I have a 96' E150 with a 5.8L. I'v put 130k miles on it and i have never changed the spark plugs. The main reason being, im not really sure how im supposed to get to them. there is no way to get to them under the hood. so if any of you have any ideas or pointers can you let me know. Thanks

 

Wolfe,
I have never done it myself, as I just got my new E350 two weeks ago, but best way to get at them is to remove the engine housing cover in the van (between the front seats, theres clips holding it down, aka the doghouse), and you should be able to get at most of them, its still tight, but do-able. The plugs more toward the front of the engine can be get at through the wheel wells, some guys actually remove the front wheels to get more room. Good luck, its a bit of work, but give yourself plenty of time and it'll be no problem.

 

Wheel wells? Who told you that? Doesn't make any sense to me.
I just changed the plugs in my '98 E150 5.4L V8. It was a difficult job, to say the least. I have 75K miles on the van, and the plugs were just starting to run out of spec. When you get your plugs out, keep them for a while, because their condition speaks volumes about what your engine is doing. Remember to number the plugs in accordance with cylinder number.
I got perhaps 5 of my plugs out through the tiny hood opening. Perhaps 3 from the doghouse side. Needless to say, I first removed the aircleaner and its ancillary equipment, as well as the doghouse. I had to use appropriate socket extensions, universal joints, etc. Bear in mind my '98 has COPs (coil-on-plug); that is, each plug is capped with a coil, and these alone are difficult to remove. Your van might have a central coil, distributor, and sparkplug wires; mine doesn't.
I had to drain my radiator, disconnect my heater core, and pull heater hoses out of the way to get to plugs #3 and #4 (right rear looking down on engine from cabin side).
I used a shop vac with miniature attachments, designed for cleaning computer parts, to suck dirt out of each sparkplug cavity and seat. The plugs on my vehicle are accessed through deep recesses in the intake manifold. It is a "challenge," and a real knuckle buster of a job.
At 130Kmi, you are overdue.

 

It does on the 5.8, with the plugs in the traditional location.

 

JohnPeter,

From what your describing your way sounds waaay harder than it needs to be, removing radiator coils? You do not need to do all that, you can if you want but getting at the forward spark plugs through the wheel well is a little known, often overlooked easy way to get at them. Lot easier than what has been suggested, trust me.

 

Dan,
I appreciate the comment but I think we're talking about very different engines...regarding the subject of wheel wells. On my 5.4L V8, the spark plugs are very much on top of the engine. No reasonable access through "removed" wheel wells. Best access is from opened hood and from cabin.
Crab has indicated that the wheel well trick is useful for the 5.8 L engine; that engine must therefore have sparkplugs in its side. I've never seen a 5.8 L engine.
Regarding the radiator...I never said I removed the radiator core. I said I drained the system (correction in order here: partially drained, say 4 gallons). Then I merely disconnected two heater hoses at the heater core. That's the cabin heater, not the engine radiator. These heater hoses then were pulled back into the cabin, from positions where they buried plugs #3 and #4. This was not a great knuckle-buster exercise, but required considerable patience.

 

On my old '87 302, I would remove the doghouse and replace all the plugs from inside the van, except the two front plugs on the passenger side. They were accessed by removing the right front tire and wheel, which it made a fairly easy job on those two.

 

For the '87 302, were the plugs on top, or down along the side of the engine?

 

On the side, below the valve covers, and between the exhaust manifold ports.

 

wolfe1104,

You can easily replace all eight after removing the doghouse. I tried that wheel well thing before and it's neither necessary or advisable. The 4 on the driver's side are easy as are the rear two on the passengers side. The trick is to remove the two nuts that retain the auxiliary air injection tubing on the right side of the engine. You also have to unhook the vacuum line to the valve that is in this air injector assembly. You will see what I mean once you get in there. Keep in mind that you only have to remove the nuts that retain these hoses, not the hoses themselves. They will then move out of the way and it is fairly easy to replace the front to passenger's side plugs. In fact, I feel sorry for the pickemuptruck drivers. This job is much easier when you have the doghouse access.

Gene