More power from 7.3 natural

[snowball3006]

HELP...I've got a 1993 F350 4x4 HEAVY duty with the 7.3 non-turbo, stone box-stock. 5sp. man. trans. & X-heavy duty clutch. otherwise totally stock. What can I do (budget) with this engine to get more power? Forget turbo, I want to keep it nat. Headers? Exhaust? how do you "turn up" the fuel? Inake mods.? I'm new, but have worked on hotrod gas engines. HELP!! MudMountain

 

[Goofyexponent]

turning up the fuel will give you a little more power, but mostly all it will do is raise the EGT's to an unusable level.

First, get more cold air in, via a home made or modified 5.2/5.9 Dodge cold air intake (not sure what years fit right) A free flowing K&N filter or comparable filter will help out too.

If you want to play with the fuel, install a pyrometer and I will tell you how to turn up the fuel...j/k. Seriously though, install a pyrometer and check out this article on how to crank up the fuel....SMALL increments only!!

A bigger exhaust will help let the engine breathe. They do make headders for out trucks, I am not sure how good they are, maybe someone with them can post their expirences.

Make sure the truck is timed properly, the injectors, fuel filter and lift (mechanical or electric) pump are up to ***** and run a good diesel additive.

Also, little things like alignment, properly adjusted brakes, good U-joints and properly maintained wheel bearings will make rolling resistance less....increasing power as well (or letting the existing power do it's job freely)

Try one of them fart mufflers all the imports have.....they seem to think it adds power

 

[Donsbad89]

Read the sticky

 

[J D Recovery]

Try one of them fart mufflers all the imports have.....they seem to think it adds power

thats the best I need one for everything I have or will ever get

 

[matt-jenkins]

I'm looking to replace my Aluminium dryer duct intake with something better, I have the banks power pack intake cover with the K&N Filter. I'm sure the filter could be replaced but has anybody used the 5.2/5.9L K&N intakes on our trucks?
I know the Banks lid flows quite a bit better over stock and If that would work just as well as the Dodge intake I would just keep that and find a new way to route the ducting.

 

[1994IDI]

Goofy listed the basic and most needed upgrades. Beyond that, Russ (Typ4) can do a grind on the camshaft to offer more torque, as well as supply pop matched BB code injectors, while Mel (Agnem) can supply the MOOSE power products, but you will begin to stray away from the that word "budget" by that point I beleive. But they are no doubt great products, and great guys to deal with.

 

[Goofyexponent]

I'm looking to replace my Aluminium dryer duct intake with something better, I have the banks power pack intake cover with the K&N Filter. I'm sure the filter could be replaced but has anybody used the 5.2/5.9L K&N intakes on our trucks?
I know the Banks lid flows quite a bit better over stock and If that would work just as well as the Dodge intake I would just keep that and find a new way to route the ducting.

I did some digging last night in the tech articles...2001 Ram 5.2 cold ait intake will fit with a little modifications. I would assume that the same body style as a 2001 (1994 - 2002) should fit the same.

I think that might be my next upgrade. I just changed out all my dome lights and added floor lights under the dash last night. They are all a nice shade of blue

 

[matt-jenkins]

I did some digging last night in the tech articles...2001 Ram 5.2 cold ait intake will fit with a little modifications. I would assume that the same body style as a 2001 (1994 - 2002) should fit the same.

I think that might be my next upgrade. I just changed out all my dome lights and added floor lights under the dash last night. They are all a nice shade of blue

Tell me how that kit works, If you like it then I might go ahead and order one, but If not then its better your loss than mine

I have heard though that you get a pretty decent power increase from the Banks lid which I have had on my truck since I bought it, I'm scared I'm gonna swap it out and have no significant gain.

 

[argve]

Remember the rule more air then more fuel. So that means better breathing in both directions - a more free flowing exhaust and intake. I would be looking to go with a 3 inch or 3.5 inch exhaust anything much bigger is over kill and would probably actually hurt ya because you need to keep the speed up on the exhaust.

I found that out when I went to a 5inch stack on the goat truck, my mileage actually went down some - not by much but a little (2 mpg average) and the only thing I did was put the stack in. One thing I noticed was with the 5inch stack was that the exhaust was just sort of coming out of it, it would not shoot out more of a whafting type of thing. Vs when it was running out the back it was shooting out (more speed to the exhaust).

I know when I was talking to Banks way back a few years ago when I was choosing the turbo and exhaust set up on The Enterprise (7.3L IDI) they said they didn't recommend anything over 3.5 inch because performance actually suffered because of flow dynamics. And the guy I spoke with said that you could run 4 inch and still be ok but anything larger and performance would definitely suffer.

I know from my gasser days that an air filter with more surface area is better than a smaller filter. I found my best performance from a huge filter and I seen the same thing on the goat truck when I put in a BHAF vs the stock air filter.

Once you have improved the breathing then I would look at turning up the fuel. Without having a pyro I would be very hesitant in recommending turning up the fuel especially since you live in Tenn where you will be faced with up hill driving on a daily basis. Because without the pyro you don't know when you are pushing her too hard and the temps are getting out of control.

 

[snowball3006]

turning up the fuel will give you a little more power, but mostly all it will do is raise the EGT's to an unusable level.

First, get more cold air in, via a home made or modified 5.2/5.9 Dodge cold air intake (not sure what years fit right) A free flowing K&N filter or comparable filter will help out too.

If you want to play with the fuel, install a pyrometer and I will tell you how to turn up the fuel...j/k. Seriously though, install a pyrometer and check out this article on how to crank up the fuel....SMALL increments only!!

A bigger exhaust will help let the engine breathe. They do make headders for out trucks, I am not sure how good they are, maybe someone with them can post their expirences.

Make sure the truck is timed properly, the injectors, fuel filter and lift (mechanical or electric) pump are up to ***** and run a good diesel additive.

Also, little things like alignment, properly adjusted brakes, good U-joints and properly maintained wheel bearings will make rolling resistance less....increasing power as well (or letting the existing power do it's job freely)

Try one of them fart mufflers all the imports have.....they seem to think it adds power

THANKS! Lots of help, what are folks talking about when eliminating a "soup bowl", what is it? how do I do it? Thanks in adance...MudMountain

 

[snowball3006]

Thanks!! What is the "soup bowl" and how do I "fix" it to get more power? Thanks in advance....MudMountain

 

[cornbinder 84]

The soup bowl is attached to the bottom of the air cleaner lid. I think it was orginally designed to deaden the noise that comes out the intake. I just cut mine off with a plasma cutter but you can use a cut-off wheel or a grinder I suppose. THere is a video on you tube that shows the procedure, but I can't post a link from here at work. Removing does seem to help a little but it creates a more noise in the cab. I would try to come up with an extra air cleaner lid just in case you didn't like the noise, thats what I did. you can always go back to stock that way.

 

[matt-jenkins]

Here's a youtube video about the soup bowl

If your looking for an exhaust I'm running a hyper max kit on my truck, Stock 2.5 inch Y pipe and then 3.5 inch all the way back. I've currently got the muffler on but I have an extra piece of pipe so I might play around and straight pipe it just for ***** and giggles.

 

[snowman89]

I agree with everyone start with the air then move to fuel. On my 85 6.9l when I bought it was take off the soup bowl and made a custom intake tube and huge cone filter. As for the exhaust I used a 3 inch super 44 flowmaster muffler and chrome tip exiting before the rear tire. With that you'll gain power and a hell of an exhaust note