Scott's 950-HP 7.3L Power Stroke

Scott’s 950-HP 7.3L Power Stroke

Never Judge a Book by its Cover…

Despite how versatile diesel trucks are, we rarely come across one that can do it all—and when we do, it’s never fitted with a 7.3L Power Stroke. This makes Scott Morris’s ’00 F-350 the rarest of breeds. Producing 100 psi of boost and knocking on the door of 1,000-hp, his dually can run low 11s, outpull the Cummins and Duramax competition, and tow anything he needs it to. On top of that, the truck is his daily driver. “This truck gets used,” he tells us. “A trailer queen is useless to me.”

DW-1709-FDWHITE-02 — Once Scott Morris pops the hood of his ’00 F-350, things get serious in a hurry. Not only are compound turbo’d 7.3Ls rare, but the pair of snails Morris uses are downright massive (S475 over S510). Buried beneath the sizeable compound turbo arrangement, you’ll find an engine built to the hilt, with a main bearing girdle, Crower billet-steel connecting rods, cut and coated factory Mahle pistons, and a custom-grind camshaft that was a collaborative effort between Competition Cams, Crutchfield Machine, and Morris himself. Matching the airflow provided by the one-off cam and the turbos is a set of extensively ported factory-based heads from Crutchfield Machine.

DW-1709-FDWHITE-03 — How do you make big power with HEUI? Big fuel and big oil. Morris’s engine accomplishes this with a set of 400/400 injectors from Swamp’s Diesel. The big sticks are capable of flowing 400cc of fuel through 400% over nozzles, and they’re supplied plenty of high-pressure oil courtesy of a Swamp’s Gen3 mounted above a factory 17-degree high-pressure oil pump.

DW-1709-FDWHITE-04 — In order to spec the perfect compound turbo arrangement, Morris consulted with Keating Shelly (Keating Machine), Robby Crutchfield (Crutchfield Machine), and David Armstrong (Swamp’s Diesel) to get things right the first time. As for the atmospheric charger, Morris settled on a massive S510 BorgWarner unit from Swamp’s Diesel fitted with a Bullseye Power billet 104mm compressor wheel. After this big guy lights, the turbos all but clear up the smoke from the big 400/400 injectors.

Bought brand-new at the local Ford dealership, Morris immediately put the truck to work towing a trailer. At the time, he was racing ATVs and competing on the national circuit, so finding a workhorse that could tow, get respectable mileage, and be ultra-reliable were at the top of his priority list. But he soon found out that toting a race trailer wasn’t the only work the truck would be doing. With just 365 miles on the odometer (and a flip chip from TTS Power Systems onboard), it was hooked to the sled for the first time—and Morris was instantly addicted to an entirely different form of motorsport.

All The Rights Parts

Fast-forward 17 years later and Morris is still hooking to the sled, but with more than three times the power. Long gone are the days of rolling the dice on a stock forged-rod bottom end, Morris’s 7.3L incorporates Crower billet-steel connecting rods, fly-cut and coated standard bore pistons, a balanced factory crankshaft with its main caps secured via girdle, and a one-off camshaft from Comp Cams. Up top, a set of factory-based cylinder heads, ported and cut for fire-rings by Crutchfield Machine, are fastened to the block courtesy of ARP head studs.

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Still HEUI

Gleaning 950+ hp out of the HEUI injection system is no small feat, so Morris called upon Swamp’s Diesel to help get him where he needed to be. A set of the company’s 400cc injectors equipped with 400% over nozzles sit under the valve covers, while the proven Gen3 pump supplies high-pressure oil volume. Not surprisingly, Swamp’s also writes the custom tuning files that Morris runs in the dirt and on the dragstrip, while select Gearhead Automotive Performance tunes are used on the street. A fuel supply system of his own design, complete with an Aeromotive Eliminator pump, keeps a steady 65 psi on tap for the thirsty injectors to use.

Big Air

Looking to take advantage of the one-of- a-kind cam and extensive head work, Morris pieced together a competition-ready compound turbocharger arrangement. An S510 BorgWarner charger with a compressor wheel inducer measuring 104mm serves as the low-pressure (atmosphere) turbo, while an S475 mounted in the lifter valley serves as the high-pressure unit. Throughout the course of building the compound setup, Morris sourced various flanges, fittings, and other parts from Keating Machine to make everything work, and also reinforced the factory aluminum intercooler to hold up to the insane boost he planned to send through it.

Fortified 4R100

Big, heavy trucks turning out huge torque numbers are usually a transmission’s worst nightmare, so to make sure the 4R100 held up to his right foot Morris turned to Brian’s Truck Shop. BTS responded by sending him an automatic laced with trackproven, battle-tested parts capable of absorbing everything the 7.3L dishes out. Upgraded (exotic material) input, intermediate, and output shafts reside in the 4R100’s case, along with a Precision Industries torque converter.

DW-1709-FDWHITE-05 — Thanks to a modified T4i turbo mount retained from his days of running a Hypermax Holset H2E kit, Morris runs a billet-wheeled S475 in the valley. The T4 flange BorgWarner charger utilizes a 96mm turbine wheel and is driven thanks to a set of headers from BAE and modified Hypermax up-pipes. At full tilt, the S475/S510 combo pegs the 100psi boost gauge in the cab. To keep the factory intercooler from exploding under triple-digit boost, Morris fabricated half-inch-thick aluminum end tanks and TIG welded them in place.

DW-1709-FDWHITE-07 — The big 400/400 injectors are supplied all kinds of fuel thanks a race-ready system Morris pieced together himself. Starting with ¾-inch line supplying an Aeromotive Eliminator fuel pump, 5/8-inch line sends fuel to the engine, and a four-corner-style feed gets diesel into the heads. An Aeromotive fuel pump speed limiter is also employed to lessen the Eliminator pump’s workload during low-demand situations.

Thanks to extensive head work, a properly spec’d cam, and massive turbochargers, Morris has been able to push well beyond the 700hp wall that 7.3L owners used to run into. And with his truck in the realm of 1,000-hp, he’s gone where only a select few have. Through perseverance, determination and staying power, he’s built one of the highest-horsepower 7.3L Power Strokes in the nation. But make no mistake, this isn’t some one-hit wonder built for a single purpose. In addition to tearing up the drag strip and finishing first in the dirt, Morris drives the truck every day—not to mention he tows with it on a regular basis. “I still tow my 12,000-pound camper with it,” he says. “I towed the camper to a pull in Virginia last year, won the pull both nights, then drove back home.”

DW-1709-FDWHITE-08 — Due to its ability to hold up to 15 custom tuning files, a Hydra Chip from Power Hungry Performance serves as Morris’s preferred method of tuning the 7.3L’s PCM. At the track, he runs race files from Swamp’s Diesel. On the way to work or when hooked to a trailer, he switches over to his street-friendly Gearhead Automotive Performance tunes.

DW-1709-FDWHITE-09 — To keep the 4R100 automatic alive, Morris relies on Brian’s Truck Shop (BTS). In order to cope with the 900+ hp Morris’s truck makes, the latest rendition of the four-speed is one that BTS typically reserves for its high-horsepower Cummins customers. It features proprietary input, intermediate, and output shafts, a Precision Industries triple-disc torque converter, and Morris keeps ATF temps in check via a transmission cooler off of a 5R110-equipped 6.0L Power Stroke. This is the same 4R100 currently being used in Chris Buhidar’s Pro Street Ford F-350, a truck that makes 1,500-rwhp thanks to a triple-turbo Cummins.

DW-1709-FDWHITE-10 — Morris learned a long time ago that a beefy set of traction bars would be necessary to limit driveline breakage at the truck pulls. Made from 2.25-inch x 0.250-inch wall DOM tubing, they’re the definition of overbuilt, and have been on the truck for more than a decade.

DW-1709-FDWHITE-11 — To hold up to the rigors of sled pulling and keep both rear tires digging, the rear Dana 80 is reinforced courtesy of 35-spline chromoly axle-shafts from Yukon Gear and Axle, along with a Detroit Truetrac. The Dana 60 up front sports a Spartan locker. Both axles utilize the factory 4.10 axle ratio.

DW-1709-FDWHITE-13 — If you happen to catch Morris on this way to the drag strip, you’ll find four M&H RaceMaster Cheater Slicks mounted to 16×12 Eagle Alloy wheels in the bed. For the past few years, traction has been hard to come by on All Terrains, hence his decision to give the cheater slicks a shot. Underneath the racing wheels and tires pictured here, you’ll find a B&W gooseneck ball in the bed.

DW-1709-FDWHITE-12 — On the street, Morris’s Super Duty is a true sheep in wolves’ clothing thanks to the factory Alcoa wheels. Notice the massive 5-inch downpipe behind the passenger-side tire, which provides an unrestricted escape for spent exhaust gases leaving the S510 charger.

DW-1709-FDWHITE-15 — While Morris’s Super Duty excels at the drag strip and drops jaws on the street, his original intentions were to make it competitive in the dirt. With local Hot Street and Open class truck pulls becoming more popular, he made it a mission to keep his 7.3L in contention with the strongest running Dodges and GMs in his area. It worked, as he often found himself ahead of the pack.

With the factory 16-inch wheels, running boards, rain guards, and a gooseneck ball in the bed, the truck’s ability to run 11s and yank the sled the farthest is the last thing on most people’s minds. In our view, this makes Scott Morris’s Super Duty the perfect embodiment of a sleeper.

[divider]SPECIFICATIONS[/divider]

OWNER: Scott Morris
HOMETOWN: Reidsville, NC
ODOMETER: 265,000 miles
ENGINE: 7.3L Power Stroke built by Morris Motorsports
SHORT BLOCK: Balanced factory crankshaft, Swamp’s Diesel main bearing girdle, billet-steel Crower connecting rods, Crutchfield Machine fly-cut standard bore cast-aluminum Mahle pistons with PolyDyn ceramic top coating and dry-film piston skirt coating, custom-grind camshaft from Competition Cams, billet flex plate
HEADS: Fire-ringed OEM units with extreme porting performed by Crutchfield Machine, Swamp’s Diesel Stage 2 beehive valve springs, Smith Brothers Stage 2 pushrods, ARP head studs
FUEL: Swamp’s Diesel 400/400 injectors, custom fuel supply system with 4-corner feed, Aeromotive Eliminator fuel pump, Aeromotive fuel pump speed controller
OIL: Swamp’s Diesel Gen3 high-pressure oil pump with 17-degree pump
AIR: Compound turbocharger system with S475 valley unit, S510 atmosphere charger, Hypermax-modified turbo mount, Beans Diesel Performance billet-aluminum intake plenums, modified/reinforced stock intercooler, velocity stack at the drag strip and sled pulls, K&N air filter on the street
EXHAUST: 5-inch downpipe into 5-inch system to 6-inch polished stack, BAE (Blown Away Enterprises) headers coated by Eco Diesel Dynamics, modified Hypermax up-pipes
TUNING/ELECTRONICS: Power Hungry Performance Hydra Chip with custom tunes from Swamp’s Diesel and Gearhead Automotive Performance
TRANSMISSION: BTS (Brian’s Truck Shop) 4R100 with upgraded input, intermediate, and output shafts, Precision Industries triple-disc torque converter, OEM 5R110 transmission cooler (from a 6.0L Super Duty)
HORSEPOWER: 950 rwhp (track)
TORQUE: 1,800 lb-ft (est.)
TIRES: 285/75R16 BFGoodrich All-Terrain (street, sled pull), 30×14.0x16 M&H RaceMaster Cheater Slicks (drag strip)
WHEELS: Factory 16-inch Alcoas (street, sled pull), 16×12 Eagle Alloy (drag strip)

AXLES/SUSPENSION: Dana 80 rear with 35-spline Yukon axle-shafts and Detroit locker, Spartan locker in front Dana 60, 4.10 gears, homemade traction bars.