[Fr. Frank]

The 7.3 Powerstroke engine is a 1960's International design now made by Navistar since they bought out International. Ford purchased most of the production of that engine for years. It is also marketed under the T444E designation for Navistar, and the D444T and D444E under the International nameplate. While most of these engines not sent to Ford were used in buses or small commercial trucks, there are marine variants of this engine out there, mostly marketed in Asia and Australia. Mahindra manufactures this engine for Navistar in the Asian market.

With regular proper maintenance, the 7.3 will easily exceed 500,000 miles, or 10,000 hours of operation. It can be tuned to produce between 215 and 700 hp (depending on how it breathes), and produce over 600 ft. lbs of torque.

My '02 7.3L was re-programmed by Ford during a recall in early '06, and according to the documentation, the HP rating went from 275 to 315hp at 2600 rpms, and the max torque went from 500 ft lbs up to 525 ft lbs. At the same time, my fuel economy went up by about 12%, from a combined average of 16.3 mpg, to 18.2 mpg. Since then I have gotten to the point of needing my injectors rebuilt or replaced, and my economy has fallen over the past 8 months to only 17.6 mpg average. I have over 200K on the truck, which is about the expected life-span of the injectors. Reman'd injectors are about $300 to $400 each.