Dave's Auto (custom engine builder) tear down of L8T

mrjulian416 · August 7

This guy is a custom engine builder, both diesel and gas. He recently posted this vid of a tear down of an L8T for rebuild. Seems to like a lot of what he sees

We Tore Down GM’s Biggest Gas V8… Here’s What We Found

It's a bit of a long video, bottom line it's a very well built engine but in this case, excessive heat in the rear cylinders can be a problem.

No F-bdy Bs · August 8

Like I've said before. Di and Carbon buildup is not that big of a concern. Engine had minimal buildup, and that engine was obviously not super well maintained. Do regular oil changes, and you're gtg as long as the rest of the truck lasts. Also, the High Pressure FP that people ****** about, but can't tell you why.

Now, I wish they'd trash the variable oil pump. No real world issues with them, but I'll gladly eat whatever miniscule MPG it's saving me in favor of more oil at all RPMs.

Curious to see his assessment of the 7.3 compared to the 6.6.

I expect he'll praise the port inj, but from a structural standpoint, the 6.6 is as robust as any engine out there.

Not to take away from the 7.3.

I feel it's equally as good as the 6.6.

As to heat on the rear cyls, I'd have to see numerous examples before I'd say it's an issue. Especially not knowing the history of that engine. For all is known, they could have blown a rad hose, and ran it hot, and the 2 rear cyls may be the first to get hot in a low coolant situation, but not be an issue aside from that.

Edited August 8 by No F-bdy Bs

mrjulian416 · August 14

The video for the Ford 7.3 tear down is up. He's not a fan of the oil pump design. This one died from the known cam/lifter failure issue.

For some reason this site is not letting me embed a link but here it is to copy/paste:

https://youtu.be/4Memby-jB9I?si=SmK1VuBgZ7UgsZCz

Edited August 14 by mrjulian416

No F-bdy Bs · August 15

I'd like to know the year of that 7.3.

If newer, say 23'+ I'd be concerned that ford hasn't addressed the cam/lifter delaminating issue.

Odd that the 7.3 they tore into died of the exact flaw we've heard about.

From a robustness standpoint, both the 7.3, and 6.6 are absurdly overbuilt.

Chuck FB · August 16

11 hours ago, No F-bdy Bs said:

I'd like to know the year of that 7.3.

If newer, say 23'+ I'd be concerned that ford hasn't addressed the cam/lifter delaminating issue.

Odd that the 7.3 they tore into died of the exact flaw we've heard about.

From a robustness standpoint, both the 7.3, and 6.6 are absurdly overbuilt.

The so called rare failure that some certainly liked to tout ( die hard Ford fan boys ) as per the lifter failing and wiping out the cam. Back when it started happening the blame was being pointed to the lifters and honestly I never did hear anything myself conclusively one way or the other on that. Ford themselves in I believe 2024 had a technical bulletin I will call it that came out and for some engine platforms they were reprograming the engines idle speed but also they had a software update for the oil pump which then some time later was said what that software update did as to be increasing the oil pressure at idle. It is a good question if that issue was completely solved as one Ford specialist mechanic youtuber said he saw failures after that time period. Like anything there would be the variables, what oil is being used and the OCI and how much idle time gets put on an engine. I've seen some comments to claim that the L8T isn't so happy with high idle time either but I also know that companies that require their vehicle to idle a lot on the job don't tend to get the oil changed often enough for all those hours of idle time and go off of the odometer.