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" American truck manufacturers have long waged a heated battle for diesel horsepower and torque supremacy. Recently, the war has become more intense. Back in February, Ford announced that the new 6.7-liter Power Stroke would produce 390 hp and 735 lb-ft of torque\u2014trumping diesel outputs from both Dodge and GM. That a pickup truck would have a motor that so handily cleared the 700 lb-ft of torque barrier was certainly impressive. But just one month later, GM shot back with the stats on its latest 6.6-liter Duramax diesel: 397 hp and 765 lb-ft of torque, beating Ford by 7 hp and 30 lb-ft of torque. And in our recent test of heavy-duty pickups, the GMC Sierra 2500 we tested was quicker than the Ford Super Duty in nearly every speed contest. We might need to run numbers on these trucks again. Because today, Ford announced it would be raising the bar again over GM by 3 hp and 35 lb-ft of torque, with 400 hp and 800 lb-ft of torque. The bump in power and torque comes not from an all-new motor but from a software adjustment, a reflash of fuel mapping in the engine&amp;#039;s powertrain control module in the current 6.7-liter Power Stroke. And it&amp;#039;s a bump that all current owners of 2011 Super Duty diesels can enjoy, since it takes only 30 minutes down at your local Ford dealer\u2014free of charge. And Ford says the upgrade improves fuel economy by 2 percent too. So why didn&amp;#039;t Ford introduce this power and torque level earlier in the year? According to Super Duty Chief Engineer Chris Brewer, the team needed to make sure it had optimized how that torque was delivered to the ground through the transmission and traction control calibrations. &amp;quot;We sold off on where the horsepower and torque numbers would be for Job One earlier this year,&amp;quot; Brewer says. &amp;quot;But in the background, because the engine is more capable, we were working towards higher numbers. The good news is we were able to do it now because we&amp;#039;ve got the appropriate balance and driving experience in this powertrain.&amp;quot; More power from the motor usually means an increase in capability, and that&amp;#039;s true here too. Brewer and his team engineered a new crossmember in the chassis (just below the bed) from even higher strength steel. That, combined with the revised Power Stroke, means an F-350 dually can handle 7070 pounds in its bed and tow 22,600 pounds with a fifth-wheel hitch.  So where is the limit when it comes to diesel power? At this rate, we could see a production diesel pickup hit 1000 lb-ft of torque before the middle of the decade. Let&amp;#039;s hope so anyway. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/trucks/reviews/a5989/2011-ford-super-duty-now-tops-gmc-sierra-2500/>