There is no replacement for displacement. How many times have you heard this line? As old-fashioned as it sounds, there is no way around the truth in that statement. When gearheads feel they’ve pushed the factory rotating assembly to its horsepower limit, they often begin searching for more cubic inches. In diesel motorsports, in which engines are inherently heavy to begin with, swapping in a bigger powerplant is often out of the question for competition vehicles. So improving upon the existing platform becomes key.
| Utilizing a 0.020-inch overbore brings the 6.4L Power Stroke’s bore to 3.886 inches (vs. 3.866 inches stock). Combine that with 4.75 inches of stroke, and you get the modern era’s 7.3L: a common-rail V-8 displacing 450 cubic inches. With the largest air and fuel modifications attempted so far, Elite Diesel Engineering is definitely on the cutting edge of 6.4L performance. You may even be looking at the first 1,000hp, fuel-only Power Stroke ever built.
Between the popular 7.1L Duramax stroker kits and one-off Cummins stroker engines scattered throughout diesel motorsports, Chevy and Dodge fans have been able to add cubic inches to their high-end engines for years. Due to cubic-inch limits, injection system shortcomings, and limited horsepower, Ford fans had little room for growth in the past. But today’s common-rail 6.4L Power Stroke is changing all that.
While Blue Oval loyalists are somewhat new to the common-rail game, they’re discovering new ways to make more power with the 6.4L every day. In fact, with the stock bottom end allowing trucks to make 800 rwhp on fuel and more than 1,000 rwhp on nitrous, it was only a matter of time before someone built an all-out race engine for all the folks who bleed Ford Blue. That someone is Tadd Layton of Elite Diesel Engineering. Follow along as we detail his buildup of the modern day 7.3L—a stroked 6.4L Power Stroke.
| The finishing touch is a trick tunnel ram intake manifold from ZZ Custom Fabrication up top. This particular stroker engine is destined for a low 10-second drag truck—and it should provide the bump needed to get the truck well into the 9-second range in the quarter-mile.
6.4L: Stock vs. Elite Stroker
Stock:
Elite Stroker:
Bore (inches):
3.866
3.886
Stroke (inches):
4.13
4.75
Displacement:
390 ci
450 ci
Compression Ratio:
17.5:1
16.5:1
Price: Starting at $23,000 (complete)
*Competition only: Not a 100,000-mile engine
6.0L Stroker
You could also say Elite Diesel is bringing the 6.9L back. With its deep involvement in the 6.0L Power Stroke aftermarket, plans were made to also invest in a 6.0L stroker motor. Utilizing the same stroke length and a 0.020-inch larger bore diameter, the stroked 6.0L will displace 422 cubic inches.
Much of the 6.4L stroker packages’ rotating assembly components will be shared, and 6.9Ls will also feature fully ported cylinder heads equipped with oversized valves, stronger valvesprings, chromoly push tubes, its billet camshaft, and lifters. Customers running conventional injectors larger than 240 cc and hybrids larger than 300 cc will have to run Elite’s twin high-pressure oil pumps for the best injection system performance.
By the time you read this, a few sled pullers will already be running 6.9L strokers in 2.6 Classes. And while engines will be air-limited to a single 66mm turbo, the very nature of the stroker engine should help add more low-end torque to the rev-happy 6.0L. We’d like to see a 6.9L in an unlimited turbo, drag racing class—and one will eventually power Elite’s standard-cab Pro Street truck.
Stock:
Elite Stroker:
Bore (inches):
3.74
3.76
Stroke (inches):
4.13
4.75
Displacement:
365 ci
422 ci
Compression Ratio:
18.0:1
18.0:1
*Competition only: Not a 100,000-mile engine
