Ford 6.9L diesel trucks

[rickg]

hey, I know there's a few diesel freaks here. I'm hunting for a '80's/early 90's Ford diesel truck to replace my '97 5.4L gasser. I won't go into all the reasons why right here yet. Just kinda want to go back to old school technology. Not really looking at the Powerstrokes at the moment. Anywho, anyone have any experience with the 6.9 liter IDI? I have my eye on a couple for sale locally. The one that looks to be the best condition has an auto tranny (which I'm not real nutz about). I don't tow anything real heavy, pretty much just 2 or 3 snowmobiles would be the worst case(so far). But I need to go up our twisty canyons roads, up to about 7,000 altitude to the parking areas.
Would ya try this with an auto tranny, and be happy about it? Would ya even be happy doing it with the 6.9 L vs the later 7.3L non-turbo? Just looking for thoughts here. My current 5.4L Ford isn't a tow demon, as the '97's were the first year of this engine, and were only rated at 225HP. So I'm used to not screaming up the canyons anyway.