I'm trying to track down some accurate info on these motors - looking at getting a 93 L8000 box truck with one. I've done a fair bit of searching and I find opinions that are all over the board - everything from 'great engine, better than a DT466' to 'dogturd pos boat anchor'..... why are they hated so much? Did find a lot of mentions of them being underpowered, although they look pretty comparable to a the same era DT466/8CTA engines, especially the higher horse ones. Did these engines have cavitation issues? Some references I found said they did, but other remarks make me thing at least some folks could be confusing the 7.8 with the 7.3 idi motor. Is there any internal engine difference between power ratings, or is it just timing/fuel screw/turbo boost? Interestingly, the truck I looked at has a air to air intercooler with a 210hp engine - is this stock or did someone maybe swap a lower hp engine or valve cover on? What are the weak points on them? How concerned should I be getting one with ~580k on it? No idea if it's the original engine or what work has been done unfortunately. Interestingly, a manual I found - http://www.rothfam.com/svo/reference/volumeH/1988/Section%2020%20-%20Diesel%20Diagnostics%20-%206.6L%20and%207.8L%20engines.pdf has a spec table on pg 6/7 that shows the 210 hp version as having higher boost pressures than the 240hp... any idea what's going on with this? Did they use a high boost and low fuel rate for emissions or some sort of a high altitude spec? Timing seems pretty close between the 2 too.... Thanks, ~John
I have had really great luck with them over the years. They're actually new Holland motors made in Brazil and since ford owned new Holland it was an easy internal company idea. They use regular bosh inline P pumps. Not powerful motors by todays standards but they did the job in the day. and did it well.