From Canada, With Displacement: Ford's Largest Gas V8 Arrives As a Crate Engine

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

North of the border, Wednesday dawned on a country celebrating a significantly less festive, no-touch national holiday. No fireworks and crowds on this COVID-y Canada Day, just locals lighting them off from the roofs of walk-ups in your author’s humble neighborhood. The “crowd” outside the Burger King hasn’t grown or shrunk in size (and remains just as clandestine as before).

This year, however, Americans have good reason to join in the celebration.

This week, Ford announced that the 7.3-liter V8 found in its new-for-2020 Super Duty line will be offered as a standalone product. The brand’s newest crate engine is a throwback that generated many smiles upon its release — boasting iron construction, pushrods, and nary a turbocharger in sight, the engine dubbed “Godzilla” generates 430 horsepower and 475 lb-ft of torque. Output doesn’t change in crate engine guise.

Built at Ford’s Windsor Assembly Plant in Ontario, the 7.3L is a breath of fresh air in an industry where downsizing and forced induction is quickly becoming the norm, and even making major inroads in the full-size pickup space. Certainly at Ford, anyway.

Buyers of the crate engine now offered by Ford Performance will be on the hook for $8,150, with the beefy bundle including a fully assembled engine, ignition coils and wires, oil pan, oil cooler, intake and throttle body, and exhaust manifolds. Apparently, the mill can be tuned up to 600 hp without too much effort.

What you do with it will depend on the size, shape, and surroundings of the engine bays at your disposal, as well as your imagination.

[Images: Ford]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

More by Steph Willems

Comments
Join the conversation
3 of 29 comments
  • SaulTigh SaulTigh on Jul 01, 2020

    This is going right into my '95 Sable.

    • Art Vandelay Art Vandelay on Jul 02, 2020

      I would pay good money to see that combo run at the strip. I'll pay Bruse Springsteen concert type money to see it if you can get the hood to close. Seriously, I love Frankensteins like that.

  • JaySeis JaySeis on Jul 01, 2020

    I need it to replace the replacement 390 in my ‘58 F8 5-yard that replaced some I6 half a century ago.

  • Probert They already have hybrids, but these won't ever be them as they are built on the modular E-GMP skateboard.
  • Justin You guys still looking for that sportbak? I just saw one on the Facebook marketplace in Arizona
  • 28-Cars-Later I cannot remember what happens now, but there are whiteblocks in this period which develop a "tick" like sound which indicates they are toast (maybe head gasket?). Ten or so years ago I looked at an '03 or '04 S60 (I forget why) and I brought my Volvo indy along to tell me if it was worth my time - it ticked and that's when I learned this. This XC90 is probably worth about $300 as it sits, not kidding, and it will cost you conservatively $2500 for an engine swap (all the ones I see on car-part.com have north of 130K miles starting at $1,100 and that's not including freight to a shop, shop labor, other internals to do such as timing belt while engine out etc).
  • 28-Cars-Later Ford reported it lost $132,000 for each of its 10,000 electric vehicles sold in the first quarter of 2024, according to CNN. The sales were down 20 percent from the first quarter of 2023 and would “drag down earnings for the company overall.”The losses include “hundreds of millions being spent on research and development of the next generation of EVs for Ford. Those investments are years away from paying off.” [if they ever are recouped] Ford is the only major carmaker breaking out EV numbers by themselves. But other marques likely suffer similar losses. https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fords-120000-loss-vehicle-shows-california-ev-goals-are-impossible Given these facts, how did Tesla ever produce anything in volume let alone profit?
  • AZFelix Let's forego all of this dilly-dallying with autonomous cars and cut right to the chase and the only real solution.
Next