::P72Ford's 1997 Ford F-250HD XL::

[turbo2256b]

Big thing with performance is the exhaust system. If its still like mine it was 2.5 head pipes into duel inlet muffler wit hsame guts that are used in the smaller engines think even the 6 cylinder. Then single outlet 3". But inlet and outlet of the muffler actually reduce to 2" from the 2.5 and 3". You might also find looking up the tail pipe a couple perforated plates like a bath tub drain. I drilled mine out with a 3" hole saw. Guesstimate cat back exhaust upgrade is good for about 75 ft lbs of torq. Ford engineers also told me a 5.0 TB would improve power

[turbo2256b]

Wheels look the same as my 96 F350

[His Royal Ghostliness]

Mine has a cloth bench. It is 'like new' in every sense. I had the opportunity to upgrade to a 40-20-40 set up that was allegedly "mint". Ha. I guess I just have higher standards. Guy wanted $500, which I would be fine with if the seat was mint. Good seats bring $$$ for these trucks.

Looks are one thing, I was talking more about comfort tho. Case in point my XLT Lariat had a pretty nice seat in it, not mint but in decent shape still, but eventually I got to the point where my lower back would start hurting after only an hour drive. That was unacceptable on a cross-country trip, so eventually I ended up with a pair of Recaro buckets off some sporty-like GM thing, and a conversion (like Centurion) center console - yeah it's not factory looking, not even close to it in fact, but I can actually drive thru a whole tank of fuel without feeling the need to stop and stretch out a bit. But as long as YOU feel comfortable sitting in your factory seat it's all good.

Turbo, these trucks don't have the single 3" tail, this ain't no GM product (where ironically even V6 engines got a nice exhaust). What he's got is a pair of small-diameter tail pipes coming out the muffler, the diesel 3" tail is usually considered an upgrade over those but how much of an upgrade I don't really know - our project 460 is getting dual 2.5s right off the bat, mandrel bent and all that jazz.

[pantera77]

Those wheels look amazing.

I probably overpaid for mine ($350 with no caps), but there from down south and only have a little corrosion here and there on them. They cleaned up fairly nice, not sure if I even want to hunt down Ford center caps since they love to fall off anyways, kinda like how it looks without caps.

[turbo2256b]

jUST STATING WHAT WAS ON MY 86 dually. remember now they changed to a single inlet and dual out and used the same muffler for all engines I believe.
My dually now runs Headman super comps, 3" all the way into dyno max 3" and out the side 3". Tried quiet 2.5 mufflers and 2.5 turbo lost power with both those.
Even made my own trany cross member so I didnt have to go around it.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

Yeah I guess dual 3" at least in the middle ain't a bad idea especially if that big block is to sing nice and high. Honestly we haven't decided what we gonna do about routing, probably gonna be out back for ground clearance purposes and so the piping doesn't get in the way of the rear axle's lower links... Gotta watch the front too, seeing how the upper links will probably go right where the longtubes will wanna come out. Ah, the joys of custom fab.

Now back to the truck at hand - has P72Ford though of installing a shelf unit under the headliner? Other than opening up some more storage space (permium in reg cab), it is also a great location for aftermarket gauges - easy to see by the driver yet fairly out of sight for everyone else. I greatly despise the pillar pods in these trucks, they look ricerific as all heck even if they are useful. On the other hand one could line up the whole shelf unit with ultra-modern gauges and the truck will still look 100% stock to the untrained eye.

[turbo2256b]

On my 78 F150 4wd 400 used fender well exit headers and ran the exh outside the frame. Dont remember if fender wells are available for your year though. Part of the reason for fender well headers was to end up with 3 tanks 39 gallon rear and 2 20 gal saddle tanks for off road camping. Thought this would be better than having a tank in the bed taking up space and raising the roll center.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

The project truck is a 9th-gen like the one here in this thread, but if there are headers out there for a '80-'97 truck then we can use them. Which will indeed solve the suspension-related packaging issue, thanks for that idea.

As for triple tanks, I've considered it on my own truck, and I do plan on something like that eventually. But this particular truck has so much stuff added to it, that anything that takes other folks with stock trucks a few hours to do takes me a few days.

[P72Ford]

Those wheels look amazing.

I probably overpaid for mine ($350 with no caps), but there from down south and only have a little corrosion here and there on them. They cleaned up fairly nice, not sure if I even want to hunt down Ford center caps since they love to fall off anyways, kinda like how it looks without caps.

I have a set of used factory caps. They aren't great (rears have kind of scratched up faces), so I'm not sure you'd be interested. If you are, shoot me an offer and I will send some pictures. I have rep-ops on mine now still, but I have a set of new Ford ones in the boxes (don't ask what these cost). I just haven't put them on yet as I'm afraid they are going to fall off!

It will be street legal this week, and I am also shopping exhaust options. Probably going to go with the Banks Stinger system. At a later date, or when the cat starts giving me grief, I will install a high flow deal and figure out how to attach my AIR tubing. I'd like to keep the truck as stock as possible, and not have to fabricate a bunch of stuff. Bolt on FTW; if it was emissions exempt I would remove the cat and air system completely, but that's just not an option now. I want to do the Banks headers too, but probably not until I have an issue.

I did some research on carpet options (have samples coming), as well as sourcing correct length Bilstein 5100s last week. Both of those are a way off yet, though.

[turbo2256b]

Put Steel Horse seats in my dually they suck. Everyone including myself jump in the truck and WOW they feel great. About a half hour to an hour later they totally suck extremely uncomfortable. Rubber hoses to the lumbar support disintegrated in about a year or less.

As for shocks all my trucks have used adjustable Rancho's. Really blew my mind on the 96 F350 the factory shocks were shot in less than 25K

[Bobcat]

That last item is an interesting discussion point. A lot of the young guys that hot rod their Powerstrokes like aftermarket headlights that look better suited for space craft. Being me, I do not. However, my truck has the amber bumper lights (under the headlight and corner light), as do all '92-'97 Ford F series/ Bronco. I do not like amber lenses; not on my box panthers, and not on my trucks. I swapped them on my Ram, and it made a huge difference. The issue I was finding was that the aftermarket rarely makes clear bumper lights that are diffused like the factory lens. The only ones I was finding were the aforementioned space craft versions, which look hideously mismatched with stock headlights and corner lights (even worse than just swapping on all the spacecraft lights). There are some guys on FTE (Ford Truck Enthusiasts) that have the diffused lenses, though. The issue is they are uncommon on eBay, and the production lots are small and infrequent. I found them the other day, and bought them (they also came with corner lights and headlights. My headlights, etc are mint, but I wasn't going to miss the opportunity. Not sure if I will even use them, but its nice to have the option.

As soon as spring hits, I'm going to steam clean under the truck and kick this project off. For now I'm stacking parts, and doing garage projects .

This is the thing I don't like to change on these trucks and most cars as a matter of fact. I just really hate all of the aftermarket options for headlights and every single style comes off 'Ricey' or too 'rican for me. I don't know what it is, I don't really like the amber all that much either, but I do know that I really don't like the clear. I suppose that's just my opinion though, didn't occur to me that there was a difference in the clear lenses, but I suppose I never cared to research it.

I do like that you like to use OEM parts or very high quality aftermarket parts, if I had the funds; I'd do the exact same, all the time.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

Regarding the headlights, at least you OBS folks have some options. Us brick-layers we get squat, the only real upgrade available is the Aussie sealed-beam assemblies and only cause then you can ditch the actual sealed beam and drop in whatever high-quality LED you like (tho there really are only 3 to choose from). But them things were rere even Down Under, and finding one is nigh impossible these days. So those of us who care to able to see where we're going have to resort to hacking factory stuff out and fabbing and making parts from other vehicles work. I've seen quad 4x6 squares, quad roundies (in both 5" and 7" versions), twin 7" roundies, twin 5x7 squares, and comes summertime I guess I'm supposed to be putting together a quad 5x7 square setup. But it's all one-off custom-fab jobs, there are exactly zero bolt-on kits out there. The spacecraft-style OBS stuff may not be the most appealing to the eye, but if it works good (some do, many do not) and is put together well (again some are, many are not) I could live with it being less than ideal in the looks department. But his here truck, in this thread, I think the owner did the right call sticking to OEM assemblies. After all whatever they lack in performance can be easily made up for by a pair of nice aftermarket (like Hella, not the cheap junk) lights hidden behinnd the bumper via the diesel-style cutouts. That is actually a fairly popular mod it seems, as it looks (and sometimes is) factory but you can still sneak in up to four high-performance light assemblies in whatever beam patter you desire.

[turbo2256b]

One mistake I made on my 350 removed the cat and installed the Canadian's diesel version straight pipe. All the years designing turbos didnt think with the waist gate it would affect the turbo but it was designed to have the back pressure caused by the cat to keep the turbo from over speeding.

[P72Ford]

Took this out for the first time last night while I was messing around in the garage.

Believe it or not, I was fishing on Craigslist, and I found a buyer for this about a month ago at $15K.

After driving it last night, I am glad I backed out. D60 and F-350 rear blocks coming in the fall. My fiancé wants to use this in our engagement photos; I told her that's fine, but I am starting to think it would look a lot better if its sitting "right". This may push up my timeline on this.

Photobombed by my fair and beautiful daily driver.

[DerekTheGreat]

That really is a nice F'in truck. I like the clear lenses and the paint looks beautiful.