Just a couple of questions

[Justin1574]

I'm still learning this diesel thing. Lol. I have the 7.3 idi turbo from factory that had never been molested. I have a fuel leak with the motor is running from what appears to be the fuel heater on the filter header. My first question is, can I just get rid of the heater? I live in Mississippi where the weather never gets below about 20 degrees in the coldest of winters. My second question, what is the factory mac boost from this turbo? The reason ask is would it be too much boost if I bypassed the wastegate? Probably a dumb question but just curious.

 

[Thewespaul]

Generally 5 maybe 7 psi. Yes you can delete the heater, if you look in the tech articles there is a write up on how to do this. Instead of unhooking the wastegate turn the fuel up, just unhooking it won’t net you any power if you don’t have anymore fuel to burn.

 

[Justin1574]

Very true. I figured with the waste gate bypass, and turning the ip up one flat probably be about the most I could get wouldn't it?

 

[Macrobb]

Put an EGT gauge on the engine, unhook the wastegate and crank the fuel 3-4 flats or as far as you can. Careful about stopping when it gets tight.
Alsp, look up the "torque screw" and back it out 1/4" if you have it.

This will net you a good 80+ hp more... Ford seriously under-spec'd the turbo models to not compete with the PSD.

With such a tune up, you do need to be careful about giving it too much pedal until you hit 2k rpm when the turbo kicks in, or you'll just get smoke. Once the turbo kicks in and the boost comes up, give 'er hell!

Also, especially these days, messing with the timing will probably net you some added power too. Do a bit of reading and just adjust it back and forth a little to where it feels strongest.
Also, any smoke should be black. Gray/white/blue is too retarded timing.

 

[Justin1574]

I appreciate the info fellas. Gonna do a bit more research on it all. Just don't won't to blow the heads off of it. It has 253k on the clock so I just won't to make sure of what it can handle.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

Unfortunately, you'll be the first to know when you've gone too far. A little more will be fine, I think. It's up to you as to how far you want to try to push it.

 

[Macrobb]

On an IDI, well, you always want to assume that, say, the headgaskets can blow at any time; they do fail, even N/A.
Also, overheating the engine due to, say, the belt breaking, will really stress the gaskets.
That being said, well... my '93's an experiment in progress. Overheated it(or at least got it really hot) in february when the belt tensioner broke, and it weeped a little coolant from the head gaskets ever since. What did I do? Stuck a larger IP on it(rd2-110), dyno'd it at 250 at the wheels, and regularly load the **** out of it... gaskets haven't 'gone' yet.

Oh, and the motor is an '88 non-turbo with ??? miles on it... but I'm sure it's not a small number.

A stock IP won't push more than 225RWHP, no matter what... and 200-215 is common, so you are still stressing it less than I.

 

[Justin1574]

Thank yall for the heads up