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Consensus on CPS?

4K views 12 replies 6 participants last post by  farnorthdriver 
#1 ·
Just read through most of the posts on the few different threads regarding CPS's, many from more than a few years ago.

Thought I'd start yet another thread on them to see what the current thinking is.

Has any consensus been reached on which one is the best?

I see Riffraff, Dieselsite, Swampsdiesel, Puredieselpower all list a part number of F4TZ-12K073-C and all show photos of a grey CPS ....except Riffraff which shows a black CPS.

Dieselorings has a:

F4TZ 12K073 C which is dark blue,
a F7TZ 12K073 B which is grey,
and a F7TZ-12K073-A which is black and "sold out"

Looking for the "right" one for my truck. We've got quite a mish-mash of colors, part numbers, etc here.
Anybody got the straight scoop on this?

 
#2 ·
I really have no opinion. Ive never had one fail. Recently I thought I did , but it turned out to be a bit of green and black in the plug, once cleaned they all worked fine. I have a dino, and actually ran all three to see if there was any difference. Heres what I found.

Black ( still available at some international dealers by the way)(I recently bought 3 black from the dealer near me, cleaned them out. lol) This CPS was my favorite. It made the most hp. That was the only reason.
Grey Made the same hp as the black, but idled rougher, and was noisier during acceleration. Noticeably.
Blue (Looks purple to me) This one made the least hp, but ran real real smooth and quiet. And I got better fuel economy. I run this one now, just because of how smooth it is, and economy. Acceleration is smooth and steady power curve.

If Im racing, which I do a lot with this bad boy, I use the grey. It makes the same hp as the black, but the curve is much raunchier, and it does a bit better on the 1/4 mile. Seems to light up quicker with this one. The dino curve is steeper, and levels out a bit sooner, explaining the 1/4 mile times.
Blacks are my spares, which I have never needed, touch wood.

Up here, ford seems to only sell the purple(blue), International has grey, or if your lucky the original black.
Not sure what others sell.

Not really solid data, as my motor is really built up, stock may show different. But those were my observations during dino runs.
 
#3 · (Edited)
F7TZ-12K073-A which is black and "sold out"
That's the original Ford # for the CPS that was recalled because the engine would die on you at random times (they are pretty scarce and no longer available thru normal channels). I went thru two of them, but still have them. I've tried a BW CPS (don't remember the PN) but my truck didn't like it at all. First off it would cause the engine to die when the wipers were on. That was solved by the chokes on the wiper wiring, but it would cause some bad "pinging" on hard acceleration which may have been because of the tune I'm running. It did give a clean cylinder contribution test as opposed to the current grey (-B) CPS that ford sells. The grey one will cause a #3 and #8 CCT error on my truck, but that's what I'm running now. My fuel economy dropped by 2 MPG measured over 2 fillups when I switched back to the grey CPS, but I'm living with that.

[on edit]Oh yeah, the dark blue one is for pre-97 trucks. The difference between that and the F7TZ-12K073-A was the plating used on the terminals. Supposedly not compatible with 97 and later trucks because of possible galvanic corrosion at the terminals. IIRC is was tin or gold plating. Probably no reason it wouldn't work if you take care of corrosion issues with judicious application of dielectric grease.
 
#4 ·
That is a possibility, cause I run the purple one, and its the smoothest running, and best mileage, least hp. Any you know I like the dieletric grease. lol
 
#5 ·
The power this little thing holds is crazy. It almost sounds like a crap shoot.
 
#6 ·
Thanks, that's a lot of info in just a few posts!
I'm running the grey version which I got after the service bulletin.
I'd like to try the "blue" version which sounds like it might be slightly smoother/quieter but may be less power and, from klhansen, will require dielectric grease due to possible metal miss match at the connector.
Just to confirm, this "blue" version is part # F7TZ-12K073-A?
 
#7 ·
Just to confirm, this "blue" version is part # F7TZ-12K073-A?
No, that one is the original '97 and later black CPS. You can tell the year by digit #2 in the PN - note that it's a 7.
The one you want is F4TZ-12K073-C which would have been introduced in '94 with the original 7.3L Powerstroke, as indicated by the 4 in position #2 in the PN. The -A, -B, etc indicates the sequence, so the '94-96 CPS would be in it's third iteration.
 
#8 ·
@Absolut,

You found three Black at a Ford dealer recently?

Was that around Christmas because that is a genuine Miracle.

BTW, I see SuperLube sells dielectric grease in 5-gallon pails.
 

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#9 ·
#10 ·
FYI, The F4TZ-12K073-C (Ford part number) is also called a "DU-87" (this is the Motorcraft part number).
 

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#12 ·
A 5 gallon bucket!!!!!!!!!!!! Damb, I could probably get through a whole week with that!
 
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