Hi all. I want to rebuild my E350 this summer and would like advice on what should be done and possible upgrades to do in the process. A little history first.

I bought the van last fall. Its an E350 with a 4WD F250 frame and F350 diffs with the 4.9 in it. It has a 4 spd manual and a bit oversized tires, not sure on the gearing. I needed a work van and found this for sale. The guy I bought it from built it in the early 90's to cruise the beaches of CT and fish. It was never driven in the winter and well maintained (or so I'm told) and therefore quite clean. It runs well and makes decent power now but the compression is a bit low 130-140. It gets me around just fine but it could use a bit more power, Ive been stopped by a stiff headwind in low 4th before...

I've never rebuilt an engine before but I think I'm capable and I have all summer to do it since I will be living where I work.

I have done a fairly complete tune-up on it since I bought it, plugs, wires, rotor and cap, ignition coil, ignition module, timed and tuned to the best of my ability. Oh, and rebuilt the carb (stock).

I am planning on doing piston rings, honing the cylinders, laping the valves and new timing gears. What other routine parts need replacing while I'm in there?

As I said before I would like to get a bit more power out of it in the process. I live in RI and because it is over 25 years old I don't have to worry about emissions. Because of this I am running pretty much straight pipes although that doesn't seem to have made much of a difference. I don't have a ton of money to spend and I'm not looking for a race van, I love that it has so much torque down low (being able to pull stumps is very useful ) but I would like to accelerate up a somewhat steep hill in fourth... I'm sure some of that is because of the weight, the tag on the body says it is 9300, plus tools.

Anywho. Thank you to anyone who has read through this very long post and gives me some wise words of wisdom!
Andre

 

Is 130-140 bad? I didn't think so. You have the six, so don't expect a lot of get-up and go from it. It will pull a house down, but you need to give it time to do it. Gearing is important, and oversized tires aren't helping you much.

 

I will add, there should be other signs that it needs a rebuild. Like using oil, knocking noises, lots of oil coming into the breather, etc.

 

Swap a Windsor in!! Haha

 

I'm with Dave on all points.

 

Agreed, those numbers aren't terrible but atleast from what I've read on this forum it should be around 145-155?
It does go through some oil, maybe a quart per month. Breather is clean though.
I'm also getting occasional temperature spikes and the coolant is fairly brown even though i flushed the system last fall. Possible blown headgasket?

 

I'm aware that its never going to be fast and I'm completely fine with that but as I said before I would like to be able to accelerate up hills and into stiff winds... I've never driven another 4.9 before though so I have nothing to compare against

 

Andre,
This past fall I put a rebuilt crate 4.9 in my F150. Its not a performance motor, simply stock. I have a single barrel carb with dspark ignition. Up hill acceleration is about as time consuming as watching the corn grow.

I'm only pushing about 6000 lbs loaded and without the wind resistance of a van. Even my 92 with the same motor was that way (I bought that new, it was like that from day one).

You've got a bullet proof motor that doesnt push much more than 160hp, but has lots of torque.

People will see how old the van is and be suprised you can go as fast as you do, if you want speed throw in an 8 cylinder.

 

Thanks for the info, with the extra 4000 lbs my acceleration makes sense then. I will keep looking into cheap performance upgrades.

Any thoughts on the head gasket? I just replaced the thermostat and flushed the system again and so far the temperature is still fluctuating a bit although no major spikes yet. I haven't checked the coolant yet and the oil is clean.
Thank you!