Recently, I posted a problem concerning my Aerostar, when the outside afternoon temperature was around 100 degrees or hotter (common here in N. California) At times, the van would run sluggish in the heat, gutless, and seemed to struggle for air. A couple of weeks ago I did the following, which seems to have cured the problem! Coming home, 103 degrees, 4pm, got on the 3.0v6 @ 77 mph it was still accelerating, I was happy! Idling normal now in hot weather, no overheating, AC frosty cold. Anyway, on the advice of another Ford truck enthuiast, I spent about 4 hours on a early Saturday morning and did the following:
Disconnected the negative battery ground cable. Cleaned the throttle plate throughly with CRC's cleaner. Installed fresh Purolator air filter, cleaned air box and hose. Wrapped exhaust system with Thermo Tec's exhaust wrap. This is the same product you'll see on many race cars to wrap headers. I have heard pros and cons concerning header insulation, but when i see a full blown '69 HEMI Dodge Dart GTS run mid 9s through the quarter, 6" of daylight under the front tires, and 2" of daylight when it hits second gear 25 feet out of the hole, I can't see where header wrap is doing any harm? On my Aerostar, the underhood heat (especially after summer freeway driving) is drastically noticeably reduced! I also like the fact, the wrapped exhaust that crosses over the transmission area, now will not give off uneeded exhaust heat to the transmission. The only drawback was a slight odor from the wrap, as the engine got hot, which lasted for about three days or so. Now it is not noticeable at all, Thermo Tec says this is normal. Anyway, I am very pleased, as finally the van is running well in hot summer driving conditions...