Well... i bought the 2002 v10 e350. I figured because of the miss he described ....and from past experience with my 07 crown vic interceptor. That a miss will likely cause clogged cats. First thing I asked the seller was if he checked to see if the cats were glowing. He told me his buddy said the same thing and cut a hole in the front cat.
I get under the van and check things out. Someone did a hack job on the cats. Exhaust was still cut right after the cat on the y pipe. The front passenger upstream cat had a square cut out, but instead of a hollow cat there was a dummy pipe inside. The driver side cat was intact and rear cat intact. So at some point I believe they ran codes and suspected pass bank as a problem.
The body is pretty good. Small dent under driver side mirror, a little surface rust under doors. Nothing major.
Frame and undercarriage look solid. Not a drop of visable leaking fluids.
Go to the rear cargo area.... muddy... he used it to haul dirt bikes.
I pull back the rubber flooring, quite a bit of rust. Corners almost rotted out but from the underside looks good. He must of put dirtbikes in there while dripping wet. Padding under the rubber flooring was damp. Check the roof, looks great...no indication of a leak.
I then check out a few other cargo vans he has (hes a satellite installer business owner) he had a 351 w extended with a little body damage, a 5.4 beat to hell, another 5.4 newer that wasnt for sale, and a v6 e150 with 500k miles and still going strong!
We go back to the v10. I check the fluids then start her up. No problem starting. Sounded like a diesel because of the hackjob on the cat that im still trying to figure out why they just werent gutted or pipe welded in.
IHe wanted 1500 and had him down to 1200 via email. Ask if he will take 1000. He said no cause he had 3k into it.
He takes 1100 and im off back to the city.
I was in a rush to negotiate and check the vans out the whole time because my nephew who was driving my car back had to be back for his sisters graduation.
So for the 30 mile trip back it drove good but definatelly had no power. Felt like i was running on 8 or 9 cylinders (v10). Took a good length of time to get up to 70 but had no issues on the interstate. Get back to my town and driving light to light had my nerves shot. It died once and going uphill about killed it everytime. I had to keep a foot on the gas slightly.
My nephew who trailed me said he didnt smell gas .... Its definately missing but once it seemed to snap out of it for a few and drove good.
It felt just like my 4.6l crown vic when it had a failed cop, no cel light on that car so thought it was bad gas.. after a couple days the cats were glowing cherry red. Had to gut the cats, put in mechanical o2 mil eliminators i made and replace all plugs and cops. After that ......that 07 vic interceptor has been running like a champ and sounds great with 2 chamber welded thrush mufflers and gutted cats......
Anyway.... this v10 e350 feels like that did with failing coils/plugs.
So.... before i tear into the interior and body, i need to get it running right and make sure its reliable.
There is a check engine light on.
Heres my gameplan. Take it to parts store to run codes (my obd2 scanner took a dump on me)
Seafoam the gas and vacuum and let sit.
Order/change plugs (motorcraft) and coils (amazon cheepies that ive used in my other 3 ford modular vehicles with 0 issues)
New fuel filter
Oil change
Maybe new o2 sensors
Fuel injector cleaner and premium gas for good measure
Clean mass air
Check the vacuum under the tb for dry rot.
Hopefully by that time it will be running good and ill delete cats and weld in pipe. I dont understand the one side cat hackjob that was done on this. Will it be safe to run just exhaust manifolds while im troubleshooting? I always heard just not to do it in cold weather....is that right?
Once i get the engine issues straightened I will tackle the de-rusting....undercarriage treatment and then campervan interrior.
Does this gameplan sound good or is there any other suggestions?
