Wally the Walrus (1992 E350 High Roof/Ext. Body)

Hey Folks,

I posted in the introduction forum as well, but thought I would specifically post in the IDI section. If I am out of line or did something wrong, please lemme know. The only other forum I have joined is TDIclub for my daily.

Moving along, I bought a 75k original mile '92 from the Dept. of Energy down in ABQ. Drove it back home last night to Telluride CO area. It happily motored along at 65 mph and returned 15.28 MPG. Thats driving up over Lizard Head Pass.

It has F/R AC (converted to R134 and will freeze you out) Cruise, a PICTURE WINDOW for a windshield, and a tape player, what more could a guy want!!

Needs some maintenance items as we have a 2500 mile trip planned back to South Dakota in late October for my mom's surprise 70th and then Thanksgiving in Newport Beach CA with my "outlaws"

I hope this thread will serve as my build thread, to search ..... ask ...... learn ...... and learn some more. Hopefully I will be able to give back with some of my build out ideas along the way. This will NOT become a full-time campervan, well at least not for 12 more years when the misses and I become empty nesters.

I am excited to be here!!!!

Very Respectfully,
Cant Write

Don't be afraid to ask away. We're here to help. We're also here to learn. Even the low mileage ones can need several small things that seem to need to be replaced all at once. Don't get frustrated and give up. Once you get through that, you'll have a van that will be reliable and will last you for years to come. Enjoy.

IDIBRONCO said:

Even the low mileage ones can need several small things that seem to need to be replaced all at once.

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Yep, like my 85 RV. It had the original lower radiator hose still in 2019. Thankfully it waited to spring a leak until I was idling it doing vac system diagnostics so it didn't run dry or overheat.

You were the first one that came to mind to make me write that.

Is it black and gray?

I bought several identical vans 12 years ago. You may have bought a real peach, or a real lemon. I have 380k on one and it is still going strong with only routine maintenance.

The DOE got rid of most of the IDIs 10+ years ago, and have sold off the 95-96 models as well. They just sold five 2005/2006 4x4 E350s and a RV ****** vehicle last week.

Most of their vehicles were used to carry heavily armed fireteams while escorting nuclear weapons transporters, and these vehicles had the absolute best maintenance possible. Some were people hacks, a few were training vehicles that were beat to death.

I spoke with the guy that decommissioned a bunch of them last year. Mine had most of the govt mods intact but apparently they are just cutting and ripping some of the equipment out now.

My vans all had algae in the fuel tanks from sitting so long. I didn't know it and started one up, pumping the algae through the fuel system and ruining much of it. I removed over 100 lbs of govt wiring but had to strip out the entire interior and dash to do it. I also removed a couple of unkown black boxes. The wiring on these vehicles can be a real challenge, because the modification crew used electrical connectors identical to the factory when splicing their systems into the factory wiring.

The IDIs don't have a lot of power at high altitudes (7000ft+) but still get the job done.

Any questions, just ask the guys here. They have been a tremendous help to me.

DOE-SST said:

I also removed a couple of unkown black boxes.

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I wonder if you have found Hillary's emails or the security records from Epstien's jail cell?

I like to think they were smart enough to remove the GPS trackers, but one van at auction (not mine) still had the National Defense Area flags and the magnetic door signs with a huge badge and "Federal Officer" printed on it.

I believe the black boxes were transponders to electronically identify the vehicle to other vehicles and facilities.

Mine still had functioning blackout switches for the rear lights, wigwag headlights, weapons racks, red lighting for the interior, a massive communication system (radios removed), false roof to hide antennas, and a bunch of other mods.

Sounds like it was a “Stealth” IDI. Hopefully you painted over the stealth invisible paint, so folks could see it and not run into you.. A false roof, that’s a new one for me.

Sorry I have been gone the last couple days, wedding season is in full swing for the wife and the kids require my full attention at 6 & 7. My time is not my own!

@DOE-SST What are you doing with 12 vans? Are you converting them to campers and selling them? What auction sights are you looking at? Heck, it doesn't matter, just curious, I put my money on this one and hope I made a descent choice. It has been driven down dirt roads, nothing like some I have seen being from podunk South Dakota, but its seen dirt none the less.

I am not sure where my van falls in line. It is two toned, tan on top, dark brown on bottom. 2 front bucket seats and the 3rd row bench, in between bench removed and the rear benches removed and holes plugged as well. It has 3 comm racks on the back and the original roof is also not cut. The high top does exactly that, hide lots of antennas and surveillance equipment. Even has a working fan on the rear to keep things cool. Had a rack between front 2 seats and about 5 CB mounts. 2 things that look like insulated wine bottle holders, and a rifle holder at the rear middle door. Has comm ports all over it "J" style maybe? Or thats what they are labeled. Has miles of wiring as well not cut out, just the infrastructure it served, removed. Mine also has black out lights, emergency switches and others NOT labeled. All the dome lights work, but none come on when you open a door. I was told they were delivered to Sandia National Labs at 200K each back in the early 90's.

Algae issues, OH JOY, how do I know if I suffer from those? I guess I should prolly search that. I sure hope I got a peach (driver seat isn't even worn, pedals look new, etc), I spent 5 hours crawling around every inch of it, and he had another passenger one, had all the bench rows. I chose this one as it was ready to go, and I have a 2k mile trip to South Dakota later this month and another one to Newport Beach for Thanksgiving with the "outlaws".

I have around 1k miles on it now. I have done nothing but drive it. I have started ordering parts.

On the drive back from ABQ, I put opti-lube summer in the tank. When I got to Telluride, I filled to get the local fuel as its starting to freeze here. At that point I put opti-lube winter in it. On my next fill-up I was going to put a quart of ATF Type F from wally's into the tank and put Power Service Diesel kleen in instead (1/2 bottle)

I have ordered upper and lower radiator hoses, fuel filters (mine is mounted on the trans crossmember), ZD-9 glowplugs and a couple of injectors (1992 was a crossover year according to the guy at NAPA). He did not make me commit to buying the injectors.

QUESTIONS:
1. I have a sticky/leaky injector at idle (grayish white smoke at hot/cold idle). Should I try the ATF trick? Or should I just buy 8 new injectors from a trusted dealer here? Also, maybe it is not an injector......more on this below

I have a tick at idle, very light load, and heavy load, goes away on light to medium throttle. Has been getting progressively quieter as I drive it more. Definitely Right bank, sounds like #7 to me. This is the source of my ATF temptation. I was going to use Type F as I figured it had the least amount of additives since its for 70 to early 80's transmissions. I need to look again but I did not find carbon tracing, it does not sounds like a typical exhaust leak, so I ruled that out. When I was inspecting the vehicle, I removed the dog house after a highway run and put my IR Thermometer on all the exhaust manifolds with it idling. They all read right around 200 - 209 F except #7, it read 217. I pray to the Lord it is an injector vs something in the valve-train or a valve. I used a stethoscope as well and that was hard to determine.

2. Sometimes it feels jerky at medium acceleration, It has calmed down, I assume it to be a fuel starvation issue, but if it is algae, what do I do? Search the forum of course!!

3. CC would be jerky as well, the speedometer would bounce around 1/8th of an inch, but this has seemed to calm down as well. I think this vehicle has sat inside so long (door seals and window sweeps are perfect) that it just needs to be driven.

4. Per the radiator, the PH was last tested in 2003. It looks like it has the old green coolant in it. But my questions is I am not sure which cavitation prevention solution it has in it? I read on here that SCA/DCA-4 are not compatible with NAPA/???? and someone else's version. I also read the test strips are not interchangeable. So how do I go about figuring out which ones are in my system? The coolant is beautiful with no floaties or films.

Last observations for the night. It does not use or make a lick of oil, and the oil does not smell of diesel. The E4OD shifts wonderfully, but their shifting programming leaves a LOT to be desired. Shifts my better than my 1991 4L80e. When the doghouse was removed, the engine only seeps from one place I could find, the RH valve cover.

Sorry for the super long post!!!

Long Term goals are U-joint off road 4x4 conversion, cut the roof so the wife and kids can stand, and add a turbo cause I can definitely leave a smoke trail up here at heavy throttle. I do not want to melt a piston, so I just watch my mirror.

I do plan to remove the entire interior and add some MLV and CCF. The slowly build it out to the family's liking. I plan to have 4 rows of bucket seats, use the early 2000's GM style or equivalent with integral seatbelts for easy removing/installing. That way I can carry 2 families locally when doing things.

Also, my nearest parts store is 20 miles, and other ones are 55 miles, and none of them seem to carry much in the way of idi's. So I need to call ahead, order, and then plan my trips to conserve.

Goodnight, thanks for the warm welcome!!!!

38 degrees this morning, took throttle to get her to fire. But I am happy to report my ticking at idle is all but gone. Reminds me of my carb days, foot to the floor once to set choke, then half way down and all my old sbc's (3) would fire right off. Maybe the "just driving" strategy is sorda.....kinda....not really working...?

My batteries are charging at 14.4V, hot idle. The engine does not shake or rattle at idle, smooth as silk. Blowby is none existent. I focused today and I have to drive pretty much around 1/2 throttle or less when climbing hills otherwise its just extra smoke and no go. I kill OD before the hill and let her climb as Wally feels comfortable, not as I want to.

https://www.oilburners.net/threads/what-are-signs-of-algae.41151/

Found the thread above, specifically post #10. I think I will go down this route as I also have an M1031 CUCV that I plan to use as a wood hauler. So my plan is to his setup for my IDI's and leave my 2005 passat stock as it typically gets driven much much more.

Also, when I go down the turbo road, I read about some people having twice the stock fueling and still showing 1-2PSI with the factory mechanical fuel pump @ WOT, 5psi @ idle. That sounds good to me as I have no plans to make a power house IDI, I would rather simplicity and reliability. I realize a turbo flies in the face of that comment, but a little climbing power up here would be nice.

I mention this because I was thinking of an aftermarket system like FASS, but need to realize a much simpler filtering/fueling set-up that cleans adequately no matter what is in my tank coupled with a factory mechanical pump sounds like a system I prefer. Although I hope there is a way to prevent air intrusion cause of all the additional connections.

My verbal vomit for the day

Sounds like you got a peach from your description. The eskort vehicles had all the comm stuff, weapons stuff, etc. They had great maintenance. However, they also had a bed in back and all the rear and mid-rear windows were blacked out. Since yours had a bench seat, it may have spent time as a people transport. If you bought it from a private seller, he may have changed out the rear furnishings. The IDI vans that sold at auction in June were mostly wrecks, and I laughed my butt off when they sold for 5k - 7k.



Most IDI vans were sold when they reached around 200,000 miles, and with good maint you should be able to get at least another 200,000 miles out of yours. Mine were all rust free. Even now, after 28 years, the bottom of my floor pans are completely rust free, thanks to a desert environment.



If you are going to strip out the govt wiring, be advised it took me around 40 hours to do it, including removing the entire interior and dash. The plastic interior panels are brittle and their attach points break off easily. Superglue and a plastics welder helped fix mine. The modification guys used wiring connectors identical to the factory, and plugged their stuff into the factory harnesses. So when you are tracing wires, look deep into the van innards and you will find the factory connectors unplugged and tucked behind stuff. Most of the mod wiring is slightly different from the factory. If you start with the alarm wiring in the left front upper engine bay, you’ll see what I mean. The factory used black electrical tape and wiring loom on almost all their harnesses whereas the mod guys usually just used black plastic loom. You’ll need to remove both front fenders (easy) to remove the mod wiring, and replace it with your own stuff (towing, interior lighting, house battery, and other wires).



Since you have been running your van for 1K miles, algae is unlikely to be a problem. If you had it, it would have totally clogged up the fuel filter, and if any reached the injection pump or injectors, it would have locked them up tight. Perhaps the previous owner fixed that problem. There might still be small amounts in your fuel tank. You need to kill it first and then clean it out. I kill it with Biobor but there is a biocide available at the auto parts stores that does a good job, at $30 a quart, DieselKleen removes it slowly, and Goof-Off really cleans it out. I am just finishing an algae contaminated van and will be running small amounts of Goof-Off through it. I put a small clear plastic fuel filter just ahead of the injection pump to see what crap is still in the system.



At 5200ft altitude, an empty IDI van does okay, sometimes needing the overdrive off on hills. At 7000ft it loses a noticeable amount of power. Carrying a family and a camper interior will degrade power further. Towing heavy loads at these altitudes is not fun. Adding a camper interior actually adds quite a bit of weight. I’ve done three van conversions and just the new interior, without people or water and supplies caused a noticeable difference in performance.



Cutting out the factory roof is fairly simple but making the interior fabric transition smoothly to the fiberglas roof is no fun. The extra space is a HUGE improvement and it is great being able to stand up inside. I have cut out three roofs and strongly suggest you leave the front three feet and the rear three feet of the factory roof intact. Otherwise you will have removed so much structural integrity the van body will constantly flex and squeak like a dozen mice in a trash compactor. Filling up all the walls with expanding foam helped reduce the squeaking. It took 40+ cans of spray can foam to do the walls, not including the doors. If your fiberglas roof is white, it won’t collect much heat. Any other color and it will make the factory roof quite hot. The three govt fans above the factory roof help quite a bit with cooling. I removed the factory roof center section on a brown van and it collected so much heat (Albuquerque) the dual air conditioners took 30+ minutes to cool down the interior, even with the fans.



When pulling the left rear interior, be sure to inspect and repair the rear HVAC blend door. It has a little plastic pin that breaks easily, resulting in hot air but no cold air from the rear unit. When I took mine apart I found three broken pins in the vacuum solenoid from three previous repairs.



Check that your tire iron actually will remove your lug nuts. My vans all had an F350 iron that wouldn’t fit because the van steel wheels had a raised lip and the iron had an enlarged outer lip. Just grind a bit off the iron to make it work.



I won’t comment on engine/trans/turbo or similar issues because there are guys here with FAAAAAR more knowledge than I on these areas. The search engine will bring up a lot of useful info.


Have fun, and keep us posted.

forgot to add...

Look under the front bumper for a long black rectangular device. Unplug it and pitch it in a dumpster or throw it in a lake.

Been a few days,

I do have that black rectangle under the front bumper. What is it, some kind of location/tracking device? I will remove it and discard

I have removed all the major equipment out of the van that was interfering with its interior space. Found 2 good sized leads running to the back from the battery up front. Found a copper bus bar about 1"X1/4" thick. And it looks like behind the sheet plastic that is used to black out the windows, theres sheet copper....?

Mechanically, I changed the fuel filter, used a WIX gold from NAPA cause its what I could find that day. It was $50 and they forgot to include the o-ring for the fuel bowl. I felt bent over, are all fuel filters that expensive? The bottom of the fuel filter had some crud in it, but the fuel bowl looked good, disassembled, cleaned, lubed, and put back together.

I bought 2 injectors from NAPA but I plan to return them. I tried the ATF in the fuel filter, let it sit 3 days and my tick is almost completely gone. I need to find a set of injectors from a reputable seller in time. Recommendations? Also my 1/2-3/4 hard acceleration "buck" or "hiccup" is completely gone, I figured it was fuel starvation issues and that appears to be correct.

Our trip to the Black Hills begins next Thursday, so need to get a makeshift bed together, but I am also trying frantically to get a "dog-house" framed and enclosed. Its my 10X15 small little workshop. Will be used to work on bikes, old vintage Pioneer receivers, wax skis, and even build engines. I will have a separate area for storage of engine stand, cherry picker, and bikes, and additional outdoors stuff. Future plans are to have a slab poured in front of it so I can stop working on non-level gravel.

Cheers!

I’m just guessing that black device is either a GPS unit or a transponder that sends out an identifier signal when it receives an interrogation signal. Mine only had a power plug.



I bought a cheap case of factory fuel filters on ebay but they are almost gone. Other guys here are looking at using different filter mounts that use cheaper filters but this might delete a few fuel system features



The copper sheet behind the left rear window was used to prevent radio interference between the communication equipment mounted on the racks and a huge whip antenna mounted outside that window. You should find lots of copper paste and two large grounding braids attached to the copper plate. They probably could have talked with the space shuttle with their comm system. I removed the antenna mount and replaced it with a very discrete vent to allow fresh air into the sleeping area. There are a few other devices added to the van to prevent radio signal interference from factory components, including the rear HVAC unit and the music radio, which might be an official D.O.E. radio, according to the decals on mine. The music radio was a bit_h to remove. There is an antenna signal splitter under the removable panel on top of the dash, which is handy if you want to install a second radio like a C.B. radio. I'm assuming all the other govt radio equipment has been removed.



If your side windows are still blacked out, I’d keep it like that. It prevents thieves from seeing what is inside and is not very noticeable from the outside. The rear window blackout curtains are very effective at keeping heat inside, as is the thick middle full length curtain, if your van still has it. The mod guys did a very professional job building a completely light-proof sleeping area.



Your van originally had a twin size bed on top of an aluminum framework for the 2nd driver to use during long non-stop drives. It was installed on the right side fore-aft. It was full length, not chopped. I used mine and got some great nights of sleep in it.



I took out all the communications racks, but I suggest you leave the upper aluminum attach brackets intact for now. They are well built and can save you a lot of work later when you decide to add interior furnishings. The floor has a lot of additional mounting points that may have allen-head bolts plugging them. They have hefty fixed nuts on the outside. Great for mounting interior items.



I sold the weapons racks and ammo racks to a local gun store.