Back in January I purchased a 1994 E350 Club Wagon Chateau 7.5L 189k miles.
At the time of purchase the was not running so I had it towed to my mechanic. The van had been sitting for 4 years and the battery was dead. I purchased a new battery and asked my mechanic to change fluids and filters. A few days later I picked up my new van and drove it home 20+ miles. I was impressed the van ran great. BTW the gas tank was 3/4 full. How old that gas is a guess. The next day I went to start it and it didn't want to start. After a few tries it fired up but it barely idled, ran really rough with lots of smoke out the tail pipe.
After running for a while I removed one of the spark plugs and it was dry, no sign of fuel. There was spark even though the distributor cap and rotor showed a fair amount of wear but not the point where they were completely worn.
I am making the assumption that the injectors (at least some of them) are clogged due to lack of use and/or bad gas. What puzzles me is why would it run perfect one day and not the next. As far as old gas; I recently reactivated one of my other cars that had been in storage for 3 years with a nearly full tank of gas and it ran flawlessly.
I plan to sell this van ( this was a twofer and I am keeping the 1996 E350 that I got in the deal) but I don't want to sell it in this condition because I will get next to nothing for it. However I can't get too deep into it or I'll never recover the money I put into it.
I was thinking of rigging up a fuel injector cleaner that would attach to the fuel rail and inject cleaner under pressure. The prospect of removing all the injectors to have them cleaned and having a shop drop the gas tank and get rid of the old gas will be pricey.
What do you guys suggest?
Thanks in advance

 

Fuel filter

 

Hi ogarcia, test the fuel pressure/see if the fuel pump is running. Lots of smoke does not sound good, black smoke, blue smoke, or white smoke?
jim

 

Running very old gas can cause some problems, but mostly in performance/power out-put, it just don't have the ignition point that fresh gas has, and could be the cause of the smoke out the tail-pipe.

I think you have a fuel delivery problem, either with the fuel pump/pressure or an issue with a sensor, like the MAP sensor, that's not allowing the ECU to deliver the fuel to the injectors.

The plug would be dry if it was running, as the ignition has burned off the fuel, as it should.
It you had a 'no-start' condition, and the plug was dry, that would lead to a fuel delivery problem. Wet plug would be a sign of no spark condition.

Have you been working on this since January, or your just getting into working on this???

Before you "jump" into some solution........either do some tests and check out what the fuel problem could be, or if you had a mechanic change the fluids and filters, have him check the vehicle out.

 

Thank you all for your responses. I think I will start with the fuel filter it's easy enough to do. Then I will try some of your other suggestions.
I bought the vans back in January but after getting this one home I put it aside because I had to contend with the '96 , a bad solenoid and brake work. Also I had my GMC Safari (had it for 14 years) to get ready for sale. Sold it yesterday. BTW the MAP sensor is good I substituted a brand new one and made no difference.

 

If it was billowing black smoke, that is too much gas flooding the engine. A quick check is to hold the throttle to the floor and crank it. The ECU reads the open throttle as a flooded engine and shuts off the injectors. If it starts easily then, too much gas is the problem.

Next thing is to pull codes. jim

 

Belated update:
Changed fuel filter and it improved the rough running condition but did not eliminate it. Checked fuel pressure regulator and it checked ok no ruptured diaphragm. Checked fuel pressure at the fuel rail with key on engine off

 

Is it still blowing black smoke out the pipe, running rich? Could be one or more injectors is hanging open allowing EXCESS fuel into the manifold. I think the injection on this year is still a batch fire system, not sequential. If that's true and you have injectors hanging open, the intake is flooded.

You could try fuel injector additive to the gas to see if that helped. jim