Well I did it this time, I let another vehicle follow me home.

Got an 85 club wagon with the 5.8L engine (351 I believe) and a c6 transmission.

Body is rotted out less than ours so planning on doing a cut and paste, has a title issue so don't know if I'll ever have a title transfered to my name, but do have the piece of paper and a bill of sale.

Excited to have lots of hard to find parts for our diesel.

So whats a good running 351/c6 combo go for these days?

 

Just remember. The dashboard capacity of an '85 E350 is one mouse or two Rottweilers.

 

Ha ha, I'll keep that in mind!

Our two german shepherds have to ride in the back of the bus

 

I wish I could have gotten them to the rear! They were going to find that mouse and not amount of yelling, poking or pulling was going to deter them. Though I must admit it is hard to yell when rolling on the floor laughing at them.


I had hoped for a better pic. The top one was inside the dash up to his shoulders, the bottom one past his shoulders with the legs up inside it from underneath. I can't figure out where they found the room!


I am still kicking around what to do with this vehicle. It is a small diesel RV. Single owner who maintained it religiously. 70k miles. Engine runs like new, transmission is sluggish when cold but fine when warmed up. The interior and accessories/appliances are all in great shape. But the undercarriage is heavily salt damaged with pieces falling off as you drive. Originally sold in Canada it looks like the owners were snowbirds that drove each way once a year.


For under $10k I could turn this into like new condition. But like new means a drivetrain that hates going much above 55mph (engine is SCREAMING at 65 mph) and miniscule fuel capacity (about 28 gallons for both tanks combined). It would be a fun project but in the end not something that I would want to use.

 

Lmao, yea I probably wouldn't be stopping my 2 either from digging in


Guessing its a C6 behind the idi?

Could maybe look into a gear vendor or do an e4od conversion. Our diesel van has the e4od and its not a bad trans like everyone wants to claim. Of course you'd still have to deal with the rust issues.

If you're close I'll give a good home to that idi if you want, always like having spares around haha

 

Yes, a C6.


I have kicked around the idea of changing the transmission. The rear axle has a very good ratio for the current engine/transmission. Plenty of torque starting out and decent acceleration (well, for 6 tons and a NA diesel). And the top gear was probably acceptable when the speed limit was 55 mph. But it could use a higher gear for the modern traffic.


What I need to research is what exactly is involved in mating an E40D (or 4R100) to the 6.9L.


I will keep you in mind if I do get rid of the engine.

 

Look over in the pre-powerstroke section, I know guys are always swapping around stuff over there.

A van that I was looking at previously had a c6 auto with a gear vendor overdrive behind it. I don't know if that would be feesible or not but it may be an option to consider too

 

As far as the e4od swap, it is pretty simple. Most just use a stand alone controller. You have to use an e4od that was behind an idi to start with since the bellhousing pattern is different. I have a c6 behind my idi van and was thinking of swapping in an e4od, but I came across a good deal on an auxiliary overdrive. The e4od will net you a little better mileage due to its design and locking torque converter, but requires a little more $ to make it able to handle heavy loads. I can stay in the 17-19mpg hwy range pretty easy on summer fuel. E4od would probably give me an extra 1 or maybe 2 mpg. Of course the biggest factor with these is your lack of aero and cruising speed.