'93 E350- Advice requested

[Crank]

Well all these awesome ambulance builds on here has had me looking for months for a cool project. I found a nice-ish 1993 E-350 box ambulance, Single rear wheel on Craigslist for an affordable price, possibly needing a transmission. It's been out of service for a while I believe, but reportedly has the stuff still in it. My problem with this rig is the 7.3 non turbo, I've read that they are gutless.. But then you get into the later model stuff and possible problems out of the 6.0, maybe reliable but gutless beats potential problems?

Then the seller said the Ambo has a e4od transmission, I seem the remember Ford running these in trucks, so would this be an easy trans to find in 4wd? Would it mate the the NV271? I don't see where UJOR sells any adapter for this transmission, so any help there will help too.

 

[Bbasso]

I personally wouldn't touch that...
Just my opinion.
Find a 7.3 Powerstroke E350 ambulance... I'm sure there's one you can afford.

 

[ujoint]

Nothing wrong with an IDI. Sure, no speed demon but they're better than you'd think. You can find a truck transmission or have the existing one rebuilt & converted to 4wd while thats being done.

 

[Crank]

Well I'm thinking I can buy it and throw in a used truck transmission and have $1500 in everything. That's pretty affordable! Especially considering what I see these narrow ambulances go for. So will the NV271 still just bolt up to the rear or did they use a different T-case back then?

 

[tgreening]

Well I'm thinking I can buy it and throw in a used truck transmission and have $1500 in everything. That's pretty affordable! Especially considering what I see these narrow ambulances go for. So will the NV271 still just bolt up to the rear or did they use a different T-case back then?

Different output shaft and adapter required out back in order to bolt up an nv271. The adapter is no big deal. Unbolt the 2wd tranny version and bolt on the 4wd version. The output shaft on the other hand is not so easy. It's the last thing to come out of the tranny, which essentially has to be gutted to do the swap. If you have to do that, you might as well go ahead and rebuild it since the only thing extra it's going to cost you is the rebuild kit.

The idi won't set any land speed records in stock form but it's stupid simple, relatively cheap to buy parts for and runs longer than you're likely to want to own it. As long as that Ambo is stock it'll do ok. Once you do a 4x4 swap you're starting to add a fair amount of weight, and you will notice it. In my case I think it worked out to somewhere around a half ton or so additional weight, with the tire/wheel combo gaining significant weight. My solution is a regear to get me back to something resembling stock with the 37" tires, and a Hypermax turbo system, turbo yet to be installed.

 

[Crank]

Yea I guess I was just wondering if the configuration would work, E4OD to 271, as I thought the 271 was a later model t-case. As far as getting a truck 4wd trans from the junkyard and swapping it in, would I then be able to just bolt up the 271 or does it take some special conversion output shaft?

 

[tgreening]

271 is a later case I believe, but it still bolts up. As long as your tranny comes from a 7.3 4x4 application you should be good, with no other mods required, but don't consider me the definitive authority on 7.3 tranny/transfer case tech.

 

[cjken]

I have one of each. (Actually 3 turned into two)

93 IDI Mini-mod (2wd)

95 PSD 4x4 DRW
95 PSD 2wd MINI-mod
Both merged into one narrow box SRW 4x4

Really big power difference between IDI and PSD

I was originally going to 4x4 my IDI but changed my mind.
4x4 conversion is going to cost some money so spending a bit more for a 7.3 PSD base truck to convert is probably worth it.

There are benefits to the simplicity of the IDI, but having both the power difference is really noticeable. I don't enjoy driving my IDI.
In the near future I actually will probably cut the front off it and make it a trailer like Pat did!

Of Course if you are willing to re-gear and add a turbo like Tom you may make reasonable power.