Ford: 88 7.3 diesel engine and body swap, f350 diesel, rusty acres

Question
Ragu,

I have an 88 F350 diesel with the 7.3 engine. (C6 transmission and 80? rear end) with 232k kilometres.  Have done much basic work, glow plugs, relays, injectors, etc. to improve engine performance.

I'm now looking at better fuel economy and perhaps power.  I'm considerring opening the exhaust and adding turbo.  Is there good/bad strong considerations to doing this over stock?

I've also been considerring swapping the C6  for a manual transmission.  Either cable or hydraulic shift being considered.  With the 80 rearend, is there much of any point to putting a 5 speed in?   or should I consider changing rearend aswell?  Or is the C6 so bulletproof, better to just stick with it?  Recent C6 fluid change and inspection gave it an excellent bill of health.  I would like to obtain better highway speeds and fuel economy, but at what price?

The other project I'm going ahead with is, to do a cab abd box swap to bring it up to '95.  Other than thing's like the transmission linkage guide, should I be aware of more '88 pieces that need to be retained or may make swap over difficult?

Many thanks
Rob

Answer
turbo would b the best way and a turbo brake .a c6 trans will hold up better then a manual trans but a 5 speed will give you by far better gas mileage. flip a coin cause they have there goods and bad.on the c6 there are o/d kits you might want to look into so you can have the best of both worlds you could find most of your parts on line or there is a place in jacksonville fla that is called rusty acres they only deal with fords give  them a called .