Alright, I'm new to this forums so I hope this thread made it in the right place. (and am posting on multiple forum sites to collect responses and see what different people think)

I'm about to pickup a 1991 Ford F-150 with the 5.0 302 V8. It's a 2wd 3 speed (least that's what I'm gathering from it). Went up there a month ago to look at the truck make sure it's what I wanted. It only has 135k miles on it believe it or not. Me and the owner talked about it for an hour or so, and he told me some things about it. Originally it was going to be a project for him and his grandfather to work on, but his grandfather passed right after he got it, so it has been sitting for the previous 2 years unmoved. Went up there to look at it, start it and what not. Since it doesn't have any of the air box/intake/breather (people call it everything, but for the sake of this ill call it the breather) when you start it, you have to pump the gas pedal and hold the rpms steady for a couple minutes before it's able to regulate and run on its own. I've personally never heard of this, and didn't think much since it idles just fine. Will attach pictures showing the engine bay so you can understand. I plan on just buying an airbreather box from a junkyard anyways, and buying a couple feet of hose from oreilley's. What this thread is really about however, is the owner said when his grandfather originally purchased it about 2 years ago, he said it needed a new chip (didn't specify which, thats what i'm here trying to figure out) because when you drive it, normally you'd put it in Drive (D) In this case its Overdrive. But it puts it in 3rd year, and doesn't start in first. You have to drop it all the way down to first gear, drive till rpms are high, shift into second, and then into overdrive when youre ready for third gear. I trust the guy cause he's been honest to Earth about the entire truck so far. What I'm suspecting, is since he mentioned chip, I wonder if there is a ECM out of a manual f-150 in it cause it's essentially acting like a manual, while being an automatic. What do you guys think?