My 7.3 is Cooked - Lifters

[LetEmRun]

MY22, 7.3 motor failed at 30K miles. Loud kocking/slapping noise during acceleration. Was told lifters were toast. Full long block replaced under warranty and Ford provided a free of charge 7yr/100K powertain ESP. Truck is now at 55K miles with no issues. Will likely run it until 2029 or 100K miles and decide what to do next. Love the truck - just don't feel to comfortable with the motor and transmission being super reliable.

 

[soulezoo]

Man, GM and Ford seem to be having lifter issues. Is there no other way to meet fuel economy?

You forgot RAM. Ever heard of "hemi tick"?
Same lifter issues.

 

[HBTFD]

Ford is made 100,000 + 7.3s every year since 2020. If 3% failed per year just for lifters the internet traffic would be exponentially higher than the. Current level.

 

[Optimus🤖]

Mine, MY22, failed in July with no warning, cost was in that ballpark. Started to tick while on a camping road trip, dealer said it needed to be replaced within a couple hours. Like Modman said, the TSB says to pull the oil filter, cut it open and look for metal. Mine was a very nice glittery mess.

They do need to pull the cab to replace it. Luckily for mine, they only missed reconnecting one harness but did have to pull my airtank and some of the lines. Havent reinstalled that yet.

Did recently see this though and seeing how this plays out and if I cna try to recoup some of the cost.

https://fordauthority.com/2026/10/ford-7-3l-v8-engine-issue-prompts-nhtsa-to-open-investigation/

Debating trading mine in or riding the 3 year warranty. Love my 22 and dont love the price of the new ones. Honestly also looking at switching back away from Ford all together. Nothing is calling to me though so leaning toward riding this out.

Sorry to hear about this, brother. I hope you and your family are doing well!

 

[John889]

Man, GM and Ford seem to be having lifter issues. Is there no other way to meet fuel economy?

Well Chevy OHV engines in the 1500/SUV's have the cylinder deactivation that go as low to 2 cylinders. I know the 6.4L in the GC Jeeps had deactivation as well that would take it from a 8 to a 4 cylinder operation.
The 6.2L does not(Hellcat) but my dads had a lifter go bad right before 100k on that truck.
I had a 6.4L GC Jeep that had 3 lifters go out at 72k.

Feels like these days any OHV engine just has that chance of a lifter failure, cylinder deactivation or not.

 

[MiTremor906]

Sorry to hear about this, brother. I hope you and your family are doing well!

We are doing great, just extremely busy with life. But wouldnt have it any other way.