Thor Forums

[Chance]

Originally Posted by Luke D

Well when in doubt go backwards. The new V8 is a push rod engine. Yup back to the 60's. The fuel consumption of the V-10 finally doomed it. Ford Technically the design and block was already available. Remember the 7.3 Bravo, originally a Navistar family in Marine use. Then of course the 7.3 Diesel. Not opposed but find it hard to replace the V-10 Reliability. The RPM HP/Torque curve has been lowered to meet user demands. The real deal is the six speed transmission it's married to. Now remember a V-10 has a five speed. GM's and Dodges use of the Allison paved the way.
It will be interesting to see the real HP/Torque numbers of the V8 and hear MotorHome owners of the new combination speak.

Then again another issue for change as always is emissions. The V8 a cleaner burn.
In retro spec let's hope for the best and hope for the V-10 engine life.

There is nothing in common between old 7.3L diesel V8 and new 7.3L gas V8. They just happen to be of same displacement. That’s all. Ford may have used the 7.3L size in part for marketing association because the old 7.3L diesel (again totally different engine) had/has a great reputation.

Pushrod designs are not that old, and certainly not limited to the 60s. Chevy and RAM V8s remain of pushrod design, including that of new Corvette.

Overhead cam engines have the advantage of being able to rev to higher RPMs, but that seems pointless for truck engines designed to operate at lower RPMs. Another advantage is that if designed with dual overhead cams, it becomes easier to vary intake and exhaust valve timing independently of each other, but that wasn’t the case with the V10 anyway.

The V10 was derived from the 4.6L Modular V8, which has a very small 100 mm bore spacing. Ford stroked that engine to 5.4L V8, then added two more cylinders to make the 6.8L V10. Its a horrible design compromise I’m certain they did to keep development cost down.

The question I’d ask is this: If the V10 is so great, why didn’t Ford just add heads with a similar design as the 5.0L Coyote V8? They both share Modular design so it couldn’t have been that difficult. The point is that it would have been a bad idea on so many levels because the old V10 is a rough engine by design, doesn’t do well at high RPMs due to inherent lack of balance, and would have been physically much larger than the new 7.3L gas V8.

I’m glad Ford finally invested in a new truck-specific gas engine. Only time will tell if reliability is better than that of V10. For now we’ll have to settle for it being a much simpler engine and built for much tougher heavy-duty applications.