Was just gonna drop in on you van boys and let ya'll know that i work at a school in NE Ga and we were looking at a '05 350 super duty triton v10. Test drove it and rolled all under it to check it out with only 13,000 miles on 'er. Very nice!! I think ford finally figured out as i hope the others will that you can't make crap and expect the market to stay alive in their favor. They started putting a drain plug in the tranny pan now so you're not so deturred to drain the fluid and messing with a leaky gasket. Also big fan of the side tranny filter right next to the tranny! Instead of puting the Y-exhaust right before the torque converter as i know one of our dodge vans do, they put it under the tailshaft of the tranny which could only cause a problem with the driveshaft seal coming out of the tail instead of cooking the whole tranny fluid like the dodge does right in front of the converter. They also put heat shields all over the exhaust where it comes within 6" or so of any tranny parts or engine parts!! We had to go and make heat shields for the dodge van after cooking the first original tranny at only 88,000!! (a rising problem in newer dodge vans) Also i liked how they've really opened up the front end grille section to get that air over the components!!! It finally looks like fords taking a step back to quality and longevity! Sorry for the long post but am quite impressed!

 

I've owned 1982, 1983, 1988, 1989, 1992, and 2004 E-series vans, and have NEVER had any major problem that wasn't maintenance related. I mean the two that needed engines were due to lack of it, and the exhaust has always been well placed on the fords. It's a little restrictive, but hey what can you do with so little space.

 

At least, there is abit more of a "nose"/hood to raise to get to the engine in the Econolines that you dont with a Dodge. The engines are more forward and easier to get to. Ok, so inside there is not as much "ledge" to put your coffee cup on the "doghouse" while driving as the Dodges have. Big deal.

I am very glad my 82 E100 is like it is after seeing same year Dodges.

 

I think one of the Dodge's worse points is the unibody with the exposed gas tank in back, it is a scary thing when the full sized Dodge gets hit in the back and drops that gas tank on the ground.

 

3 out of our 7 vehicles are Fords. The Fords have always been reliable. We have a '92 Aerostar 3.0 Extended, and a '92 E-350 Superclubwagon, a '97 Ranger 2.3. The other vehicles are: '90 Mazda B2600i, '95 Geo Prism, '84 Mercedes 300TD, '00 Dodge Dakota V6 Xtracab. All of them are reliable except for the Dakota. The Fords are all high mileage.

 

for personal input, my dad has a '77 econoline 150 w/ 351w...been rebuilt once by him but only b/c he didn't know about the plastic cam gear and he learned very fast...other than that...what a beast! As for where i work, we have two '95 e350's that are both pushing 250,000 with original motor and do not burn any oil and don't leak enough to have to keep an eye on the oil level!! now thats a rep! we also have a '01 e350 triton v10 that has 125,000 and is still a champ! the sour apple is our '01 dodge 350!! what a piece of crap! 88,000 on 'er and is in the shop sooooooo much more than any of our other fleet vehicles!! just went through the factory tranny from overheating and had to put all kinds of heat shields on it b/c dodges suck! the new ones anyways.