Flux's GAATMHQ Build

[bemerritt]

Haha, i dropped my van off and picked it up at John's house. He immediately took me to all of the speed bumps surrounding his house.

[Flux]

Originally Posted by bemerritt

Haha, i dropped my van off and picked it up at John's house. He immediately took me to all of the speed bumps surrounding his house.

LOL.

He's got a favorite dip on the highway near the shop that would bottom out a Quigley......nuthin at all on the Agile. I like the way the van steers smooth and basically just eats up terrain. It "gushes" over things. I didn't get too fast on the highway but it certainly felt nice.

He also had some fun with me doing some S turns at about 50mph.

It all seems pretty silly but I was sold right then and there. He has a 5.4 with a CCV High Top popup on it in the shop and I got to see everything I am getting on mine. It's really awesome and makes me really glad I sourced out a stock van and am doing it this way.

Thing is, John has been kindly answering my questions even before I got the van. We communicated by email and finally talked and he has spent a generous amount of time with me. He's great to work with and gives me confidence moving forward when it's time to cut the big checks. He spent way too much time with me getting some wheels which he scored at a nice price. My experience has been 100% positive even when we had a slight fuel tank glitch which to me was completely understandable. Very glad I took the day off and went down there and hung out a bit.

[MorieSugg]

Sorry if I missed it, but what are you having Agile do? I know about the RIP kit for Quigleys, but what are they doing for your stock van?

[Flux]

Originally Posted by MorieSugg

Sorry if I missed it, but what are you having Agile do? I know about the RIP kit for Quigleys, but what are they doing for your stock van?

Agile is doing their complete 4x4 conversion on my stock E-350.

If you aren't familiar, they use a Twin Traction Beam (Dana 50) instead of a Straight Axle. Coil springs, Custom Radius Arms, Custom tuned Fox Shocks, and Some Rear Leaf setup along with the shocks as well. Manual hubs with shift on the fly button or dial on the dash.

Since my fuel tank is plastic and needs to be cut due to the bigger trans, we are going with a steel tank and skid plate from Aero tanks.

Overall it turns into about a 4" lift and I am putting 285's tires on it.

yeah, I am a little excited. Should be done right before X-mas

[jtolle777]

Originally Posted by Flux

Agile is doing their complete 4x4 conversion on my stock E-350.

If you aren't familiar, they use a Twin Traction Beam (Dana 50) instead of a Straight Axle. Coil springs, Custom Radius Arms, Custom tuned Fox Shocks, and Some Rear Leaf setup along with the shocks as well. Manual hubs with shift on the fly button or dial on the dash.

Since my fuel tank is plastic and needs to be cut due to the bigger trans, we are going with a steel tank and skid plate from Aero tanks.

Overall it turns into about a 4" lift and I am putting 285's tires on it.

yeah, I am a little excited. Should be done right before X-mas

Excellent... I am very envious. I'm currently looking for an E350 EB to do the same thing. Hopefully soon after the new year. Please report back how everything goes.

Regarding your fuel tank... can you elaborate on why an aftermarket was needed? I have talked with the guys at Agile, but was under the impression that stock tanks in the newer E350 would work in stock form (no need to shorten). I'm sure I misunderstood them.




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[Flux]

Originally Posted by jtolle777

Excellent... I am very envious. I'm currently looking for an E350 EB to do the same thing. Hopefully soon after the new year. Please report back how everything goes.

Regarding your fuel tank... can you elaborate on why an aftermarket was needed? I have talked with the guys at Agile, but was under the impression that stock tanks in the newer E350 would work in stock form (no need to shorten). I'm sure I misunderstood them.

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I will for sure report back every step of the way.

Having the V-10 and the torqueshift, the transmission is a bit longer so about 3" needs to be trimmed from the length. Mine happened to be only the second late model V-10 that they have done, the other got a transferflow tank installed at SMB and they used a modified tank in the interim. The modified tank was very sturdy and was only used as a temporary. I considered using it permanently, but we both agreed that a steel tank with skid plate would be a better option.

With the V-8 5.4l, they can basically slide the tank back slightly and slip the transfer case right in there. I saw the fit in person. They have done a ton of 5.4l and lots of V-10's before they went with the plastic tank, so they would just cut and reweld a steel tank....easy!!

Don't worry about the V-10 option, they will have a nice tank worked out for mine in the next week and that design will go onward. We are also trying for a bit of extra capacity if possible. I could get 40 gallons over 32 which is not trivial. In short, John wants to do the best job he can here and explained everything perfectly to me. It has to do with the new fuel cell and emissions as well and Ford went CARB compliant.

Regardless, Agile has a solution and the main focus was to do the best job possible without taking shortcuts. Thus a custom tank and skid plate.

What kind of Van are you looking for??

[Flux]

And I should also give a shout out to Chris at Ujoint. He got right back to me about a fuel tank as well. Good to have nice folks doing great stuff to vans and who want to help people out.

[jtolle777]

Originally Posted by Flux

I will for sure report back every step of the way.

Having the V-10 and the torqueshift, the transmission is a bit longer so about 3" needs to be trimmed from the length. Mine happened to be only the second late model V-10 that they have done, the other got a transferflow tank installed at SMB and they used a modified tank in the interim. The modified tank was very sturdy and was only used as a temporary. I considered using it permanently, but we both agreed that a steel tank with skid plate would be a better option.

With the V-8 5.4l, they can basically slide the tank back slightly and slip the transfer case right in there. I saw the fit in person. They have done a ton of 5.4l and lots of V-10's before they went with the plastic tank, so they would just cut and reweld a steel tank....easy!!

Don't worry about the V-10 option, they will have a nice tank worked out for mine in the next week and that design will go onward. We are also trying for a bit of extra capacity if possible. I could get 40 gallons over 32 which is not trivial. In short, John wants to do the best job he can here and explained everything perfectly to me. It has to do with the new fuel cell and emissions as well and Ford went CARB compliant.

Regardless, Agile has a solution and the main focus was to do the best job possible without taking shortcuts. Thus a custom tank and skid plate.

What kind of Van are you looking for??

Thanks for the info... exactly what I was looking for. I've done a bit of research on the fuel tank options available for these vans, so it's nice to know someone has worked it out.

As far as a van goes, I'm looking for exactly what you have (at least from what I can tell).

2009+ Passenger E350 EB with the v10 and torqshift 5 speed

Have not found very many....that were clean and not abused anyways. I may just get the 5.4 as I spoke to Agile and the seemed to think it wasn't that big of a deal unless I tow heavy and often (which at this point, I don't)

Edit- saw you have a cargo version with the windows

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[joefromsf]

Originally Posted by Flux

I will for sure report back every step of the way.

Having the V-10 and the torqueshift, the transmission is a bit longer so about 3" needs to be trimmed from the length. Mine happened to be only the second late model V-10 that they have done, the other got a transferflow tank installed at SMB and they used a modified tank in the interim. The modified tank was very sturdy and was only used as a temporary. I considered using it permanently, but we both agreed that a steel tank with skid plate would be a better option.

With the V-8 5.4l, they can basically slide the tank back slightly and slip the transfer case right in there. I saw the fit in person. They have done a ton of 5.4l and lots of V-10's before they went with the plastic tank, so they would just cut and reweld a steel tank....easy!!

Don't worry about the V-10 option, they will have a nice tank worked out for mine in the next week and that design will go onward. We are also trying for a bit of extra capacity if possible. I could get 40 gallons over 32 which is not trivial. In short, John wants to do the best job he can here and explained everything perfectly to me. It has to do with the new fuel cell and emissions as well and Ford went CARB compliant.

Regardless, Agile has a solution and the main focus was to do the best job possible without taking shortcuts. Thus a custom tank and skid plate.

What kind of Van are you looking for??

Glad you clarified that Flux. I've got a Feb date with Agile and have a 2012 5.4 V8 with plastic tank. You had me worried there for a minute.

[boywonder]

So when did the tanks become plastic? My 5.4L 2008 is metal..