Im not much of a build thread guy, but I will attempt it for this build, sorry if it ends up rambling on.
It all started when my daily driver was flooded during Harvey while I was out doing recoveries in my hummer. Following Harvey I was looking for a new vehicle on craigslist in my budget range of $5k (what my insurance reimbursed me) and something that would be useful for work (Structured Cabling Installation) ok ok. Long story short I found my 05 E-350 6.0 at a small used car dealer listed for 8k, I went and checked it out. Started up normal, no crazy leaks, no crazy blow by, exhaust had been welded together, fuse box was not mounted, batteries were different sizes, giant dents in the floor, the list started getting longer and I had not even drove it yet. Well..... went to drive it and it didn't shift right at all, shift points were all over the place, but I STILL HAD TO HAVE IT!!! Drove it back, haggled with the owner, found out the mechanic who traded it in know idea what he was doing and basically barely got it running. We settled on 4k and I payed the taxes.
Drove it home and around town and when I hit almost 200 miles it died.
Now the 6OH fun begins, first items I took care of was rebuilding the turbo with a KC Turbo rebuilt kit and 10 blade turbine, all new radiator, AC condenser, filters, updated STC fittings and dummy plugs, EGR Delete & a couple new sensors and it was back and running!!!! Now came the SCT Tune, I went with a Innovative Diesel xtreme street tune which really woke the van up.
But with more power comes more problems, I had drove from Houston, TX to San Antonio, TX to wire a new restaurant, well just my luck the moment i make it to the restaurant parking lot bam there went the oil cooler..... So with he help of a friend willing to drive a trailer to San Antonio and pick my van up, it only cost me $150 to make it home. Once it blew I knew exactly what I was going to replace it with, the Bullet Proof Diesel Oil Cooler! So $2195 later and I had the BPD kit here, so many hours of flushing, cursing and installing it was it and back on the road for the second time!
During all this I had installed some Moog 880s springs and a 2" Coil Spacer to give the van some lift, I had also bought some Pro Comp 17s and Pro Comp AT 33s.
Back to work I put a couple thousand mile on it before it died again, this time FICM.... So new FICM and back on the road..... couple more K miles dead... everything looked good but no fire, so I figured injectors, replaced all 8 still no fire, get under to check fuel filter and its filled with black plastic... it sucked up the fuel pickup FML....
So now were up to 3 months ago when the transmission lost 5/6th, was about to give up and someone sent me a picture of a Econoline on 41s and I knew right there that I was going to finish this ********!!! So new built trans is now installed, my build budget is on point and as soon as the check clears the first call being made is to Chris at U-Joint Offroad.
Pictures are when I bought it and some of the progression until now
It all started when my daily driver was flooded during Harvey while I was out doing recoveries in my hummer. Following Harvey I was looking for a new vehicle on craigslist in my budget range of $5k (what my insurance reimbursed me) and something that would be useful for work (Structured Cabling Installation) ok ok. Long story short I found my 05 E-350 6.0 at a small used car dealer listed for 8k, I went and checked it out. Started up normal, no crazy leaks, no crazy blow by, exhaust had been welded together, fuse box was not mounted, batteries were different sizes, giant dents in the floor, the list started getting longer and I had not even drove it yet. Well..... went to drive it and it didn't shift right at all, shift points were all over the place, but I STILL HAD TO HAVE IT!!! Drove it back, haggled with the owner, found out the mechanic who traded it in know idea what he was doing and basically barely got it running. We settled on 4k and I payed the taxes.
Drove it home and around town and when I hit almost 200 miles it died.
Now the 6OH fun begins, first items I took care of was rebuilding the turbo with a KC Turbo rebuilt kit and 10 blade turbine, all new radiator, AC condenser, filters, updated STC fittings and dummy plugs, EGR Delete & a couple new sensors and it was back and running!!!! Now came the SCT Tune, I went with a Innovative Diesel xtreme street tune which really woke the van up.
But with more power comes more problems, I had drove from Houston, TX to San Antonio, TX to wire a new restaurant, well just my luck the moment i make it to the restaurant parking lot bam there went the oil cooler..... So with he help of a friend willing to drive a trailer to San Antonio and pick my van up, it only cost me $150 to make it home. Once it blew I knew exactly what I was going to replace it with, the Bullet Proof Diesel Oil Cooler! So $2195 later and I had the BPD kit here, so many hours of flushing, cursing and installing it was it and back on the road for the second time!
During all this I had installed some Moog 880s springs and a 2" Coil Spacer to give the van some lift, I had also bought some Pro Comp 17s and Pro Comp AT 33s.
Back to work I put a couple thousand mile on it before it died again, this time FICM.... So new FICM and back on the road..... couple more K miles dead... everything looked good but no fire, so I figured injectors, replaced all 8 still no fire, get under to check fuel filter and its filled with black plastic... it sucked up the fuel pickup FML....
So now were up to 3 months ago when the transmission lost 5/6th, was about to give up and someone sent me a picture of a Econoline on 41s and I knew right there that I was going to finish this ********!!! So new built trans is now installed, my build budget is on point and as soon as the check clears the first call being made is to Chris at U-Joint Offroad.
Pictures are when I bought it and some of the progression until now
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