Totally agree on the 2.6 being a great truck 4cyl. It's got way more torque than I could hope for in stock form pulling around a ton and a half of vehicle.

I think what I'm looking for is more low-end, no real increase in noise, and no loss in top-end performance. No loss in gas milage would be nice, too.

I'm really hestitant to spend any large sums of money, since the truck was free and I'm currently paying for school ($230 per hour and rising...) and getting married in July. Plus I will have to buy tires soon (summer-ish). But if I could spend an extra couple hundred and get a little extra grunt I'd be happy. For a little while...