Thank you for the information ps2fixer! And thanks very much for the invite Bill! I'll let you know when I'm around!
This week I removed the exhaust manifolds from the old 7.3 to install gaskets and some upgraded up pipes. The 7.3 didn't have exhaust manifold gaskets from the factory, it was just metal on metal. I had a couple ports starting to weep a little, and the factory up pipes are a joke. They're supposed to seal with donut gaskets, which absolutely does not work. The 6.0 had the same setup. The cure is to order a set of "bellowed" up pipes which replace the leaky donuts with flat flanges and gaskets. Ford should have built it that way in the first place, even if International didn't. I don't have an engineering degree, but it was obvious to me the factory setup would always be susceptible to the issues created by thermal expansion and the contraction of cooling.
If you've ever worked on exhaust manifolds, you know it's a difficult job. Mine were not in bad enough shape to be really difficult, just mildly difficult. While everything was apart I painted the manifolds, turbine housing, and Banks turbo outlet with Eastwood exhaust paint, and I also wrapped the new up pipes with exhaust wrap.
One thing that made this job much easier was the 3" of body lift my truck has. I couldn't imagine doing this job without the body lift.
This truck is an early 99, so the very first rendition of the Super Duty. I still remember when they first came out. It has some idiosyncrasies which make it an odd ball, it was only produced like this for six months. 99.5-2003 Super Duties have quite a few differences from my truck. That makes parts more expensive and some parts unavailable. It's 20 years old now and will tick it's mechanical (not digital) odometer over 300,000 miles in less than 500 miles from now. I see so many Super Duties every day, and the older mine gets the cooler it is, haha. It's been here since the beginning of an era.
Today I drove it after two and a half days worth of work addressing the manifolds and upgrades, and it sounds fantastic now and makes far better power than it used to, bottom to top. It seems like at least every few years I end up with a set of manifolds to work on. At this point they're like mile markers on the road of life to me. They're tough but it's very satisfying when they're done.
Thanks for reading. :-)