Just wanted to comment that my new Quigley 4x4 E350 v10 gasser arrived today. Unfortunately it came in a bit too late to get paperwork done, but I was able to test drive it. Overall very happy with the handling, but had thing that I was a bit unsure about:

at full throttle, there was a high whine from the engine...it was a fairly discrete increment, it's not like a low whine which got louder, but just at some point, a high whine would set in. Actually, it almos tseemed like there were 2 levels of noise, one quieter one at maybe 90% throttle, and another at full. Not sure how better to describe it. Is this normal? (I was unable to do any test drives on V10s before ordering, so this is my first v10 I've been in).

-brian

 

Oh yeah... On the V10 that is not broken in it always makes a whine when you push it too hard. The sound is metal being stripped from the crank and rod journals. The hard surfaces on the gears in the transmission are also being forced together causing them to break in at an accelerated rate taking most of it's usefull life with it. This is why the manual states not to looad the van or tow with it for the first 500 miles. After that then you can pretty much drive it as hard as you want. I'm curious where you could test drive the van and actually hit full throttle without losing control or breaking the law. My V-10 by just blipping the throttle will break traction at 65 mph and swap ends uncontrollably. Once the tires hot and sticky it will still zero to 100 in about 4 seconds. Not! My bad. That is my dragster. I have no idea what the whine may be. I do know my 5 speed makes many unfamiliar noises that I never heard out of my nearly silent C6.

Seriously the only thing I can think of you are hearing is the power steering. Fords have the loudest power steering. I wouldn't worry about it to much. The warranty will take care of about everything for the first 3 years.

 

Heh...

Anyways, I put on about 500 miles over the weekend, and it seemed to be going pretty nicely. Still has that whine at full throttle (doesn't seem to be based on rpm, torque, speed, just based on throttle position). Not too worried, but was curious

As for the warranty thing, that's all fine and dandy, however I'm going to be taking this to places where Ford might have a tough time working on it. This weekend, heading down to Death Valley to do a shakedown run of all my gear, and practice in the dirt -- and another 1100 or so miles on the van. Then, 2 weeks after that, I'm heading up to Alaska, my portion of the trip will be 5500 miles, about 1500-2000 on dirt/gravel roads. One of the legs will be up the Dalton Highway, which is ~500 miles each way, and I've heard that a tow costs $1.50/mile or more, and you pay for them coming and going...a $1500 tow to town and lost vacation days would be less than optimal . The return trip from Alaska (my parents will be flying up and doing the reverse of my trip) will be another 4000 or so miles. After all's said and done, the van will be 2 months old with ~12000 miles on it. I think the 3 year warranty was for 36000 miles, which I will probably finish out during the first year.

 

If there is anything really wrong with it you should know about it long before you get to the Dalton Highway. One thing for certain is I would have nothing but the Mobil-1 extended performance oil in the engine. It shines in the heat and the cold. This is no place for second best.



This will keep the engine internals happy.


For your northern trip I would take the stuff along to change your oil just before the return trip. A spare air filter would be nice too.

Since you are putting so many miles on right off, it might be a good investment to pop for the extended warranty. Something that covers the an extra couple years and 100,000 miles. One blown spark plug and the warranty will pay for itself.

What sort of event are you participating in?

 

It's not a specific event, just a trip I'm planning with/for several friends...going up with 4 passengers in the van, and a motorcycle will be trailing the whole way. Was planning on doing an oil change just before the trip, and another just before handing the car over for the return trip (I'm just doing one way, and my parents are flying up and doing the drive home). We'll be camping and cooking for ourselves on the way, and I'll have several days worth of supplies onboard for all 6 of us.

Getting pretty excited about the trip, and getting the van put together as we speak. It started as a E-350 cargo, fairly stripped down. I had t-slider windows put in the front half of the cargo area (one in the side door, one right behind the driver's seat), and some insulation/wall lining material, e-track on the walls and floor, and a neoprene-like floor liner. Over the weekend, I picked up some cheap pull-out seats from a mercedes sprinter to stick in the back (I was planning just 1 bench, but at $250 apiece, I decided to grab a second one just in case, the local places wanted over $1200 per bench for pullouts), and those should be going in as we speak. (I wanted high-backed seats with headrests and integrated seat belts, and the sprinter ones were all I was able to find). Most of the time, I'm going to leave the van as a 5-passenger, but I'll have a second bench in the garage to do an 8-passenger setup as needed.

 

Yeah, they do that.

 

very cool, get some pics of the build up as I'm converting my new to me 03 quigley E250 for dirt bike use:

 

Nice van picture!