Van?

[BoulevardRide]

Any of you guys ever own or work on a 80's vintage 351 econoline?

Would it be impossible to do things like troubleshoot vacuum leaks, sensor/wire failures, etc?

how about servicing intake/vc gaskets?

How hard to address the standard 1980s sbf stuff that needs attention after 30+ years.

also, carb vs injection... which would be more reliable and easier to work on/troubleshoot on a van?

only interested in reliablity, i don't care about performance, i'm slow... just can't have roadside dramas... thanks for any help

[Tiggie]

The doghouse comes out and makes working on top and sides of the engine reasonable. Intake and valve covers are okay. The front is still a pain. Timing chain, water pump, etc.

I’d look for an EFI version for reliability/drivability. A carb’d one you could service without opening the hood though lol.

[BoulevardRide]

Oh yeah the timing chain. the vans probably got those plastic gears too...? what year did that stop. can the timing chain be replaced without dropping the motor or front end? thans for the help

[gadget73]

What he said. Anything on top is actually pretty simple since you can get to the back of it. Arguably easier than a car, though having to haul parts out through the interior kinda blows. Front of it, PITA.

The plastic mostly stopped in the cars around 1986 with some random recurrences through the end of the 80s at least. Don't know about trucks.

Shouldn't have to drop the motor, but you may have to pull the grille and radiator for access. The timing cover has to come off and you'll need to get access to all of that.

Definitely EFI. Late carb stuff with the miles of vacuum hose and the computer controls are a nightmare. Other option would be early enough to be fully non-electronic with no emissions BS. We had a 1987 F250 where I used to work, that thing had so much bullshit on the engine it was just impossible. It was really messed up too, it shot fireballs out of the tailpipe and ran generally like garbage. I finally got tired of it not being useful and ripped all that crap off. Ran like a watch from that point on, but there was a box full of vacuum hoses and other nonsense that I pulled. It was a yard truck and it just needed to move boats around the property but its very difficult to make use of it when it stalls trying to pull things up the ramp.

[BoulevardRide]

I know you said it's a yard truck but... all the stuff you removed to make it run... would that kill the cruise control in a road going vehicle of the same vintage? thank u

[gadget73]

Depends what you remove. I don't see why you couldn't keep the cruise, its one vacuum hose. I removed the two smog pumps, their plumbing, and the vacuum stuff associated with the pumps and the EGR. I left the climate control and brake booster lines, I don't honestly remember if that truck even had cruise. I wouldn't have removed it if I did. I know it ran a ton better. I actually had to drive it 45 minutes home the day I de-smogged it. Boss left while I was getting a shower and locked my keys in the shop. The yard truck was tagged and such, so it made it's first highway trip in who knows how long and it did a fine job of it. The last time I had driven that thing down the road it sounded like a bunch of hicks doing a drive-by with all the popping and banging that was going on. That was ~45 mph on a country road, I ran it home at 70 mph on the interstate. I tested the 4bbl a few times too, and it did work. Didn't pick up speed, but it made the right noises from under the hood.

[DerekTheGreat]

Did someone convert that '87 F250 to a carpitator? Thought '87 and up was all EFI... Buuut GM did weird things the first two years of their redesign, you could get a carb if the truck was a certain GVWR or higher I think.

[gadget73]

Factory 4bbl, F250 HD. I think 87 was the end of the road for the carb, and it was only on the higher GVWR models. It didn't have cats either, but it had two smog pumps. NFC what the purpose of that was other than to make it run bad.

[DerekTheGreat]

Wow.. When buying new, why would anyone want a carb over EFI?

I'd bet the two smog pumpers was to dilute tailpipe emissions down to an acceptable level for that GVWR.. I remember that '88 GMC 454 we had had a 4bbl intake with a Rochester to TBI adaptor plate on it from the factory for a configuration similar to yours should a buyer want it..

[gadget73]

EFI possibly wasn't an option on that particular engine/truck/GVWR combo. Dunno, I just had to deal with it for work purposes and I needed it running well enough to be useful.

[DerekTheGreat]

Possibly not, although I can't see why. Which doesn't matter since that's my opinion and not fact.

[Stocker]

I'm pretty sure all 351s were still carb'd in '87.

On an EFI 351 in a van, the #1 spark plug can't be accessed without dismantling something. I was told to remove an engine mount and lower the engine slightly for clearance, but I have to imagine there's a less crappy way to do it than that. I never got around to changing it before the van got sold.

[tjc78]

Yeah the alternator needs to be unbolted or you can go in through the wheel well with several extensions. Sucks either way.

[DerekTheGreat]

I'm pretty sure all 351s were still carb'd in '87...

The advertisements and sales literature I've seen says otherwise. For '87, Ford boasted that (at least for F-Series trucks) that all engines were EFI and reiterated throughout the engine choice pages stuff like "gone are the days of hard starts when cold or hot." or "Advanced engine management technology keeps your engine running like new for longer" type propaganda. This isn't to dispute that perhaps above a certain GVWR that you couldn't get a carb, as I know they were available on early GM's. But I have seen GM sales literature which confirmed the availability of those along with HP/TQ ratings.

[Stocker]

The '87 brochure I found touts EFI for the 300 and 302, and a "big free-breathing 4-barrel Holley carburetor" on the 351:

http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/brochuredisplay.cgi?year=1987&manuf=Ford&model=Ford%20Truck&smod=Pickup&page=13&scan=19

Maybe it was a mid-year change then... the specs table in that brochure says nothing about 5-speed manual transmissions, but I recall my grandfather's '87 diesel having a 5-speed.