First Diesel, looking for some advice

[lkrasner]

Recently picked up a 19 passenger school bus I'm converting to an RV. I got it dumb cheap, but it definitely has some questionable history, so I'm looking to figure out what I should be doing to get it tuned up and prevent any further damage... It's a 1994 E-350 with the IDI 7.3 (non-turbo), E40D trans. about 240k miles. It's been out of bus duty for a while, used as a tailgate vehicle, then to transport people + kayaks for a short time. I wouldn't say it's been abused, but I get the impression it has not been meticulously maintained in recent years. This is my first ford, and first diesel, so I'm pretty in the dark and trying to get myself up to speed. Most of my experience comes from GM gas trucks.

What I've done so far:

1.Changed oil, it was black and gross... Used Motorcraft oil + FL-1995 filter with extra quart capacity.
2. Bought a fuel filter, haven't changed yet. it's tucked up under the dash kind of in the van configuration and I haven't wanted to mess with it yet.
3. Changed VSS in rear diff (more on that later).
4. Previous owner had all new glow plugs + 2 new batteries put in recently
5. Fuel additive and a can of seafoam (I swear by the stuff in gas engines, not sure about diesels but it shouldn't hurt)

Issues I've found so far:
1. White smoke at start up. My guess is low compression? Or is there anything else I should be checking first? Starts right up with about 1/4 throttle, need to hold that for about a minute till it warms up then it idles fine. White smoke for a couple minutes until its warm, then it runs great.
2. Hard shifts + OD light flashing. This is the one that scares me. Previous owner had it looked at by a good shop, and they were convinced it was the VSS, so I replaced that. It seemed to shift better, but its still hard, and the od light still flashed constantly. I haven't been able to pull codes yet, but I'll do that later today. I assume my Bluetooth OBDII reader with Torque should work for OBD I as well??
3. There's some kind of small cooler in front of the radiator with a bunch of fins smashed, could that be a transmission cooler? Yet to trace the lines and see if it is anything I care about.
4. Rear ABS light is on, even after replacing the VSS, could be related to #2?

So those are the big things, but what else should I start doing to make sure this thing is running well and will last for me? Basically looking for any info on where to start getting an understanding of this Vehicle. Coolant flush? God knows when that was last done.. Air filter? Haven't even found that yet, but it's probably dirty.

EDIT: Also, what are the options for putting a turbo in. I don't need a ton of power, but I do plan on using this at elevation, and I get the feeling she won't be happy with that without some boost..


Thanks in advance!

 

[genscripter]

IDI's in vans/RV's are a lot rarer than the trucks. I had a hard time finding van-specific info on the internet for these beasts, so I spent the last few years compiling all my van-IDI projects on this site: http://www.nickpisca.com/diesel/

It might be of help to you as you progress with fixing up your RV.

First off, check to make sure the PO put in Motorcraft GP's. If they are cheapo, then take them out ASAP before they swell. Swollen GP's are hard enough to get out of a truck engine bay, I don't even want to speculate how difficult that job would be in a van bay.

It might be low compression, but it also could just be bad timing. If the PO didn't maintain the engine well, then the IP could be tired, the injectors could be old, or the timing could be off. If you can get access to a timing gun and ferret meter (ask on this forum for people in your area), then you can time the engine get a baseline.

That small oil cooler is likely your auxiliary tranny cooler. On the bigger Uhaul/E350 vans of those days, they had a secondary cooler to aide the cooling of the tranny in addition to the heat exchanger to the bottom of the radiator. I got my tranny cooler from a 94 E350, which I appropriated on my '88 E250 clubwagon, to help with the hauling and towing in the desert out here in California.

Coolant flush might be in order. Replace the coolant with SCA compatible fluid (read about cavitation, but don't get too worried about it, it's rare). Tranny flush might be good. Gear oil, etc. Grease the greasable areas. Basically all the typical maintenance. I suspect your steering wheel as a buttload of slop. You'll like spend a while fixing up the tie rods, kingpins (i forget if the E350 in 1994 had ball joints or kingpins), steering joint, etc in the hopes to minimize slop.

As for the hard shifting, it's hard to say. Might be time to rebuild the E4OD. Get some codes and that'll help diagnose the issue.

 

[lkrasner]

IDI's in vans/RV's are a lot rarer than the trucks. I had a hard time finding van-specific info on the internet for these beasts, so I spent the last few years compiling all my van-IDI projects on this site: http://www.nickpisca.com/diesel/

It might be of help to you as you progress with fixing up your RV.

First off, check to make sure the PO put in Motorcraft GP's. If they are cheapo, then take them out ASAP before they swell. Swollen GP's are hard enough to get out of a truck engine bay, I don't even want to speculate how difficult that job would be in a van bay.

It might be low compression, but it also could just be bad timing. If the PO didn't maintain the engine well, then the IP could be tired, the injectors could be old, or the timing could be off. If you can get access to a timing gun and ferret meter (ask on this forum for people in your area), then you can time the engine get a baseline.

That small oil cooler is likely your auxiliary tranny cooler. On the bigger Uhaul/E350 vans of those days, they had a secondary cooler to aide the cooling of the tranny in addition to the heat exchanger to the bottom of the radiator. I got my tranny cooler from a 94 E350, which I appropriated on my '88 E250 clubwagon, to help with the hauling and towing in the desert out here in California.

Coolant flush might be in order. Replace the coolant with SCA compatible fluid (read about cavitation, but don't get too worried about it, it's rare). Tranny flush might be good. Gear oil, etc. Grease the greasable areas. Basically all the typical maintenance. I suspect your steering wheel as a buttload of slop. You'll like spend a while fixing up the tie rods, kingpins (i forget if the E350 in 1994 had ball joints or kingpins), steering joint, etc in the hopes to minimize slop.

As for the hard shifting, it's hard to say. Might be time to rebuild the E4OD. Get some codes and that'll help diagnose the issue.

Thanks for the info. The van configuration is definitely throwing me, just looking at it makes me fear pretty much any repair I'll have to do... I've been given confidence by the dumb simplicity of these engines, and a solid base of people on forums like this, so I'm confident I'll be able to maintain it, hopefully without too much expense.

 

[chillman88]

Does your tachometer work? That's tied into the electronics for the E4OD on these trucks.

Sounds to me like your high idle and possibly cold timing advance isn't working properly. Will it hold about 900-1100rpm at idle when cold? You're supposed to floor the pedal once while waiting for the glow plugs to set the high idle. Then it should be in high idle until it warms up a little bit.

 

[franklin2]

I would not worry about the smoke at start up. It's just unburnt fuel. The diesel uses heat to ignite the fuel, and there is very little heat in a diesel engine when it's first started. If once it warms up it is gone and doesn't do it after the engine has warmed up, I would not worry about it.

Also do not worry about the oil being black. That is a diesel thing also. If you have run it any length of time after you changed it, I bet is is black as tar again. It's just the nature of a diesel engine.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

I would tend to suspect that your injector pump is worn or very retarded in timing since you have to manually hold 1/4 throttle for a bit when it first starts. If your pump is worn, you should save yourself the headaches and replace the injectors too since they wear at about the same rate. Now if it doesn't idle smoothly for a short time on startup, this could be air intrusion, possibly related to the white smoke. As for your OBD2 code reader working with the OBD1 set up? Most likely not. The two systems used different types of plug ins. Now I've never worked on a van with an E4OD, all of them had a C6. On the trucks, the OBD1 port is underneath the hood, not under the dash like with the OBD2.

 

[Thewespaul]

Most obd2 scanners won’t work unless they have their own power source. The obd1 plug has no power going to it, only signal wiring so that’s the main issue. I bought the Ford specific obd1 scanner for this purpose, pretty affordable on eBay.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

Mine's OBD1 compatible too. I sold the car that I bought it for and now have nothing to use it on. Maybe I need to start charging my friends to hook it up? I've never used it on anything of mine.

 

[lkrasner]

Does your tachometer work? That's tied into the electronics for the E4OD on these trucks.

Sounds to me like your high idle and possibly cold timing advance isn't working properly. Will it hold about 900-1100rpm at idle when cold? You're supposed to floor the pedal once while waiting for the glow plugs to set the high idle. Then it should be in high idle until it warms up a little bit.

The instrument panel on this doesn't have a tach. I do want to look into adding one.

 

[gandalf]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned The Tech Article section There is a wealth of information there. It may not be all immediately useful to you, but it's good background information for a basic understanding.

Get and use the largest transmission cooler you can find. The E4OD is a known weak point, in it's stock form. Heat is it's enemy. Make it run as cool as you possibly can.

And never be afraid to ask questions here. There is a wealth of information on this site. We'll help you spend your money faster than you thought possible.

 

[MtnHaul]

With 240k on the e4OD I would bet it's close to needing a rebuild. Regarding your ABS light there is plug somewhere under your dash that needs to be grounded--no idea where it would be on a van. Once you have the wire grounded, turn on your ignition and watch the ABS light. It will then flash codes at you. When it ends a code it will end it with a long flash before starting the next code (if there is one), just be sure to count the long flash as well.
I'm sure you can google the list of codes and what they mean. I had an odd-ball issue with the ABS light coming on at 36mph and then staying on--turned out by converting to LED lights on my flatbed I had inadequate current running through the brake light circuit--basically made the system think my taillights were out--and this was triggering the ABS light. I like how Ford engineers figured that if a guy's brake lights are out then he probably doesn't need ABS either.

For fuel additive I personally like the Stanadyne and Optilube products. Optilube has to be ordered but Stanadyne can usually be found on the shelf somewhere.

As to adding a tach you might look into TinyTach. These use a transducer that clamps to a fuel line to measure the RPM. I use the company's wireless tach to tune my 2-strokes and would certainly buy from them again.