I figure this is as good of a place as any to drop a quick note! I'm Nate; on my second IDI now with a 1983 F250 with the 6.9 in it. I had an older 7.3 for a hot minute but sold the truck well before I moved to Georgia from Colorado many many many moons ago! I just picked up this old girl, she's got some issues (mainly rust and non working gauges at the moment) but sits pretty on 37x12.50 shoes with the manual transmission!

Been checking this forum out for ages, lots of good info and I'm looking forward to posting the knowledge I have of this block as I tear into mine and clean it up! And yes, those ugly home made stacks are gonna go buhbye!!
Nate

 

Welcome to FTE Nate! Got nervous when I saw the stacks. Happy to hear you're gonna clean it up. Really nice looking truck!

 

They're ugly as sin! Angle iron welded with a bunch of sloppy welds and so forth!! I don't mind stacks at all, but not when they look like this! Have a lot to replace on it at the moment but need to start with the easier stuff before I get all into it! Have to do floor pans on both sides, hood, and part of the bed that's rusted out.

Gauges dont work AT ALL - It has no speedometer, gauge cluster shows 156K so who knows what it actually has...

Missing the front gas tank

There is a rats nest of wires under the dash that looks like a 2 year old playing with spaghetti noodles

The A/C system is totally disconnected and I will likely remove it since if I want an "Air Conditioned Ride" I'll take my
Goldwing (1987 with 75K original miles)

and a few other little things...Nothing serious as it runs and drives! Just needs a little TLC, and a new hood ha!
Nate