I just bought an '02 E250 with a 5.4. It has 120K, and runs fine except getting moving from a stop. As you give it the gas, it seems like it wants to die, and then suddenly surges, resulting in a big lurch off the line. The PO said he was advised that it needed a MAF sensor. Should I look into this, or bite the bullet and pay someone to fix it? I'm a decent mechanic- if you go back before the days of computers and fuel injection!

 

pull the idle air valve and clean it

 

My nieces Cougar did the same thing. It was the MAF. It may or may not have a code stored. Try scanning to see what you get.

 

Just a follow-up: The van started running rough on acceleration, so I decided to take a look. The MAF was disconnected! I cleaned it and re-connected it. It fixed the stumble-off-idle problem. It still seems to accelerate a little rough, but I read to disconnect the battery for a while, and that it would take a little driving to re-set everything. We'll see how it goes.....