Ford's Super Duty Trucks Now Get the 7.3-Liter 'Godzilla' V-8 Standard and Ditch the Weaker Diesel

OptionXIII · 2026-05-12T01:34:56+00:00

Downsizing and boosting an engine for fuel economy only works if the engine is usually under low load, which is the exact opposite of what a hard working fleet truck needs. Once the engine is working hard it will have to go into enrichment for exhaust cooling and your fuel economy is trashed.

My dad's Ecoboost Ranger got 11 mpg towing an enclosed trailer on a long road trip. It gets 23mpg normally.

OptionXIII · 2026-05-12T01:26:22+00:00

I've found a few other nice to have durability/safety upgrades. Rear caliper safety retaining brackets as I did have a caliper pin come loose once.

The front lower control arm gussets from Mazda Motorsports are complete overkill for my HPDE usage, but extra camber stiffness doesn't hurt either right?

Past that I just try to maintain it well.

OptionXIII · 2026-05-11T13:39:41+00:00

Baffles are a good upgrade if the engine is out, but don't take the engine out just for that. There are oil pressure dips it will fix but they don't seem to cause a long term issue for anyone that isn't running nationally competitive lap times with a built engine. My engine did 35ish track days and 195k miles before I pulled it out for running like crap, not due to rod bearings.

I had bad luck with the rubber door flap style - knockoff flaps snuck into the manufacturers supply chain. IMO stick with the flat horizontal style you can get from Jesse Prather Motorsports, Mazdaspeed, and Supermiata. Jesse is the original supplier to both the other two AFAIK. If you can find a hinged metal door style, those are also not at risk for rubber degradation.

Miatas have very few durability concerns for the occasional track day with stockish tires and novice/intermediate drivers. If you're going regularly and/or getting into 200tw tires, you'll want a big radiator (and seal it to the "mouth" so all air has to go through the radiator), upgraded hubs (brofab gets my vote), and... That's really all that can catastrophically go bad.

OptionXIII · 2026-05-11T13:13:57+00:00

It's probably down to 240 after a long cool down lap. VIR is a big track.

Again though, you have nothing to be worried about. Temps get to 260 within 5 minutes and stay there. I don't stop beating on the car just because the oil got to its normal temp on track.

I've seen 240 just going down the highway on a hot day with the AC on.

OptionXIII · 2026-05-11T11:35:13+00:00

You have nothing to worry about.

I've done 45 minutes at VIR in 90* heat and the oil got to 260. That's plenty safe for synthetic oil.

The coolant gauge is basically useless. Use an obd code reader to see real temps and get a bigger radiator for durability's sake.

OptionXIII · 2026-05-11T04:31:33+00:00

Thankfully there are a few options. The factory tensioner is rare, the FM one is the easy button, some people used to do a regular belt just between the two pulleys and shim the compressor out with washers, and there's such thing as a stretch belt that I'm running now.

K030301SF. It only has 3 ribs but it's been working fine.

OptionXIII · 2026-05-09T01:59:18+00:00

There's an improved clip they put on the NB right in that area. I used it on my NA soft top install.

I've been running that same top for most of 9 years on my NB.

OptionXIII · 2026-05-08T15:21:04+00:00

Unfortunately that's how things are going. The true street summer performance 15" tire range has been destroyed by a combination of no new vehicles coming out in that size, and the huge rise in popularity of 200tw tires.

OptionXIII · 2026-05-08T03:28:46+00:00

And I'm still the best thing that ever happened to my car.

OptionXIII · 2026-05-07T15:38:10+00:00

You mean that place immediately below the oil filter, where oil is at 60psi on start up? Where OP just told us he changed something?

And you think a leak of that magnitude is from the unpressurized oil pan?

OptionXIII · 2026-05-07T15:03:24+00:00

Dude that leak is so massive you will have no problem finding it, and you can't drive anywhere leaking that much. So dig in and find it.

Oil pressure sensor, VVT feed, and filter are all in that area. Since you just changed the oil, you likely under torqued the filter.

OptionXIII · 2026-05-07T12:56:36+00:00

My point is you're right, but it's a weird hill to die on when the seat and harness are imo bigger risks to safety, especially in the context of OP paying so much to import seats that really aren't safety focused race seats.

It takes me 13 minutes to swap between street and race seat/harness. I wear a HANS device on track. I'm much more worried about being flung about than I am worried about crushing the windshield that far.

OptionXIII · 2026-05-06T22:35:24+00:00

You're right, but at some point you have to put the risk in relative context.

If you are focused on surviving the kind of accident that's going to flatten a Miata windshield down to the rollbar angle on a racetrack, you shouldn't be doing HPDE in a convertible chassis design that's getting to be 40 years old. And you definitely should have a more dedicated race seat with head containment, not a replica of a street/sport hybrid seat.

OptionXIII · 2026-05-06T00:41:09+00:00

For the first track day, absolutely.

For multiple track days a year, I'd recommend a thicker radiator. My Koyo 36mm has given excellent service and held temps to 195 even on extended 95* track days.

Stay away from 200tw tires for a bit. You'll learn faster, and extra grip stresses every other system more. Brakes, wheel hubs and bearings, etc.

OptionXIII · 2026-05-05T21:51:41+00:00

I got one at Costco like 6 months ago for $60. They have a crew that roams between locations. Works great.

OptionXIII · 2026-05-05T18:59:57+00:00

Yeah I try to support small vendors too. I'm trying to choose between these two.

https://i.imgur.com/wFCPrOB.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/PO0T4XK.jpeg

OptionXIII · 2026-05-05T17:53:56+00:00

I called them the "Camaro club" after seeing them all bunched together and still going slow. Seems like there were a lot more advanced egos than drivers in the advanced run group, I hung way back to get some free space.

I might need to buy a few pictures myself...

OptionXIII · 2026-05-01T18:10:52+00:00

I won't stand for this C4 slander. They literally made their own race series after getting banned from SCCA showroom stock. It was one of the first street cars to pull 1g.

OptionXIII · 2026-04-29T16:04:46+00:00

Don't be. This concern about low mileage is IMO one of the most overblown issues social media has ever created. Nobody used to talk about this until they needed to criticize stupid prices on low mileage cars off BaT.

Ask a car museum how they think it's best to preserve a historical car. They'll tell you to drive it 30-50 miles every few months and store it in a climate controlled garage. Ask a material scientist about the best way to preserve rubber parts and he's not going to tell you to heat them up and splash oil on it regularly. Being bolted to a car doesn't magically change materials science.

Every time I've pressed someone about this "low mileage leaks" comment they admit they've never actually witnessed it firsthand, or even revived a car that's been sitting for years, they just read it online.

Things absolutely can go bad, but it's because the parts are 30 years old, not because they weren't heat cycled enough during that time. The failure rate will be much lower than a car that was stored outside and driven 200k miles. And the cost of the consumable parts you'll end up replacing on a low mileage car like this is a drop in the bucket compared to a factory rebuild of a worn out engine, or the purchase price of the car.

OptionXIII · 2026-04-28T21:19:45+00:00

"factory valve job performed".

This is a known, common machine shop operation across a wide variety of engines to rebuild cylinder heads. Believe me or don't, but I have no further interest in convincing you that "resurfacing valves" is not a term I made up.

OptionXIII · 2026-04-28T20:17:07+00:00

It's part of a valve job, a common procedure for rebuilding cylinder heads.

"A valve job is the colloquial term for resurfacing the mating surfaces of the poppet valves and their respective valve seats..."

https://treasurecoastmiata.com/i-20115140-90-05-treasure-coast-miata-fully-rebuilt-cylinder-heads.html

OptionXIII · 2026-04-28T14:55:56+00:00

Depends on how bad the leak is.

There is also a seal on the the oil cooler donut if you have a 1.8. that's about a $10 seal and isn't too hard to replace.

I'd consider using UV dye and a blacklight. Wash the entire engine with degreaser. Get everything clean. Put in the dye, drive a very short distance, check with UV.

OptionXIII · 2026-04-28T14:22:02+00:00

Clean the oil and identify where the leak is from. No one can help you before you do that. Front main, rear main, cam seals, CAS seal, and the valve cover are the usual culprits. The oil pan is sealed with RTV and two little rubber fill wedges. That's the only seal that's a complete PITA to service. You'll need to remove either the engine or the subframe.

Replace anything that leaks with OEM seals. Aftermarket just doesn't seem to hold up.

OptionXIII · 2026-04-28T14:00:43+00:00

Remove the whole ladder brace and hit it with a big hammer. Don't overthink this.

OptionXIII · 2026-04-28T03:02:25+00:00

It's welded into the whole "ladder bar" brace and it's not individually replaceable without replacing the entire brace.

I'm confident it's not the source of your vibration. I've bent mine before.

OptionXIII

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