plastic spaghetti
Senior User
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 383
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From: southeast,usa
plastic spaghetti
I'm in the process of changing engines in my "88 E150 van. The donor engine is out of an '89 lincoln. both are 302 blocks. Needless to say I'm having to swap intake manifolds, oil pan, valve covers, and assorted brackets, parts and pieces from the original engine to the donor to make it fit in my van. There are quite a few small diameter pieces of tubing that seem to have something to do with the air pump. There are a bunch of them that plug into what appears to be little plastic vacuum lines at an assembly near the coil. If I just unhook all this stuff and get rid of it, the airpump stuff that is,will the performance be adversely affected to any appreciable degree? All these little plastic tubes are disintegrating from age...kind of like eggshells. And what is the crossover tube at the back of the engine between the heads for? I grew up with cars and trucks from the 50's
. All this gobbledegook all over the engine is driving me nuts.
.I know. I know, it's there for good reason but I sure would like to get rid of some of it
. All this gobbledegook all over the engine is driving me nuts. .I know. I know, it's there for good reason but I sure would like to get rid of some of it 
Freshman User
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 38
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plastic spaghetti
That "plastic spaghetti" you refered to are vacuum hoses. If they are part of the air pump, you don't NEED that stuff. But Uncle Sam says it won't pass a legal smog inspection without it. Same for the EGR tube you mentioned. It's supposed to equalize the exhaust pressure from one head to the other. You can remove it, but you need to plug the holes left with freeze plugs. On my 302, they were a wierd size like 13/32 or some strange size. I had a heck of a time finding them. If a legal smog inspection is not important, go ahead and do it. It may not help performance, but it sure makes it easier to work on. Good luck.
Tuned
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 253
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From: BC Canada
plastic spaghetti
i wouldn't recommend nixing that stuff. i think you are talking about what i have on my 88 f250 5.8L. are they the hard plastic colour-coded vacuum lines? if so you want to replace them with new vacuum line. they don't sell hard plastic replacements around here so i just put on regular rubber line. they control alot of things in your truck. they go from the pump to the EGR regulator then to the egr; your tranny may be vacuum controlled etc. they are confusing but with a little patience and a vacuum line diagram you can figure out what goes where and get tht thing running right. good luck!
Senior User
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 383
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From: southeast,usa
plastic spaghetti
OK Rusty. I'll check out that avenue also. Yep those are the ones. The plastic tubes that are everywhere. I'll do the best I can to figure out where they all go, I guess, and just leave off the airpump stuff. Fortunately,or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it
I have another non running van with the same engine compartment lay-out so I can use it as a model where I can't decifer the Haynes manual. I'm just tryin' to get this one running so I can put it back to work. I figured I'd fix the one with 150k miles and forget about the one with 300k. The last time I swapped an engine was 35 yrs ago. I just don't remember it being such a pain in the neck . Maybe my neck is just a little older and more painful to start with
. Hope to have it running this week if I can get the time to spend on it......mike
I have another non running van with the same engine compartment lay-out so I can use it as a model where I can't decifer the Haynes manual. I'm just tryin' to get this one running so I can put it back to work. I figured I'd fix the one with 150k miles and forget about the one with 300k. The last time I swapped an engine was 35 yrs ago. I just don't remember it being such a pain in the neck . Maybe my neck is just a little older and more painful to start with . Hope to have it running this week if I can get the time to spend on it......mike
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