Ok, posted a while back about a 96 Ford E-250 van I got a great deal on. Well, it ran ok, but had a little dead spot at beginning of gas. It had broken windshield, brakes were squishy, bad tires, good body, broken oil dipstick, and a few other issues. Spent one whole day cleaning inside. Guy that owned it must have hauled dirt and concrete or something. But whatever was on the floor must have protected the floorboards, they were great under th 3 inches of crap. Not sure if the guy survived his smoking addiction, if his lungs look anything like the yellow tar all over this van he is now 6 feet under. I am a non smoker, so that kind of makes me sick to my stomach. Well a buddy of mine came down this weekend to help me work on the van. Our first project was to put a truck bed liner (roll on) coat to the back of the truck. I plan to use this van as a work vehicle to haul stuff and figured this would protect the van for this purpose. It is not the most attractive thing to do to a van, but who cares, I am not going to be using this van to cruise for chicks. It is my work truck. It was about 102 this weekend and it was a very HOT job. Once we finished a 3rd coat I noticed it was getting dark. Took like 5 hours to do this!! We decided to change oil next. I had already ran some sea foam through the gas, intake and oil. My buddy started on the 4.9 Liter straight six from the dog house and I started from the hood. I could not even see the plug wires let alone the plugs. I knew this would not be easy. Well, I took the air cleaner box off and felt down and found the forst wire. Pulled the plug wire off and felt for the plug. It was so loose it almost fell out with the one finger I touched it with. I was thinking how this thing was running at all. So took plug out with my fingers, and got new plug in tight. I decided to leave the old wire on till we got the plugs cahanged then go back over and put new wires on just to be sure we hooked them up properly since I could not even see what I was doing and had to do all by feel. I noticed two wire ends, told my buddy his wire was all the way up in the front and he said no it was in his hand. WTF, The first plug wire was not even hooked up to the distributor. My buddy looked at distributor and it was rusted at the end where wire attaches. Must not have been hooked up for quite a while. So number 2 was next, it was loose also. This was true of three plugs. One plug was burned more than I have ever seen before. I think this thing was running on one cylinder. Decided to change oil next, was around 10 pm and cooling off, thank god, think it got down to a cool 97. Well, the oil drain plug was totaly rounded off and must have ben air ratched on. Took till 11:30 to get it off. had to file and use vise grips. Decided to stay up late and finish as much as I could, Tried to change Fuel filter but need special tool, so waited till morning to do this. Went to Car Quest and got new Oil plug, which oem did not fit, so must have been tapped. Got right one and tool for Fuel filter. Original, wires, and fuel filter were on the van still and has 200,000 some miles on van. Fuel filter was hkljhkub$#@$#@$# to take off. took a couple hours. Black stuff poured out of engine side, and rusty red gas out of tank side, YUCK!!! Got oil changed fully. Still need to find a oil tube. IF ANYONE HAS A OLD 4.9 LITER AROUND WITH DIP STICK, I WILL BUY IT. Went to junk yard today and replaced broken tail light. changed air filter and washed outside. Looks really nice now. the body has a few dents and a little rust, but is mostly clean.
) Don't worry BusaWhipped, I would never be able to find your house in that twisty neighborhood of yours.
