Welllll, there WAS that F-150 Harley Davidson edition for a while ...

jim

 

old coils all die the same death . heat increases the resistance and your ignition becomes compromised .

 

I'm still guessing it's fuel starvation. My '88 E-150 would run forever around town or short trips. Fifty miles out of town on the interstate, it lost power and finally slowed, then quit. We looked it over, and after 15 minutes, it started. Set out again and 50 miles later, same thing. We covered 800 miles that way.

When I dropped the tanks, this is what the fuel sock on the pump looked like.





Still don't know what the white stuff was, looks like calcium from water in the tank, but it blocked off enough fuel at highway speeds to cause the fuel pressure to fall to the point where it would not run faster than a walk. I did not find any water, anywhere in the system.

Replaced both pumps and replaced Ford's FDR with a valve and it runs 70 mph all day.
jim

 

The early ford vans and trucks are infamous for ignition module failure from excessive temp, later vans and trucks have the relocated module and added heatsink

 

i can see the similarities as the early goldwing would drive like a truck..

 

Hello there,did you get the problem fixed? I do have a 1988 ford e250 with a 5.8l 351 engine with the same exact symptoms that your van has.did you try extracting the OBD1 codes?

 

overheated ignition transducer is most likely the issue, sometime between 1988 and 1992 Ford relocated the transducer and moved it from the engine to the chassis where it is not subject to excessive heat and premature failure, i have 1992 and it is mounted on the chassis away from engine.