Ford F-250 Powerstroke (6.7L) Diesel Engine

Welcome back guys, Today, we have a 2023 F-250 Super Duty with the 6.7 Power Stroke, and behind it, we have a fully loaded trailer. In fact, this is the max towing capacity of this F250 sitting behind me right here, and we’re going to tow it down the highway and do a little towing review, so that should be fun. But first of all, as a heavy-duty licensed diesel mechanic, I’m going to take this truck into the shop, and we’re going to go over some engine specs as to why this thing is going to be such a great towing engine. So let’s do that right now.

 

First of all, I don’t know what Ford is doing with the front of the grille here. I think it just doesn’t look good, and judging from my own comment section, you guys also agree this is kind of horrendous.

In this truck right here, we have a standard output Power Stroke diesel engine, and I talked about this much more in-depth maybe a couple of months ago. I’ll put a link down to the video down below if you guys are more interested, but I figured we’d go over some major details, some details that I really like about this Power Stroke, and maybe explain why I think this thing will be such a good towing engine.

 

So this Power Stroke is producing 475 horsepower, as well as 1050 pound-feet of torque, and I know, I know, 2023 is when they released the high output version with 1200 foot-pounds of torque, and unfortunately, I just can’t get my hands on it right now. But I will.

In 2011, Ford dropped its completely in-house built 6.7 Power Stroke diesel, and this marked the split off between the Ford and international partnership when it came to making diesel engines for these Super Duties. And I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing because this 6.7 has done very well, and the predecessors, the 6.4-liter Power Stroke, was nothing but really complete hot garbage. Even the 6-liter was really not the best of an engine. So it seems like Ford made a really good decision building their own engine and going off on their own.

 

Now, there are a couple of key takeaways with this engine that give it an advantage over its competitors, which I want to touch on today. And the first one is the fact that they have their intake and exhaust reversed from a traditional V8 configuration. So I know this probably just looks like a big conglomeration of piping and whatnot, but basically, a traditional V8, you have your exhaust ports on the outside of the banks, and you have your intakes on the inside of the banks. And this makes perfect sense for a naturally aspirated V8 engine. However, when you throw a turbocharger in here, it makes things a little bit more complex. So what Ford did is they stuck the turbocharger right dead smack center of the two engine banks. And so what this means is that your intakes are actually on the outsides of the banks. Now, there are a couple of good reasons why Ford did this, and the main one is increased thermal efficiency to the turbo. The second reason is that it helps to eliminate some of the pumping loss. Now, that’s all kind of scientific. Basically, what that means is there is less energy wasted, and there’s more energy going into your turbo. So that means that more energy is going into your turbo and being transferred into mechanical energy to your wheels on the road.

Now, the second thing that I really like about this Power Stroke engine here is the fact that it is an undersquare engine. And I think it really gives an advantage to this engine in comparison to its competitors like the Duramax. So in an undersquare engine, I always talk about this because I think it’s important. Basically, what that means is the stroke of the piston is larger than the bore of the piston. And what that allows is for very easy natural torque to be made because with a long stroke, your crank throw is longer, which means it has a mechanical leverage meaning you can make torque easier. That’s the whole gist behind that. Now, traditionally, in most V8s, if not all V8s, are usually in oversquare engines. And there’s nothing wrong with that because usually, an oversquare engine, you have a lighter rotating mass. They rev very quickly, which is why we see a lot of V8s and stuff like Mustangs, Corvettes because they rev very quickly, and they’re very powerful engines. But usually, they make their power at the higher end of the RPM band. So this is really not your traditional V8. I think Ford really did some good engineering to make sure that this is an undersquare engine, giving it a really long crank throw. We see, like the Duramax, they did not do that, although it still makes torque very low in the RPM band. But this

 

engine, I imagine, is just going to make torque much easier without much tuning, much tweaking simply because of that mechanical advantage. So that’s something I really like about this engine.

Another reason why I think this is going to be a great towing engine is because of the strength and the robustness of the bottom end that Ford put in here. This is a really, really tough engine. Starting with the engine block, we have a composite graphite engine block deep skirt, and in 2020, there’s even more strength added to it. We got a forged crankshaft that forged crankshaft is held in by six bolt main bearing caps, which is more than the Duramax, which only has four, more than the Cummins, which only uses two bolt mains. The main journal caps on this engine are a fractured journal cap, which is the strongest possible journal cap. You can actually get these cylinder heads. There are six bolts per cylinder in these cylinder heads. Again, that is more than the Duramax and the Cummins, which both only employ four bolts per cylinder head. So this thing is strong.

 

Lastly, in 2020, Ford went with steel pistons in this engine. Yes, steel pistons. Again, comparing it to our competitors, the Duramax and the Cummins both use an aluminum alloy piston. And since Ford went to a steel piston, they had to beef up the forged connecting rod and the connecting rod bearing. So this thing is a very, very robust engine. Now, personally, I found it almost ingenious what Ford did with these steel pistons because, you know, we all know that steel is, yes, it’s heavier than aluminum, and having a heavier rotating assembly is not necessarily the best thing. But what Ford also understood is that since steel is so much stronger than aluminum, you can use less of it. And so the end result is a piston that weighs almost the exact same weight as a previous generation aluminum piston. Now, yes, I’m praising the hell of this engine, and you’re right. It is not perfect. And if you guys are more interested in some things that I really don’t like about this engine, again, I’ll link that video down below where I talk about that.

That is the power plant we’re going to be testing with the max towing capacity of this truck when we load up a trailer behind it and take it down the highway. So let’s load this thing up, and let’s go talk about the towing ability of this Super Duty right here.

 

we have a 2023 F-250 Super Duty with the 6.7 Power Stroke, and behind it, we have a fully loaded trailer. In fact, this is the max towing capacity of this F250 sitting behind me right here, and we’re going to tow it down the highway and do a little towing review, so that should be fun. But first of all, as a heavy-duty licensed diesel mechanic, I’m going to take this truck into the shop, and we’re going to go over some engine specs as to why this thing is going to be such a great towing engine. So let’s do that right now.

I don’t know what Ford is doing with the front of the grille here. I think it just doesn’t look good, and judging from my own comment section, you guys also agree this is kind of horrendous.

 

In this truck right here, we have a standard output Power Stroke diesel engine, and I talked about this much more in-depth maybe a couple of months ago. I’ll put a link down to the video down below if you guys are more interested, but I figured we’d go over some major details, some details that I really like about this Power Stroke, and maybe explain why I think this thing will be such a good towing engine.

 

So this Power Stroke is producing 475 horsepower, as well as 1050 pound-feet of torque, and I know, I know, 2023 is when they released the high output version with 1200 foot-pounds of torque, and unfortunately, I just can’t get my hands on it right now. But I will.

 

In 2011, Ford dropped its completely in-house built 6.7 Power Stroke diesel, and this marked the split off between the Ford and international partnership when it came to making diesel engines for these Super Duties. And I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing because this 6.7 has done very well, and the predecessors, the 6.4-liter Power Stroke, was nothing but really complete hot garbage. Even the 6-liter was really not the best of an engine. So it seems like Ford made a really good decision building their own engine and going off on their own.

Now, there are a couple of key takeaways with this engine that give it an advantage over its competitors, which I want to touch on today. And the first one is the fact that they have their intake and exhaust reversed from a traditional V8 configuration. So I know this probably just looks like a big conglomeration of piping and whatnot, but basically, a traditional V8, you have your exhaust ports on the outside of the banks, and you have your intakes on the inside of the banks. And this makes perfect sense for a naturally aspirated V8 engine. However, when you throw a turbocharger in here, it makes things a little bit more complex. So what Ford did is they stuck the turbocharger right dead smack center of the two engine banks. And so what this means is that your intakes are actually on the outsides of the banks. Now, there are a couple of good reasons why Ford did this, and the main one is increased thermal efficiency to the turbo. The second reason is that it helps to eliminate some of the pumping loss. Now, that’s all kind of scientific. Basically, what that means is there is less energy wasted, and there’s more energy going into your turbo. So that means that more energy is going into your turbo and being transferred into mechanical energy to your wheels on the road.

 

Now, the second thing that I really like about this Power Stroke engine here is the fact that it is an undersquare engine. And I think it really gives an advantage to this engine in comparison to its competitors like the Duramax. So in an undersquare engine, I always talk about this because I think it’s important. Basically, what that means is the stroke of the piston is larger than the bore of the piston. And what that allows is for very easy natural torque to be made because with a long stroke, your crank throw is longer, which means it has a mechanical leverage meaning you can make torque easier. That’s the whole gist behind that. Now, traditionally, in most V8s, if not all V8s, are usually in oversquare engines. And there’s nothing wrong with that because usually, an oversquare engine, you have a lighter rotating mass. They rev very quickly, which is why we see a lot of V8s and stuff like Mustangs, Corvettes because they rev very quickly, and they’re very powerful engines. But usually, they make their power at the higher end of the RPM band. So this is really not your traditional V8. I think Ford really did some good engineering to make sure that this is an undersquare engine, giving it a really long crank throw. We see, like the Duramax, they did not do that, although it still makes torque very low in the RPM band. But this

 

engine, I imagine, is just going to make torque much easier without much tuning, much tweaking simply because of that mechanical advantage. So that’s something I really like about this engine.

 

Another reason why I think this is going to be a great towing engine is because of the strength and the robustness of the bottom end that Ford put in here. This is a really, really tough engine. Starting with the engine block, we have a composite graphite engine block deep skirt, and in 2020, there’s even more strength added to it. We got a forged crankshaft that forged crankshaft is held in by six bolt main bearing caps, which is more than the Duramax, which only has four, more than the Cummins, which only uses two bolt mains. The main journal caps on this engine are a fractured journal cap, which is the strongest possible journal cap. You can actually get these cylinder heads. There are six bolts per cylinder in these cylinder heads. Again, that is more than the Duramax and the Cummins, which both only employ four bolts per cylinder head. So this thing is strong.

Lastly, in 2020, Ford went with steel pistons in this engine. Yes, steel pistons. Again, comparing it to our competitors, the Duramax and the Cummins both use an aluminum alloy piston. And since Ford went to a steel piston, they had to beef up the forged connecting rod and the connecting rod bearing. So this thing is a very, very robust engine. Now, personally, I found it almost ingenious what Ford did with these steel pistons because, you know, we all know that steel is, yes, it’s heavier than aluminum, and having a heavier rotating assembly is not necessarily the best thing. But what Ford also understood is that since steel is so much stronger than aluminum, you can use less of it. And so the end result is a piston that weighs almost the exact same weight as a previous generation aluminum piston. Now, yes, I’m praising the hell of this engine, and you’re right. It is not perfect. And if you guys are more interested in some things that I really don’t like about this engine, again, I’ll link that video down below where I talk about that.

 

That is the power plant we’re going to be testing with the max towing capacity of this truck when we load up a trailer behind it and take it down the highway. So let’s load this thing up, and let’s go talk about the towing ability of this Super Duty right here.

 

So, after loading up the trailer, we hit the road to test the towing capability of this Super Duty with the 6.7 Power Stroke engine. The first thing we noticed was the smoothness of the ride. Even with a fully loaded trailer, this F250 kept the ride smooth and stable. The engine pulled the weight with ease, and we didn’t experience any lags or delays in power delivery. In fact, the engine felt more powerful than its already impressive specs suggest.

 

As we drove along the highway, we encountered some steep hills, and that’s where the true towing ability of this Super Duty was put to the test. However, the engine didn’t break a sweat, and we were able to climb the hills without any issues. The brakes also performed well, and we didn’t experience any brake fade or loss of braking power.

Overall, we were really impressed with the towing capability of this Super Duty with the 6.7 Power Stroke engine. It’s clear that Ford has put a lot of thought and engineering into this engine, and it shows in its performance. Whether you’re towing a heavy load or just cruising down the highway, this engine is more than capable of handling anything you throw at it.