Have you pulled your pan in the van before? I think I can fit it out if I jack the motor up and put blocks under the motor mounts. Shouldn’t be too messy since there’s oil in just the pan...
Wow. that website looks like it was designed in 1999, but the earliest archive.org record is from 2013. Crazy indeed.
If I were a bettin' man, I would personally download all that content to PDF's asap. I've found that old websites like that die off. They always say the "internet always remembers" but I've been burned way too many times looking for old vehicle websites that had amazing information and now are gone forever. Notably the
Frybrid forum and
the Pathfinder guy. Good god... would I love to have Chris and Gordon repost all their invaluable information back to the internet. I got to meet Chris in 2008. He helped us out on the trip back from Alaska, and his shop was a hoot.
Definitely inspect your regulator valve. It's possible that is siphoning off your pressure. I'd still expect some pressure or flow at the filter. not sure what is going on.
I've never pulled the pan on a van yet. I have often thought about how I'd do it, if the dreaded day ever occurred. I suspect it would be impossible, because the crossmember is just too close to the pan. Also, trying to remate the pan to the block with silicone would be very hard to accomplish when reinstalling the pan.
If I had to give it a try, I'd wager this would be my procedure.
(Note, my van's IDI has a hypermax turbo kit, which means I have two up-pipes run from the EM's to the top sides of the tranny. Most stock van IDI's have the y-pipe under the tranny, and the banks van turbo kit also has the same obstruction. This becomes pertinent if you are trying to extract the pan toward the rear of the vehicle). I'd first remove the up- and down-pipes for the turbo. Then remove the turbo, air cleaner, and IP. This would allow me to hoist the block as high as possible in the engine bay. If you really wanted to get some extra clearance, you could also remove the intake. I'd remove the steering pump hoses. Since you have the e-pump, you don't have to disconnect your metal fuel lines to the lift pump. I'd disconnect the heater hoses and any other possible wires/hoses/connections that might have any strain from lifting the block.
Then, after disconnecting the mounts (and trans mounts), I'd jack the block up as high as possible. I use a special 1/4" steel plate on top my shopcrane with a notch to lift my van blocks, because using a hook or anything under the crane doesn't afford any room. video:
https://www.nickpisca.com/diesel/en...i-engine-from-a-1988-ford-e250-econoline-van/
Even with that though, I suspect your biggest problem will be the doghouse and valve covers. If you lift your block up really high, the clearance of the intake-to-underside-of-ceiling height will be eclipsed by the distance-from-VC-to-doghouse-seals. I once dinged up a VC pulling an engine because I lifted it up too fast. I wasn't even close to the ceiling yet.
It's a really crappy situation. I suspect that you won't have enough room to pull the oil pan to clear the crossmember.
I remember reading about mechanics in the 80's cutting the crossmember in ambulances to access the pan or drop the block, then rewelding the crossmember back into place. I don't know if that was just an urban legend. But apparently, it saved them some time. I'm not too convinced that is true, because the crossmember is not flat... it's a tube, and I don't know how you'd reweld the top end of the crossmember with the new engine in place.
I suspect you'l have to also drop the tranny as well, because once you pull the pan, the trans and y-pipe will be in your way, obstructing your ability to slide the pan back to the rear of the van. That would mean disconnecting the TC, driveshaft, and tranny lines as well. At a certain point, it might be worth just pulling the entire motor. I know when I rebuilt my latest 7.3,
I started it on a stand just to make sure my pump and parts were all functional prior to reinstalling the block, just because I knew I wouldn't have a second chance at this.
With all that said, it would be an interesting challenge to drop the pan with the engine in the bay. I'd definitely help you as much as possible. I remember guys telling me it was impossible to
do the head gaskets in the van engine bay, but I pulled that off. Maybe your oil pan project will prove my predictions wrong..
I'm based in Inglewood, not too far away. Even if I'm just online support, or work out a plan to come up there, it would be interesting to see if the task is possible.