The 500hp Power Stroke Part 2

One of the burdens of chasing big horsepower with ’94½-to-’97 F-series trucks comes down to clearance issues when adding bigger engine components. From the firewall forward, there is a serious lack of real estate under the hood. Up until now, we were able to get around much of the tight fitment issues associated with our old-body-style Ford by choosing performance parts that were strictly bolt on. For example, our ATS intercooler allowed us to cool the engine’s intake charge without cutting into our radiator core support to make the system work. When the time came for more air, we went with a 66mm TP38—essentially a modified factory turbo that bolted up just like the stock unit did. And most recently, we swapped our original pushrods and valvesprings for stronger, bolt-on replacements (“Part 1: 7.3L Valvespring and Pushrod Upgrade,” May ’12).   |   500hp Power Stroke Part 2 working Underneath Ford F 350 Moving Metal
With plans to run a massive, Spearco intercooler and an S300 or S400-frame turbocharger with a taller mounting system, we first had to take a look at the stance of our ’97 F-350. Knowing our 16-year-old body mounts were pretty much shot, we decided to replace them. Since it would be a time-consuming job to perform by ourselves, we enlisted the help of the Blue Oval experts at Flynn’s Shop in Alexander, Illinois. And because we never want to replace them again, we contacted Summit Racing for a set of Energy Suspension’s rigid, polyurethane mounts (vs. the factory rubber ones). In just one day’s time, the truck’s cab-to-body misalignment issue was resolved, the cab sat at its factory ride height, and we moved on to prepping our fuel system for 500hp duty. Stay tuned for Part 3, in which we’ll be installing the new intercooler and turbo system.

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