Hi,
last weekend I used my new 1993 E250 to tow my racecar for the first time. Since the van has small tires (225-75-16) and a high ratio (3.73) I tought that I would have plenty of torque available, but that was not the case.

Starting from a red light, acceleration was only OK, and going on a long hill (during ~5minutes), with the accelerator at 75%, the van downshifted to 3rd with 3200rpm, and later in 2nd gear at 4200 rpm. The temperature went to 3/4 of the gauge.
The trailer and car weight just under 5000lb.
Someone I know with his Chevy van (2006/ 5.3L) passed me with his trailer/racecar during the uphill section. I then was at 40mph in 2nd gear.

Is this normal for that kind of van and engine combo? Or there is a problem like a plugged catalitic converter?
Without trailer, the van runs and drives very well, plenty of power on highway.

One thing strange that happend, is that the exhaust pipe cracked in front of the resonator, under the passenger feet during the uphill section, and now I have an exhaust leak.
It sounds like it's running on 6 or 7 cylinders now

Here are the parts that have been changed when I bought the van:
radiator, Ford thermostat, rebuilt water pump, distributor cap and rotor.

My gas consumption was a bit high for that trip.

Do you think I would see any power gain under towing conditions if I remove the cats?

Thanks.

PS: two other guys in my club with smaller tow vehicles (Nissan Pathfinder and Acura ??MDX) told me they took the hill at 55mph without problem. Shouldn't be the case?

 

Even my old '85 carb 300/6 Club Wagon would tow such a load at 55 up the biggest hills between FL & NY. I've never encountered a hill that resulted in "40mph in 2nd gear" w/either that E150 or the '92 302 that replaced it.

 

Club Wagon,
do you think that plugged catalitic converters could be my problem? May be they have never been replaced since 1993 (130000 mi).

Edit: Not sure how many cat converters are on the van. There is the 'Y' that merge into a special cat converter (2 in, 1 out), then the pipe goes to what looks like a 2nd converter, then the resonator, and finally the muffler.

 

15 years & 130000 mi can result in a variety of issues, plugged cats are just 1 possibility. Worth having checked out, as is fuel pressure, but I'd invest in plugs, wires & O2 sensor too.

 

did you check the air system hoses to make sure they are all still connected, sometimes its staring you right in the face

 

Do you mean the air inlet / filter to the manifold? If yes, it is well installed, plus it's a SD system.

Update: I checked the slack of my timing chain, and it looks like it is in the 3 or 4 degrees, so I can rule that out.
I'm currently removing the two cats. (emptied the 1st one, and deleted the 2nd one). Will weld everything back tomorrow, but will test it only at the end of august when I have my next event. I hope it will fix it, because there are many steep hills to climb in that area.

 

What motor is in the van?

 

5.8L

I took a look this morning at the spark plugs to see if I was able to reach them. The two front ones on the pass side will be tricky, but I have small hands so I should be able to reach them.

I see some plugs have like a black film on them, not oily, it's like if there is arcing from the wires and leaving a carbon deposit on the white porcelain.

Anyways, I ordered a set of cables and Motorcraft plugs and will change them.

I have a question though. In my 'catalitic converter delete' process, I replaced the second cat with a pipe. There is this tube that comes from the air pump I belive. Is it ok to just let it hang there, unconnected? Air goes out of the tube only, right? It's not sucking anything from there??

 

The tube from the air pump should be pretty benign to just disconnect and leave hanging...you could pull off the air pump itself, although that might be a problem if the van has a serpentine belt that routes around the air pump. I've pulled off or disconnected air pumps a bunch in the old days....

I also agree that your van with a 5.8 should very easily pull your racecar on a trailer far easier than what you're describing.

What kind of turbo bimmer do you have? I've got a '91 318is (babied street car with 120k miles on it--I've owned it since 1994) and my son has a '97 318ti (mint body from North Carolina, car has 172k on it)....

George

 

OK, good, I won't bother welding it back to the exhaust.
Can't wait to see the difference without the cats + new plugs + cables. I will report if there is a change, but it will be only in september.

Turbo bimmers... I think I love them
Keep your 318. It's a light and well balanced car, fun to drive. And your son's 'ti' is almost a 'rare car'. I see only one per 3 years around here!

My firt Bimmer was a 91 318ic that I installed a Garrett T3. It was fun. But since I was getting more serious about tracking the car, I decided that having a solid roof over my head would be a good thing.
So, I bought a 325ix, and guess what... I turbocharged it also. I'm in Canada, and went to Albany NY to get the car since I wanted a 2dr model, and here they sold only 4dr models.

Some pics:

91 318ic

88 325ix


And some 'Ford content' to keep the moderator happy
my new acquision: 93 E250/5.8L/ 3.73

 

Very cool BMW's, Turbo_B....I'm a big fan of E30's and I commuted in my 318is from 1994-2000, after which I pulled it out of the daily grind and chose to keep it forever as my "toy" car, knowing that the economy of the M42 motor would be relevant down the road and also knowing that it is well balanced and fun to drive. And they only made the twincam E30 318is for one year, so that makes mine cooler yet--kind of a poor man's E30 M3 with the cross-lace wheels, sport seats, M-Technic suspension....

When my son, who is a collegiate bicycle racer, needed a car a couple years ago, I found him his ti in North Carolina and brought it up to Michigan for him--it's been a great car, and he's put almost 40k miles on it with maybe $1500 of parts and repairs so far, which I consider really reasonable for a car with big miles. And even though he drives it with spirit, it's getting him about 30 mpg. He can carry two bicycles, spare wheels, and *stuff* in it...I love hatchbacks. Being a racer, the bicycles can actually exceed the value of the car, so we don't like having them on racks outside the car.

But the sun will never set on the E30--I just love those cars...very nice paint job on the ix...does it eat drivetrain parts when you hammer on it?

 

The ix is turbocharged only since April. Up to now it's ok. Others have reported that it is the chocs that destroy the ix's drivetrain, especially the front diff. So, I don't dump the clutch. My only concern is when the car spins in gravel, traction is on-off and may induce some shocks in the drivetrain. I have 2 spare front diffs in my garage. If I go through 3 diff, I will have to find a custom arrangement up front, like a Audi diff which is supposed to be beefier.

 

1 year later... I towed to may be 5 events, and the power is now back. OK, it's not a V10 but it's a lot better than before.
So, gutted the front cat, replaced the 2nd cat with a pipe, new spark plugs + wires. Runs like new :-)

 

Good to hear, still like your BMW's, still have our BMW's and my '02 E150.

My van has been running very happily, and the original battery (7 years 3 mos since production) finally gave up the ghost right in my driveway on a beautiful day just yesterday, so I just hopped in another car, bought a battery, and all is well.

George

 

Hi,
not bad, 7 years for a battery!
The 'ix' is still running strong, I enjoy it.
I also had to replace my battery in the E250. It didn't like to be left unused most of the last winter. I put in a new Interstate battery, but will remove it if I park the truck for a month or more to avoid freezing.

Michel.