Day: March 15, 2026

The Ford Godzilla 7.3L engine is supposedly one of the simplest, most reliable big block engines produced today. It’s a solid workhorse, expected to last hundreds of thousands of miles, pull demanding commercial loads and provide reliable transportation.

But yeah, they had a run of bad lifters and maybe the variable oil pump on some trucks, especially those doing extensive all-day idling in a commerical setting have had failures, especially in the first years of engine production. And thanks to social media, I am fully aware of how devesating it can be to an engine, sometimes without a lot of miles on it if it blows up. Many get replaced by Ford, and others get replaced by their owners for $10,000 or so. And it sucks.

But all of life have risks. No engine is going to be perfect, but once you click on one post and study how somebody’s engine failed, then all your social media is full of posts about blown up Godzilla engines. And then you get to learn about all the other failures of gasser SuperDuties from the blown up transmissions to electrical gremlins to failed steering shafts and radios that don’t work. Indeed, if you are a member of any car owners group, they’ll be primarily people turning it trying to find help and solutions to their problems.

Then the other series of posts I’ve clicked on miles per gallon that people are getting in a real world. It’s an HD truck, I don’t expect it to sip gas, but probably have fuel economy similar to my lifted Silverado. And indeed, most of the reliable sources suggests that is about what I should expect, and maybe even slightly better on the highway with the stock tires. However, some people, espeically those who use their trucks in urban traffic or idle a lot, get much worse gas milage. But then again, my Silverado burned a lot of fuel city driving too. Yet, it seems like my social media is full of horror stories about those who are averaging not 15 1/2 miles per gallon, but regularly 8-9 MPG, although most seem to be towing or doing a lot of idling. I am not going to argue a large displacement pushrod engine without active fuel management or auto-idle shutdown is not going to be fuel hungry in the city, but some of the posts just scare me to no end.

And yet that has filled my mind full of fears. Am I buying a white elephant? Will it burn an Iran’s amount of fuel with gas prices at $5, maybe $6 or $7 or $10 a gallon? Are all big Ford trucks not SuperDuties but instead Super Bad unreliable junk? And then I look at all the problems Chevy, Dodge and Toyota have, and I can’t think Fords aren’t worse, but are even better. Still it puts Super Doubts in my mind about whether or not want a SuperDuty.