Dropping Fords new 7.3L in a Gen 1

Smart, just so long as you get a vin! I can see buying a wrecked truck for a project like this since you will be replacing all of the suspension and most of the driveline. As long as you can get a straight frame the rest is really semantics. Wrecked truck gets you the lions share of the dumb little parts that add up.

I doubt a stripper NA v6 that's been totaled fetches much at auction.

 

hey hey now, my truck is more "street legal" than it was 3 months ago.

as in, my headlights now actually light up the road instead of the tops of trees now.

as for the rest of it? LA doesn't inspect those things, although it'd probably fail for window tint being too dark or something.

 

No lie, you can pick up a rear-end-hit-totalled-truck that runs/drives with a 5.0 for under 10K ( with low miles aka less than 10K miles). and sometimes, you can even pull off keeping the title clean.

so, in all honesty, you're saving $50K ish out of the gate when compared to buying a new raptor.

When you plan to go past a certain point, which truck you start with no longer matters.

 

If I was looking to build something closer to racecar flavor, that is what I would try to find. 5.0, 10 speed auto, 4wd, standard cab, and the bed length wouldn't matter as the frame would be getting cut off at the back of the cab anyways. Building it would probably cost $100-125k though.

 

I think there could be a happy middle ground, long travel, shortened stock frame, glass fenders, turbocharged coyote power and no remorse because your only into it for the cost of a medium grade gen 1. Not competition worthy but able to run with just about any raptor out there and retain some creature comfort. Way more than I would be capable of driving to the limit at any rate.

If your going to build an all out tubed race truck there is no need for a vin, your not going to want to deal with the maintenance from something like that driven on the highway.

 

My raptor as it sits is that happy middle ground, IMO. It could maybe use something like the Icon RXT rear shocks, or a bypass rack and 16-18" rear shocks for full rear wheel travel. Thats only because the front suspension still outpaces the rear suspension. Regardless of that, it still goes plenty fast over what I want it to go fast over. When things start going faster than what it can currently do, maintenance gets pretty intense. Also, the stock rack sucks, it needs box put in it if I wanted to go faster.

 

the challenge with that sentiment is, you need plates to cross the border if you want to get insurance easily and be able to drive on the road from trail's end to the hotel for the evening.

it still makes sense to go with a vin and be able to register the truck.

Not having a vin would make things way more complicated than I'd prefer but to each their own.

 

I know someone who's trying in a Fox. Huge PITA

 

I've decided to find a 6.2 F250/F350 with a CNG bi-fuel conversion on it wrecked and then start graphting. Guys with have used HP tuners and some custom wiring to integrate the E85 sensor.

E85 and CNG.. $1 a GGE CNG and $1.50 gallon E85 in TX.

Ford should have just stayed with the 6.2 architecture and made a production version of the custom block and head castings that Don Bowles had done, also basically learn from what Roush did for a 850hp 6.2 based trophy truck.

https://www.svtperformance.com/threads/the-boss-is-back-6-2l-boss-engine-pics.646733/

I honestly think people aren't scratching the surface of what can be done with these.

I think some connecting rods are better than others. Probably first-year raptors have better rods.

They might be on to just the C for what is available for replacements now... but. AL3Z-6200-A, AL3Z-6200-B or AL3Z-6200-C.. All not the same.