UPDATE:

Just got back from a supetmoto race in Georgia. I've put over 1,000 miles on the van now and couldn't be happier. My Superchip programmer came in Friday but I was already on the road so I'll have to get it Monday. I learned a valuable lesson about assuming that all Ford van fuel gauges are the same. The gauge for the gasser would give you about a 50 mile reserve once you hit "E". The diesel gauge isn't so kind. We ran out 1.5 miles from the nearest exit on I-75 and my friend and I had to walk to get fuel. Thankfully a deputy picked us up on our way back and gave us a ride which saved about 3/4 of a mile of walking. Apparently AAA will bring you gas, but not diesel :rant:. The van was not happy about having been run dry (despite the fact that Matt shut it down as soon as he felt it start to stutter). It took us around 15 minutes to get it restarted with the help of a gas soaked rag and it was only running on 5 or so cylinders when it finally would run on its own. We idled it for another 15 minutes or so and it picked up another cylinder. It got us to the gas station on six cylinders then picked up the other two after the tank had been completely filled. No problems since then.

Here are some pictures from last Thursday's task: junking the donor van's body...

The fastest and easiest way to move a junk van body from one trailer to another is to park the two trailers side by side then ram the body as hard as you can with a frontloader. Didn't tear up either trailer (amazingly).


On the way to the scrapyard. If you ever want to turn heads, pull a van body around on its side:


Bye-bye rusty, dented up piece of **** body. It weighed in at 2140 for a whopping $149.80. Better than nothing:


I installed my Superchip Flashpaq tuner tonight and straight piped it. A night and day difference to say the least. I've got it set on a towing tune to keep EGT's down because I don't have an intercooler (at least not yet ). It sounds like a semi and feels like it has twice the power it did this morning.

****ty cell phone pic of exhaust. It's made up of a 24" piece of 4" pipe, a 3.5" to 4" adapter, a 4" 90 degree elbow, and a 45. Going to find a nice tip for it tomorrow:


And a crappy cell phone picture of my racebike for those who don't know what a supermoto is:

 

Glad to hear you got the swap done!
If I were you I would be running a pyro to keep track of the EGTs.

So did you have any trouble lining up the body?

EDIT: you did not pull the head lights, grill, tail lights and glass off the body before you scraped it?!?!?

 

Pyrometer is soon to come. Just going to take it easy on her until I've got one installed.

Body installation was a piece of cake. Two strings with bolts tied to the ends of them on opposite corners of the van made for poor man's plumb bobs .

One of the taillights was cracked, windshield was cracked, passenger side window was broken, headlights are cheap, and I didn't feel like storing the grill when the one I've got is fine. I don't have much extra space to store parts, so I just said to hell with it and scrapped the whole body. I did save the hood though, as it was the only straight panel on the whole donor van.

 

I like the plumb job idea.
That makes since. From the pics I though you had trashed a bunch of great parts!

What did you find as far a the trannys went? You had to use the donor, right?

What about the rear end, what did the 5.4 have, what did the 7.3 have and what did you use?

 

The hood is straight because it is a type of rolled fiberglass, I learned to hate that when dealing with a visor mounted to it, dam screws would just pull out of it, metal ones are extremely rare, and lighter too.
I'd love to have a 7.3 PSD van, can't afford it, and if I had the money to swap, I'd put a Cumins in there, something that would fit better, room for bigger turbo, space for air to travel too.

 

What gears you got, both the 5.4 frame and the current PSD.

 

I am pretty sure my hood is steel.

 

The bellhousing bolt pattern between the 4R100 from the diesel and the E40D from the 5.4 are completely different. I used the 4R100, obviously.

I used the 3.55 rear end from the 5.4 because the 7.3's ring and pinion were shot. The tags were missing from the 7.3 diff cover so I don't know what gears it had. It drives and tows great with the 3.55's though, so I'm happy.

 

A 7.3 and 3.55s.

Bet you can top 20+ highway with that.

 

This is awesome!!!

I wonder if Ford changed the E350 frame from 1997 to 2005?

 

I'm jealous lol wish that was me putting in a diesel my van lol Great job though!