The throttle pedal is hard to press. The linkages and all might just need some lube. I will pick up a can of Walmart spray lube.
The booster has vacuum, though I suppose it could be the booster check valve. I can hear suction if I tilt it, letting air into the booster. I can press the pedal a few times with the engine off and the pedal gets harder, so I think its within the hydraulic side. I will get them to test the vacuum pump pressure. It sounded kind squeaky from the suction going straight to the pump when I pulled the hose off of the distribution block, but it did have some suction.
It could very well need an entirely new hydraulic brake system: hoses, calipers, wheel cylinders, master cylinder. It wont be cheap, but I'm not going to drive it 300 miles like this.
The guy I spoke to said he'd have to examine the brake hoses to see what state they may be in, ie: if they are ballooning. It looks to be a reputable shop, and they have extra tall garage doors so it looks like it might fit in their shop. Plus it's very close, within 1/2 mile of this Walmart.
Advance didn't have a fuel filter in stock when I went in earlier. I'll walk to Oreilly in the morning while they are looking at the brakes. I have pretty much no tools with me beyond a couple screwdrivers, a small adjustable wrench, and a flare nut wrench that fits the IP lines, so even to do the fuel filter, I have to buy another tool, either a strap wrench or an oil filter wrench. Mildly annoying since I have all that stuff already.
Oh, and has anyone here really seen the ATS turbo on a van? I thought the air cleaner lid might be "gone" but no! I don't think it's supposed to have one. There's no room to even get one in. There is a k&n sticker on the dash board and the filter looks to be in it. That could very well also be a problem with warm idle, a clogged filter. Its being held down tight to the lower half of an air box with the clamps that you would normally find for holding a lid on. The CDR is noticeably missing, but you can see where it should be. There is a curved, hard as a rock rotten old hose going from the valve cover to the air box. It's oil leaky pretty badly so I will tend to that. I have an extra CDR from my truck that might just need to be cleaned, so I can put it on when I get back to my truck.
There is no diesel smell in the oil. Smells like the oil in my truck with a cheap electric fuel pump, so there's no fuel leaking into the crankcase at the moment from the mechanical pump.