dana 44 axle. I had one that was setup for coil springs like the f150 would have had for those years but it had all dana 44 hd outers, 8 lug dual piston calipers, etc. I don't know if someone converted the outers or if thats something you can find with coil springs. I would think leafs would be typical. I put it under a 90 f150 and removed all the original coil spring buckets and radius arm mounts and got the ones to fit a 78/79 f150 and put them in there. The only problem I had was I should have spaced the coil buckets out some because the frame must be wider on the older f150's. Just a thought.

I'm probably going that route with my 77 F250 4x2 to 4x4 swap, but in my research I discovered the 1/2 ton D44 has thinner tubes than the 3/4 ton d44, I'm not so concerned on a pickup that will be mainly be used as a run around, but with the extra weight of an ambulance I'm not sure how that will go over, I have found a few aftermarket van d44s so I might go that route, time will tell.

 

[94turboidi]

I can't picture it getting bent by the weight even going offroad unless your really going at it hard. The d60 is beefy and if you go that route you'll be fine but I wouldn't be scared about the thinner walls of a 1/2 ton axle. What kind of gearing are you going with? The dana 44 hd that I used to have had 5.13's and a spool. I had a 8.8 that I started to do a disc conversion on using dodge ram front rotors and 8 lug wheel adapters on and had 5.13 gears in to match. I was driving that around w/ 35's and it was pretty fun. The guy I sold the axles to never put them on and doesn't know much about them and he is trying to sell them right now.

 

[6 Nebraska IDIs]

I'm partial to the IDI's because my family has had them since the first day they were available from Ford. The PSD was all hype from the dealerships to the extent that several dealerships would make excuses to not fix our IDI powered trucks just so they could trash talk them and try to sell us a PSD. Ever since then I've had a disliking towards them and don't think I'll ever own one.
ECM controlled engines don't scare me, I built and tuned my 97 turbo eclipse by myself and am pretty confident I could handle pretty much any ECM controlled engine now. So that has nothing to do with my opinion.
Also, everyone around here that has a PSD thinks their truck is worth $10k with 200k miles on it and rust you can see through. Senseless if you ask me. But to be hones the Cummins guys value their trucks in the same manor so maybe its just where I'm located.

 

[94turboidi]

I see some ridiculous prices on cummins trucks.

 

[itsacrazyasian]

I have a TON of money in scan tools and diagnostic equipment. I have a Rotunda IDS, Auto Ingenuity, Modis, Genisys, Autologix and a Launch X431 in the shop. End of the day after chasing down problems in these newer cars its nice to go back to my truck thats so simple.

Spent 3 hours today chasing a no start, no interior lights, no dash function in a trailblazer. GM dealer diagnosed it as a bad BCM, but the customer was referred to me by another customer. I found BCM wasn't bad but it was a poor connection. saved the guy a ton of money but still in the end its something i don't want to deal with personally.

Have a 2006 BMW to look at tommorow for a Can-bus communication problem. Yippie! I had a Nissan Maxima had to reprogram the antitheft unit. Lucikly i have the nissan NATS pin decoder and the scan tool to do it.

Granted a OBS PSD isn't nearly as complicated as that, but if he's looking for simplicity, not much simplier than a IDI.

 

[flareside_thun]

I gotta agree...The main thing that draws me to an IDI over a PSD is the ease of troubleshooting and repairing them, as well as a lower cost. You're going to have an offroad ambulance (which is friggin awesome by the way) not a Baja ambulance, you won't need overrated performance. Can you tell I'm extremely biased? Do this, look up a procedure, any procedure, in a manual for the IDI (pertaining to the engine, not the truck) then do the same for the PSD.

 

[94turboidi]

Now we wouldn't be biased towards idi engines on a idi forum.......but yeah these engines are cheaper to work on than a psd. I know I don't miss my E4OD either. I think most of the problem was the guy I took it to get it rebuilt wasn't familiar w/ them or something. It went out, I bought all the parts took trans to him and paid him to rebuild it, bought a torque converter from Oreillys and installed, instantly had problems. Paid to have it towed 60 miles to him he said there was faulty wiring so I paid him to fix it. Drove home fine and within a few hundred miles it was going out. Paid to have it towed back to him. He blamed it on the torque converter that I used. So I had to pay him for all new parts plus labor to remove and install plus rebuilding again. This time I used his torque converter. It went right out again and then I just limped it to him instead of paying for a tow. He rebuilt it on his dime that time and I drove it for about 1000 miles and it seemed to be working good but he put a real harsh shift kit in it. I ended up putting going the 5 speed route. I had alot of money in that trans and it wasn't any better than a normal rebuild. If I ever had one again I would get the tools and rebuild myself.

 

[adrianspeeder]

Iffy fuel sources would lend itself to IDI, but I'd go PSD for the power. The "complicatedness" of a 7.3L PSD doesn't scare me personally due to the comparatively more complicated 6.4L or shoot, even a C-17...

Have a 2006 BMW to look at tommorow for a Can-bus communication problem.

Cars got databus now?

Adrianspeeder

 

[crazy4wdracer]

I have a '97 PSD with 275K on it, nothing was done to the engine other than cam position sensor, which I replaced once and has been perfect since, and glow plugs. They really aren't much more complicated than IDI's. In my opinion the ONLY downfall to a early PSD is price of parts.

 

[94f450sd]

while i love an idi i love the psd more.idis are starting to get hard to get parts for.in a few years parts for them will be obsolete.everytime an idi ends up in the scrap yard we lose parts for them.the psd has a huge aftermarket parts support.parts will still be readily available when the idi stuff is done.the psd isnt all that difficult to diagnose or work on.they look intimidating but they arent.with a little reading youll be able to diagnose almost any problem with them without a scanner.

if performance is what youre lookin for you can do much more with a stroke.size of your wallet is the limit on them.the price of go fast goodies has come down quite a bit from what they were when i built mine.if you have the cash you can build a nasty stroke.now they got aftermarket blocks and mechanical fuel injection systems for them.

they are reliable.really didnt have much trouble with mine except a cracked injector nozzle and 2 melted pistons.but i ran it hard i mean i beat the **** out of it.it was rare to see me not burnin the tires off it or racin somebody with it.

even with my mods it still got better fuel mileage than my idis could ever dream of.

 

[94f450sd]

http://www.gohypermax.com/Related.aspx?id=b14a7197-2fdf-4071-8187-2115bbd215a1 goodbye heui system,hello mechanical! if only i had the money for it

 

[93f250idi]

while i love an idi i love the psd more.idis are starting to get hard to get parts for.in a few years parts for them will be obsolete.everytime an idi ends up in the scrap yard we lose parts for them.the psd has a huge aftermarket parts support.parts will still be readily available when the idi stuff is done.the psd isnt all that difficult to diagnose or work on.they look intimidating but they arent.with a little reading youll be able to diagnose almost any problem with them without a scanner.

if performance is what youre lookin for you can do much more with a stroke.size of your wallet is the limit on them.the price of go fast goodies has come down quite a bit from what they were when i built mine.if you have the cash you can build a nasty stroke.now they got aftermarket blocks and mechanical fuel injection systems for them.

they are reliable.really didnt have much trouble with mine except a cracked injector nozzle and 2 melted pistons.but i ran it hard i mean i beat the **** out of it.it was rare to see me not burnin the tires off it or racin somebody with it.

even with my mods it still got better fuel mileage than my idis could ever dream of.

not to hijack but what kind of milage were you getting with all the mods?

 

[94f450sd]

not to hijack but what kind of milage were you getting with all the mods?

i couldnt give you an honest answer.i figured it out on my trip to florida but i dont remember.i went to florida,drove around for a week and back home on 500.00 in fuel.trip was about 3600 miles.i was averaging about 275 miles to 3/4s of a tank of fuel.i used to drive 32 miles each way from home to my shop.my idi would use 1/4 tank each way and the psd used 1/8 of a tank each way.

 

[94f450sd]

ok with a quick search for my florida thread i found it and i figured i was gettin 17-18MPG with it