I have a '97 E350 Super cargo. So far I love it. There are a few upgrades I want from some of the better equipped/newer vans, and I love that this is such a universal platform. However, the headlights have caused me some confusion. I have the old-fashioned sealed beam rectangular headlights that remind me of the square-body F150s of the 80's. I know they later converted to the plastic headlight with replaceable bulb. However, I have seen a couple of '97 vans with the plastic headlights, and a few '03 with the old-fashioned glass ones. I talked to one of the '97 owners and he swears his plastic headlights are stock. I know they can be swapped out, but since I hate the yellowing the plastic lenses are prone to, I am most likely going to convert mine to LED bulbs that just replace the headlight. But it just strikes me as odd that what years have what headlights is seemingly random. Did the factory do conversions?

 

IMHO and having owned 5 1997 and later E-Series vans I'd stick with the sealed beam headlights. The yellowing you hate is actually the composite H/L assemblies deteriorating from the inside due the higher heat and light of the lamps used. There's no amount of polishing the outside of those assemblies that'll get rid of the damage inside the housing.

The composite H/L's did somewhat co-exist through the years up until 2008 when the new front body sheet metal and grill assembly changed. Previously you could swap the composite for the sealed beams or the other way around and it didn't take a lot of parts to accomplish.

I like the sealed beams because they're glass and when its time to change them you get brand new housings too. LED headlights seem like a good idea but depending what brand you use they're not all plug n play so you might need to do some rewiring.

Your van, your choice---good luck with your project!

 

Both composite and seal beam headlights were used right up until the end of production, even when the body was updated with the superduty front end there was still a (butt ugly)version with sealed beams. It seems the higher trim levels got a composite light package while lower trims got sealed beams... at least that is my impression. My '06 had sealed beams which I tried updating with conversion lenses with removable bulbs, but I made the mistake of buying chinese lenses that didn't meet DOT spec and as a result produced a nearly useless light pattern. Even with a 55/60w halogen bulb which was noticably brighter than the 35w factory H6054 sealed beam the output was practically useless, they just splashed light everywhere and didn't focus it on the road, and there was no difference at all between low and high beam.
There are "millions" of LED sealed beams out there but most fall into the useless category, the one I found that appears to be the exception are those with projector lenses in them, I'm not fussy about the look of them but you can't argue with the performance. This video demonstrates the difference between the old style(led array) and projector.. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...6FORM%3DHDRSC3

 

I went from Composites to sealed beam on my '98 using Hella Vision plus and haven't looked back since, I still swear by H4's as up our way in the wintertime lens of LED equipped headlights don't warm up to melt accumulated snow/ice on the lens.