mine is a 96' also. The guy I bought mine from was having to use ether to start it up. I bought it anyway. It got to the point where it wouldn't start up. I replaced the glow plugs thinking it was them. It still wouldn't start. I almost gave up on it then someone told me to check the HPOP res. It was bone dry. I filled it up and she's fired up ever since- no ether. I guess I got a new set of glow plugs out of it.

When it fires up see how much the smoke clears up after about 10 min. If it still has a lot of smoke in injector o-rings might be going- might be the rings though. Either my injector orings are going or my rings are, but I don't mind that much cause my truck runs strong. As far as turbo lag, I don't think the older 7.3s have this prob, but I'm not real sure about that- hopefully someone else will chime in. My turbo seems to be good all the way through the powerband and its stock.