Guys, I'm new here but I post pretty regularly in the 1987-96 F-series forum. I saw this forum, so I thought I would come in and vent a bit about the moron that my church hired to "fix" our '90 15-passenger Super Wagon.

The van is (was) in pretty good shape for its age, only has 108K miles on it, and has the 460/E4OD. Pretty rugged, you'd think. And since we only use it to transport teens to and from services on Wednesday nights, it's not like we're working it to death.

Well, about 2 months ago, the van started occasionally dying when I put it in reverse. No big deal, I thought, so I switched to a better grade of gas in the short term until I could get it into the shop. It seemed to help.

Unfortunately, a few weeks ago, our pastor called me to let me know that the van was about to throw a rod (according to a shop close to the church). We had a few options:

1. Have a new engine installed. (at a cost exceeding our budget)
2. Get a local shop to fix the existing engine. (ditto, but less so)
3. Buy a new van. (at a cost way exceeding our budget)
4. Have a guy who lives in the neighborhood fix it for under $1000. (I was a bit suspicious, and said so, but was overruled.)

So, of course, even though we could probably have found a shop that would have done the job for a little more money, we hired this guy (who I will not name) to install a new crank kit and fix whatever else he found.

He had the van for about a week.

This past week, our teens were scheduled to go out of town on a retreat, and the van would not run.

WOULD. NOT. RUN!!!

Thankfully, a member of the church graciously rented a 2005 Chevy van (yuck!) so they would have transportation for the week. But that didn't resolve the issue with the Ford!

So, I went over to the church and did finally get the van to run after cranking it for a good long while, and she runs ... big surprise ... poorly. There is obviously a vacuum leak somewhere, judging from the whistling sound when the gas is pushed more than 1/4 of the way down. I was barely able to wheeze my way up to 55 MPH, and wouldn't you know that the check engine light is on. And it's "clunking" only a little less than it did before!

And to add insult to injury, the air conditioning (which I personally spent $350 to have serviced and recharged less than a month ago) doesn't work at all.

You can probably feel my extreme displeasure.

I'd love to go over and give the guy a piece of my mind, but he's out of town for three months on a construction job, which begs the question: What do we do now?

I love the old van, because she's been so darned reliable and done everything we've ever asked of her, but when the problem first surfaced, I respectfully submitted that we should invest in another van, because I feared we'd end up throwing more of our hard-to-come-by dollars into it after the repair. This is one of those times that I really, really hate to be right.

Any ideas???

 

Boy, it could be a plugged cat as at that age, it is likely to be close to plugged. The more it has sat, the more likely it is the cat. These years (and back to when they first put cats on these) were a big problem for motorhomes and cats on the Fords E-350 van cutaways. From what you say, it is being used about the same as a motorhome.

However it seems that something may be damaged from this recent mechanical work. That part is hard to say. The extra back pressure from a plugged cat will make all kinds of different noises that may seem to be a vacuum leak. The whistling you hear might be from a warped manifold, as its almost certain one or both are warped.

Easiest thing to do if you can't find anything else is to chop the exhaust before the cat. When they start to go, they go fast. Within less than 100 miles, if it is the cat, it will get to where it will just idle, and when you try to move it, it will die. It is possible that the difference you see now is the result of the cat becoming more plugged, and not the "mechanic."


Is the clunking more of a popping sound and not so mechanical? If so, that's a warped manifold. Or it could be pre-igntion, which can sound mechanical as it's an explosion in a 'can' sound.

Another possibility for this age is the valves may need ground and new head gaskets installed.

However, I'm leaning toward the plugged cat. And you can't tell by feeling the exhaust, as when my RV E-350 460cid cat plugged, the exhaust outlet seemed normal at idle. At 6 tons, it would just barely move. Once I hit a small hill, it would no longer go forward.

 

It sounds more like a series of bad mechanics that don't know how to test electronics. Test the TPS, and replace the TFI module. Then check the timing.

 

Thanks for the input, guys. I'm to the point with this one that I'm about ready to tell the pastor and the board it's past time that we cut our losses and run. With gas price$ what they are, and with no more teens than we usually have on Wednesday nights, we could get away with having a minivan.

I really do hate to give up on the old girl, but there comes a point when you just have to say enough is enough!

 

It is an 18 YO vehicle, but 108K is nothing. I acquired my '92 Club Wagon with 108K on it, now over 230K.

However IF (the chassis is still good &) the major mechanicals are indeed OK & its just minor component at fault, I'd be inclined to resolve the driveablity issue before deciding either way.

 

> our pastor called me to let me know that the van was about to throw a rod

imo, This is where it all started to go wrong because I would have been highly doubtful that a 460 with only 100k on it, that had regular LOFs, was ready to throw a rod and my question would have been "How do you know".

 

Rebocardo, I'm right there with you. If I didn't have MS and could be as "hands-on" mechanically as I used to be, I would have personally made sure that was the problem. To be honest, I don't know that ANYBODY had the engine opened up to verify this before our "friendly shadetree mechanic" got hold of it.

The van HAS had regular LOFs throughout the 6 years we've had it, and I also have the service records from the church that owned the van prior to us.

I'm still suspicious of the whole thing, especially since I know the 460 to be a very durable engine! I just don't know what to do at this point.