1990 ford 7.3L questions

I'm a young owner of a 1990 ford 350 7.3L super crew and dont know weather to put a turbo or a cold air intake on my truck? I also do lots of towing and have considered a jake brake, are they worth the money?  

Yes, yes, and yes. The "jake brake" should only be used when you need it, not just to make a bunch of noise.  

Ok thank you. What type of turbo and cold air intake would you recomend?  

yea the ol 7.3IDI motor could use all the air it can get...and a Jake would be F'in awsome. you just have to becareful with your boost pressure and tuneing your injection pump, that motor wasnt built for a turbo so you gotta watch it. its not that it cant handle a turbo but if you go crazy you'll blow it up, or get it too hot.  
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There's a lot of kits out there just for your truck. Like he said, don't get carried away trying to run 50lbs of boost with propane and NOS. I would start with a good cold air intake(your choice of brand) and see what a difference it makes.  

I bought the truck with stacks on it and it only has 2 3/4 inch pipe. Would bigger pipe help performance?  

probably not enough to justify the cost of the pipes. It might be louder, if that's what you're after.  

ok thanks. i have another question is it common for the fuel to flow away from the engine after it sits for a few days? if i start the truck everyday it is fine but if the truck sits longer than a couple days it is extremely tough to start. is it a fuel leak or a pump problem or something else?  

well well well i have a f-350 99 with a bigger turbo garett,bully swamper injectors,k&n cold air,edge juice with attitude programmer,4 inch straight piped turbo back which gives me way better horse power since i deleted the d.p.f so i know your need for power! but screw k&n there filter is too good you have to clean them way too often and i have seen one get sucked into its self from being dirty! but thats only if you have a turbo of course! i suggest bully dog intake.AND FOR YOUR BIGGEST PROBLEM!! It sounds like you have a few bad glow plugs...does it smoke when you first start it then is fine for the rest of the day when you go to restart it? i cant be sure on your year but my 99 has wires that go into each side of the valve covers in a row of like eight per side but the number does not matter. the two first wires in the row and the two last wires in the row are your glow plug wires!now a glow plug has positive power going to it because a glow plug is pretty much a short which causes heat!but for the test pull the harness out of the valve cover and take a cheap two doller test light not a multimeter. and clip the clip end to the positive of the battery I KNOW THIS SOUNDS WEIRD BUT THE GLOW PLUGS RECEIVE POSITIVE WHEN YOUR TRUCK WARMS UP THROUGH THE WIRES BUT THE THREADS GIVE THEM THE NEGITIVE BUT FOR THE TEST YOUR GOING TO DO THE REVERSE WHICH SHOULD CAUSE A COMPLETE CIRCUT! (leave the truck off during whole test)now take the probe end of the tester and probe each one of the two first wires and two last wires...if your probe lights up then its a good glow plug(dont probe the harness just the termenals on the valve cover where the harness pulled off of)your truck will still start up with several bad glow plugs but its a BI***BUT ON older fords maybe yours? the wires you probe are where spark plugs would be on gas trucks...with those its easy to see what wires are glow plugs because they dont have other non related wires with them that you dont want to probe...on the newer trucks those four wires in the middle of the row are fuel injector wires and thats why theres eight total per valve cover!if your glow plugs are fine then tell me and ill tell you how to check your relay and sending unit!  im sure its the glow plugs! dont buy parts from auto part stores for your engine look up your local international dealer and buy there cause parts are way cheaper!     -DJDIESEL  

i had that test done last summer and had all new glow plugs put in. could they have failed that fast? could the batteries be the problem? not enough cranking amps?  

dose it puff white smoke when you crank it or dose nothing come out of the pipe.  
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Yes they do go out that quick sometimes every six months in winter months but not all of them mine has four out of eight bad and it barely tuns over when its cold out,it will still start with out any of them working but it will seem to an untrained eye to seem like low batterys turning it over. Does it smoke though when you first turn it over for the day? when you have bad glow plugs the fuel doesnt burn completely in those cylinders until the engine heats up.The unburned fuel causes the smoke. well get them checked again but also go down to your local auto parts store and they will run a complete test of batteries and charging system with a computerized system and load test them cause even if they show up at a good voltage on a cheap tester it doesnt mean they will stand up to a load which means you could have a bad cell in your batteries. I hate not doing my own work but their tester is awesome it tests your alt. batt's and componants with out taking crap off!   let me know how both tests turn out!  

Yes when it finally starts it blows white/ gray smoke like crazy!  

yea that white smoke is unburnt fuel. dose it puff little clouds while its turning over. if theres no smoke while its cranking it may be a fuel delivery issue. if there is smoke while its cranking over then its probably your glow plugs or the somewhere in the electrical system.  
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it does puff the smoke a little at first then after it starts it will die or try to die everytime. after it dies it is extremely hard to get the truck to start. but it starts really easy the first time but 90% of the time it will die after it starts.