Hi all,

Thanks for having me and happy to be here. My name's Lou and I'm the proud new owner of a 93 E150 cargo van with a L6 300cid. The body is in great condition and it's had a very easy life hauling flowers and hippies. I bought it for very cheap as a secondary vehicle and as a work mule for our restaurant from a young couple who had their sights set on turning it into a camping/adventure van. They only owned it for a few months and never drove it much themselves. They claimed that one day it started running badly, they took it to a mechanic buddy of theirs who said it was a bad transmission, and parked it - until their apartment complex put a gun to their head to have it moved. ...then I came into the picture.

I am no stranger to dragging home old dilapidated ***** boxes and fairly mechanically inclined. I gave it the once-over and found that, mechanically, everything seemed solid and even with the suspected bad trans, it was still worth more than what I paid for it.

Long and short of it is that it won't start. It'll crank as long as the battery will go but not so much as a cough or sputter of life.

Here's what I've done:

1/4 tank gas indicated on gauge.
New battery (full charge)
New battery terminals
Pulled no.6 spark plug - found wet with fuel but gapped at .045"
Grounded plug wire to check for spark - spark present at about 1/4" gap to ground.
Verified ignition timing. Plug wires follow firing order on the distributor with proper rotation, rotor points to no.1 wire when no.1 cylinder is at the top of stroke and pulley indicates TDC.
Confirmed rotor rotates while engine cranks.
Fuel pressure present at rail (both during prime and cranking)
Fuel injectors are operating (clicking sound confirmed with stethoscope - don't know if spraying fuel but plugs are wet with fuel so I assume fuel's getting in the chamber. Besides, I'm getting nothing even with starting fluid right down it's throat).
Suspected may be a weak coil so checked coil resistance across primary and secondary. Found high resistance across the primaries (5.5ohms) so decided to replace coil. No change.
Pulled no.6 plug once more, it seemed fouled once more.
Took fuel sample. Fuel had some water contamination. Added 2 gallons and ran pump until samples were clear. Also spilled some on sidewalk and lit it. lights fine.
Checked fuel pressure (key on, engine off) and read 55psi (Matco fuel pressure tester and gauge).

I'm out of ideas. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you all in advance.

 

 

I'm thinking timing as well, or the control module.

 

Thanks Jimbo and Wiskey. These are gear-to-gear (no chain or belt). Did a compression test (cylinders range between 118-130psi). I checked ignition timing. No.1 cyl is at TDC at compression stroke, distributor rotor points to plug wire for no.1, and harmonic points to TDC.

There's progress though. I figured removing all the plugs, wiping them down and letting them dry out, and pumping out all the yuk from the combustion chambers would give it a better shot at starting. So I took off the two plastic intake snorkels that go to the air cleaner box and sprayed ether directly down its throat again. Reinstalled all the plugs and wires and gave it a go.

It sputtered and coughed consistently and almost came to life! It was hitting on 2 or 3 cylinders until it used up the spray and then consistently on one cylinder while I held the key to the start position and kept cranking.

...then I got caught in a downpour and went inside. So before I go much further, I will go back out when the weather turns and try to force feed it a little better and see what that does. This engine has very long intake runners and a plenum chamber after the throttle body so ether may only be reaching a few cylinders.

 

 

Welcome to the forum, I had an '81 E150 with the venerable 300 although it was carbureted, and so what I consider much easier to understand and work on. I now have an '98 E 150 and will likely be as mystified until I get the Ford service manuals for my model year. I'll be watching your thread with interest. Best of luck.
Gus

 

Man, the 300's i had were carbed.

 

You checked to see if #1 was on TDC, but have you verified #1 is on the top of the compression stroke ? Crankshaft rotates two full revolutions in each cylinder cycle. And stop skimping on the fuel FILL the tank with fresh fuel. Plug gap of .045" is fine nothing wrong with that. You might also want to remove the distributor cap and inspect it's insides. If they're corroded, that'll affect the spark.

 

I've lost count of the times I had a distributor in 180* out of time---engines don't like that one bit.

I'd pull the distributor back out so you can rotate the rotor contact 180* and test crank again.

 

He needs to verify it's at TDC on the compression stroke first.

 

Have you checked the map, TPS, ECT and IAT sensors?