Day: February 21, 2026

A few weeks back I joined a few Facebook groups on Ford SuperDuty trucks, one of them is the 7.3L Godzilla enthusiasts forum. Unfortunately most of the posts lately have been reasons that you really don’t want to buy the ginormous engine – lifter failures, bad transmissions, and people getting far more horrendous gas milage then even I estimated.

Truth is it’s one of the most produced commercial truck gas engines produced in America, and many people use them to pull heavy loads over mountains, idle all day, and otherwise work them hard. Far harder then I would, and it’s good to see the other side and no potential risks and downsides of the enormous trucks. Any mass produced vehicle, no matter how good quality control is, there will be some lemons. But I also take in context – I won’t likely ever run a lift kit on a HD truck and probably will be happy enough even with close to stock tires. With factory parts, and simple engine, it will be much easier to get repairs done unlike my old lifted truck.

And then there is the issue of cost and complexity of LED headlights and taillights with all of the sensors. I was reading the Ford taillights are upwards of $4,000 to replace the broken part. That said, the XL models – like the XL Off-Road still have the halogen bulb lights which are certainly much cheaper to replace. Maybe that’s the case for staying away from the appearance package and not having the fancier headlights and taillights. That said, solid state units are certainly quite reliable and in a few years it’s certain you’ll be able to find junkyard parts much cheaper. And maybe there are Chinese-knock off parts that would work, especially if STX I get doesn’t have the fancy cameras or sensors. And is the 6.8L and 10R100 that much worse then the 7.3L 10R140? I don’t really need the extra umph for towing, and the destroked Minizilla is said to be nearly as powerful or maybe even better then it’s up sized version and the 10R100 shifts smoother. I guess it depends what is avaliable and for what out the door price.

Truth is I am probably over-analyzing it, and whatever I get for a truck will serve me well over the next 15 years. Even limiting yourself to F-250/F-350 gassers, the options seem numerous. And  the big Fords are relatively simple engine designs with lots of space under the hood for repairs compared to a lot of cars these days. You can’t prevent all tragedies or loss, insuraning against every rare case quickly gets expensive and is not financially wise even if sometimes you do have to bite the bullet, cut a checkand deal with whatever life throws at you.