If you are competent you don't need it...lol.
I know you're halfway joking and I halfway agree. Ability to run a Scanguage or the like through an OBD2 port is not just good for diagnosis but can ward off needing diagnosis since it gives you so much live info. Trans temp is easy to get with an X-guage code on them, all other temps and info to me are priceless, even more so the older the vehicle is.
@Photobug, the Triton spark plug issue is real but it's mostly overblown, no pun intended. By now, pretty much any Triton motor you buy will have presented the problem if it was going to, and not a lot of them did statistically. By now anything that old will have had the plugs replaced with the revised style or had the major maintenance done to fix the problem. I definitely recommend doing your due diligence (records, PPI) but it would not keep me from shopping for an early V10. A lot of great affordable small RV's like Chinook and Airstream, for instance, had them.
On, on the pre 96 E-series, I have one other one that not a lot of people ever mention. I've had two of these vans (one MH, one SMB), both with the 460. Both liked to overheat. Both got awful mileage. That wasn't the problem. The problem was the seatbelt. The older design in the pre-96 hangs way back from the front seats high up on the wall. The 97 up is an adjustable shoulder belt on the B pillar. The older ones choke me and my wife. I can't stand em. I've rigged up many bungee cords and other assorted crap to keep them working properly and not bugging us all the time. The thing that worked best was a newer van. YMMV.....
