Time to hit pause.
Well, I converted her over to the N/A side of the world

and went out for a test drive. I also went against protocall and turned down the IP 2.5 flats because there would not be a pyro. Proper protocol would have been to only play with one thing at a time.
Despite the turbo being quite worn and questionably nonservicable, it was not the culprit. The N/A y pipe without any muffler, dumping right at the rear of the cab was quite loud yet gave me some insight to what was happening. I took off onto a 50mph road and she turned up to 3,000rpm's, shifted, hit the go, and there's that stumble that has been holdong this engine back.

Idle down, it goes away in a matter of seconds. As the miss is prevalent, you hear a distinct huffing sound in the N/A's exhaust pipes. It sounds like an exhaust valve is not closing, causing the engine to miss and I would say causing the erratic boost gauge when turbo was on the truck.
As Mel pointed out I still sit wondering if there was an issue with the engine or was it my doing.

I also deduct that the IP is a non issue as stated, turning down the fuel screw eliminated smoke but the basic issues are still there.
I think I have to take the valve covers off and #1 try to make it perform its ailment to see what valve it is and #2 check once again the torque values on the rocker bolts.
The wrenches are going to sit idle untill after the rally. There just isn't enough time to pull everything together by Saturday am's departure. Thankfully my Mom's F150 will be carting me to meet lots of people and have a much needed unwind.

, with my kids of course, they deserve the unwind as much as me. Please feel free to offer up any more insight as it all is taken into consideration. I will post more progress after the rally. Thanks again everybody.

