Thinking about buying a 93 F350

[av8or1]

Hi y'all-

I am new to the forum and new to diesels, though I have been reading a good deal of information on the Internet for a couple of months now, on and off, in an attempt to kinda know what I am getting into before taking the leap. With that, I decided that I wanted a F350 PSD, crew cab, 4x4, turbo, preferably with a towing package installed. I won't be towing professionally, just to take one of my cars to a car show, towing the next project home from the junkyard/wherever, or something along those lines. Arguably a dually is overkill and I realize that, but owning one is a bit of a life-goal if you will, so I decided to keep with that thinking.

Well I came across a 93 F350 4x4 Dually, 7.3L diesel, crew cab, turbo and a decent towing setup. They're selling/offering it for relatively cheap and they admit up front that the injectors need replacing and that they have new ones already that will go with the truck. Also that the tie rods need replacing and there was vague mention of the steering shaft needing work.

So two questions really.

1) I have a short list of things to check, but would like to see if anyone here has some additional guidance that I could use?

2) Despite a good search to the contrary, I haven't been able to find a good description of the difference between the <= 93 7.3L engines and their 94-97+ powerstroke counterparts. I mean, on the face of it the difference is not that hard to understand, but is it noticeable in the performance? In the HP or fuel economy possibly? I would think that whatever difference there was it wouldn't be much, but possibly a small difference. Again, I just don't have any experience with diesels yet. Can someone describe the difference and what it means in the real world in terms of performance and maintenance issues? I mean, I know the IDIs have the hard cold start issue, but I haven't read much else negative about them.

Ok, thank you for the help, I appreciate it.