I have a 1991 e250 motorhome that has bad head gaskets. Is it possible to pull the heads with the motor still in the van? The shop I took it to quoted me $4000 and said it needed to be pulled. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Big block? Just changing plugs in these vans is near impossible so yeah I think the engine has to come out.

 

Sorry, I forgot to mention it's a 351.

 

with a 351 you should be able to do it with the engine still in the van. at least I know you can on a 1978 e100. its a bit tight but we did it. Take the front seats out.

 

Thanks, I'm not looking forward to this at all. Are there any write-ups on this?

 

I don't know if there is or not. I would think someone either in the van or truck section has a write up or at the least there are threads on changing head gaskets.
Are you going to do the work yourself?

A 351 is not much bigger then a 302 and I changed the valve covers on my 88 To do that I had to remove the upper plenum. I also changed the left exhaust manifold on it.
On my 85, I changed the right exhaust manifold so I am pretty sure you will have room. With the 351 it will probably be a little tighter till you get some of the parts out of the way.

Does your AC work?
I ask because if it doesn't then I recommend removing front grill, radiator and ac condenser. once you do that you can remove the (don't know what it is called maybe radiator support) but the front bar that the radiator brackets bolt to and then you will have plenty of room to work from the front of the van. Remove the front seats and you will have plenty of room to work through the doghouse hole. Would be best if you have a helper when removing and replacing the heads because they are heavy for one person.

Also if you have over 100k miles it wold be a good time to replace the water pump and timing chain/gears. Not mandatory but a good time to do it. There is a way to check the slack in the timing chain without much work.

If your AC works then the head gaskets can be done without removing the front of the van but it is just a lot harder job as someone will have to reach over the top.

I wold recommend looking on Ebay for ford gaskets at least the valve cover gaskets. I used flepro and still have a slight leak on the rt side which requires removing the plenum. Get the ones that are a rubber coated metal frame.

 

Thanks for all the great Info. I am planning on doing this myself. I am pretty mechanical and have built a couple of motors years ago. The AC is still running good, so I'm going to plan on leaving it in. The motor only has 48000 miles so I'm hoping the timing chain is still like new.