My van?

A 1997 Ford E250 that I’ve owned for 10 years. The last two years it’s been sitting in the yard collecting dust with a dead engine.  I just ordered a rebuilt engine from Titan Engines.

My inspiration for this project came from a 2010 Moab Utah trip with my Father. I’ve had a rusting 1997 Ford van in the yard for the last two years.  While in Moab I saw a large number of 4×4 Vans and decided rather than have my van towed to the dump I would resurrect it as a 4×4.

Thats me with a rental Jeep in Moab Utah

IN THE WORKS:

4″ lift with 285/75/16 (33″) tires on 16″ wheels.

Dana 60 high pinion front axle with an upgraded 1350 yoke and Warn premium manual hubs.

New ball joints :  Here’s a great article on replacing your ball joints and another good how to guide for ball joints

Here’s a link to the Harbor Freight 4 x 4 Ball Joint Service Kit I used to replace  my ball Joints and U Joints. At the time I purchased it, I paid around $40.00

New Spicer U Joints: U Joint Replacement Artice

I’m purchasing most of my 4 x4 van suspension kit from Ujointoffroad.com

NV 271 Transfer Case BW1356 Transfer Case.

4R70W 2wd Transfer Case.  Need to convert it to a 4WD or just exchange/swap it and perhaps even scrap the NV273 for a BW4406 BW1356 Borg Warner that will bolt right on with no modification.

I’ll be replacing the existing rear Dana 60 semi-floating axle with a 10.5 Sterling w/ disk breaks. I’ll either sell the rear dana60 or save it for a rock crawler or Jeep I may build in the future.

I find most of my parts on Ebay.  My front Dana 60 came out of a 2002 Ford F350 Dually with 3.73 gears. I only paid $300 for it. Other than the rotors and hubs the Dually front Dana 60 is the same as any other 1999 -2004 ford dana 60. I will be replacing the break calipers, break pads,  hubs, rotors, seals, Spicer u joints and  Moog ball joints and still come in under $1200 for the entire front axle.

My favorite place in Moab other than the trails.

After a recent trip to Moab I decided my little 4.2 engine was not up to the task of driving up and down steep Mountains on a regular basis.  I’am currently searching for a 1999 – 2003 7.3 van to replace my woefully underpowered 4.2.

7.3L Power Stroke diesel

In mid 1994, the 7.3L Power Stroke diesel was introduced. Although the previous 7.3 had the same displacement, there were no similarities between the two. The Power Stroke was a direct injection engine, with electronic control. The engine has an 4.11 in (104.4 mm) bore and 4.18 in (106.2 mm) stroke for a displacement of 444 cu in (7.3 L). It utilizes a single turbocharger and in 1999 and later, an intercooler. It utilizes a 17.5:1 compression ratio, and has a dry weight of approximately 920 lbs. This model produced up to 250 hp (190 kW) and 525 lb·ft (712 N·m) of torque in automatic trucks during the last years of production, and 275 hp (205 kW) and 550 lb·ft (746 N·m) of torque on manual trucks. The 1994.5 to 1996/97 DI Power stroke had “single shot” HEUI (hydraulically actuated electronic unit injection) fuel injectors and ran a 15° high pressure oil pump (HPOP) to create the necessary oil pressure to fire the fuel injectors. 1994.5-1997 trucks used a cam driven fuel pump, whereas the 1999-2003 trucks used a frame rail mounted electric fuel pump. The California trucks in 1996 and 1997 had split shot fuel injectors whereas the rest of the trucks didn’t get split shots until 1999. The difference between the split shot and single shot are the single shot just inject one charge of fuel per cycle, whereas the split shot releases a pre light load before the main charge to initiate combustion in a more damped manner. This controlled injection helps reduce the sharp combustion ‘knock’. The turbine housing was a 1.15 A/R. In 1999, an air to air intercooler was added. The intercooler cooled the charged air from the turbo making it denser. The cooler, denser air would increase the horsepower potential of the engine, while also reducing exhaust gas temperatures (EGTs). The turbine housing was changed to a .84 A/R housing and a wastegate was added. With larger injectors, the HPOP was advanced to 17° to change fueling characteristics. The 7.3 L DI Power Stroke was in production up until 2003 when it was replaced by the 6.0L. In 2003 Ford Motor Company split the year, early 2003 the 7.3 DI was available, and the later part of the year got the new 6.0 L.

The van diesels were turbo charged but without the intercooler… a bit less power and tuned differently.

The 7.3 is a great engine. Add a large external tranny oil cooler and change the tranny oil at 20K mile intervals.