Just bought e350 v10 for camper van. engine miss power loss
 

Ok...first post here guys but been reading for days on here before buying the 2002 E350 yesterday.

I was looking for an e350 extended to start my campervan project (will just be used to camp a few times a year locally and maybe as a shtf vehicle if indeed shtf and needed to get out of town)
Anyway... I had a small initial budget and had it narrowed down to this 2002 v10 and a 96 351 with hightop.

I chose the v10 e350 because it was newer,had less miles,windowless,and ive had good luck with 3 other modular ford motors I own (4.6 with 300k still going strong,another 4.6 and a 5.4 navigator)

The guy selling it had like 6 of these vans on his property for his business but this one he got last year for hauling dirt bikes. He then got a trailor for his bikes and said this sat for 3 months and when he drove it again it had a serious lack of power and miss to it.
First thing I thought was it probably needs coils and plugs and probably has bad cats from unburnt fuel dumping into them.
When I went to look at the van i seen someone gutted the front cat already and left the exhaust cut at the muffler so it sounded like a diesel but ran ok. Fluids looked good.
Long story short.... I buy it for cheap (got him down to $1100) and it made it back to town (30 miles) but took forever to get up to 60mph. Had to just ease into giving it gas. Felt like it was running on 8 or 9 cylinders.
My 4.6 crown vic felt the same way when it had a bad cop and clogged cats.

Im hopeing plugs and coils will syraighten it out. Noticed a very feint cricket like chirping that related to rpms...not sure what that could be.
Also not sure why they just hack jobbed the front cat (big square cut out of it with tube shoved inside) but left back cat intact.
My obd2 scanner took a crap on me so cant run codes. CEL light is on.

Heres my plan of attack. Dump seafoam in tank and in brake vacuum, replace plugs and coils (motorcraft plugs, cheap coils that ive had great experiences with in my 3 other vehicles), change fuel filter, clean MAF, fab some tubing to remove cats or find a replacement cat delete pipe (any links?) (Only will be for offroad :)

I know you guys have a vast source of knowledge so had to register and see if this plan sounds good or if there are any other suggestions?

Sounds like a good plan bro. I'm voting catalytic converters being your main/only problem.

Want to sell me those V10 badges?

"Shtf " lol crazy conservatives

Crazy... maybe
Informed....too much so.

What will be crazy is if .....ah nevermind im going to keep political views on other threads. They are a surefire way for thread derailment lol.


Theres nice looking v10 triton emblems on ebay although I didnt see any factory styled ones

Exhaust is bad. The driver side just looks to have heat shielding around the tubing,the pass side looks to have a pre cat and then both sides Y together and enter the main cat. That suspected pre cat was opened up with a grinder,they just cut a small square out. I dont get it, the exhaust is cut after the large main cat and the pre cat I dont think is a cat cause it has an inner tube. So looks like they accomplished nothing.
If they suspected the cat being clogged....why not cut the tubing before the cat instead of after.
From the muffler back the exhaust is pretty much shot
. All rusted.


Two questions.
Can anyone tell me what the deal with the square cut out of it is and what their purpose was when they didnt even allieviate the cat as a problem?

Should I just get the grinder out and cut it off right before the cat?

I could test if that helps and then maybe just do a muffler dump right there up front?

I was just busting your chops man. I'm also conservative and appreciate a bug out plan.

I just don't act on it 😀

Lol....no problem man.... just hard to judge the tone of statements on forums.


Has anyone deleted their cats before and just ended the exhaust right there behind the Y pipe with a muffler? My 07 vic has gutted cats with 2 chamber welded thrush mufflers and 3.5" marauder style tips and its so loud (in a good way) that i too sometimes get sick of it and is why i left my 2010 vics exhaust stock.... I imagine the v10 running a couple feet of straight pipe and dumped right there with a muffler would be pretty loud.

There's a world of discussion on here about V10 exhaust sound using different mufflers. I bet if you search enough you'll find some opinions about straight pipes too.

I highly recommend doing a BUNCH of reading on here before you spend money on exhaust.

Careful with that exhaust exit position though: Carbon monoxide posting in is very real. And undetectable. Make sure you have it exit outside the van perimeter.

eBay emblems
 

I am conservative and therefore don't do business with PayPal, Target, Angie's List, Amazon, etc.

I don't know of a manner to make EBay transactions since I recently deleted my Paypal accts.

What causes the inner rust but undercarriage still looks new? Condensation? How can it be prevented after all this work and por-15 treatment?

Moisture trapped under the floor covering. Likely caused by a bad seal on the doghouse. Is it rubber mat? Because that would tend to hold in moisture better than carpet which is porous and can "breathe" better.

Yep... rubber mat. The padding throughout was moist.

So after i treat the rust.... if i glue reflectix down,then thin foam board then flooring... will it still be subjected to the same moisture or was the rubber/padding an issue?

I created a "how to" about this very issue as it applied to my own 2003 E250 stock extended body. The OEM floor mats both front and rear absorb moisture like a sponge, never evaporates back out and forever lays against the metal floor.

Here's the link to my thread---feel free to PM me if I can add more info for you: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-por-15-a.html

JWA.... very helpful thread. Thanks!

Well.... I wasnt going to mess with the van today but needed to know if they gutted the cat or not. The exhaust was cutoff right after the cat by previous owner. I used a jack to move the exhaust out of the way to get a peek in the cat.
They definately didnt gut it. The honeycomb looked good but the end closer to the motor could be clogged and melted. Im just going to gut it out but im still not sure what that small welded cylinder is that they cut a rectangle out of.
Its on pasd side, right off the manifold. Was this just a resonator or something?
And I guess they thought it was the cat .... I dont know?

Im asking because I dont know if I need to repair that area or if its fine. They cut the rectangle out of the cylinder but it has an inner tube that looks to run the whole length of it but cant tell. Also I cant tell if its leaking there because the exhaust dumps out right past the cat so its too loud too close to really tell.

What would you guys do? Just gut the cat out and have a shop run the rest of the exhaust? Would you worry about the thing (doesnt look like a pre cat to me) they cut a hole in? Could anyone tell me WTF the thing is? Lol
Thanks guys!

You should have only ONE catalytic converter.

The 3-valve V10s (I think) were the only ones to have two cats.

I wonder what the thing in the pic is and why they cut it.