Recently picked up my first SMB and promptly proceeded to head out on a week long road trip with it the day after I got it. I've probably made smarter decisions in my life but I've learned a ton about these things in the past week.
For the most part she ran great. It's a 1989 e250 with the 5.8. I think it has the C6 tranny and it has the Gear Vendors under/overdrive. About 3k miles ago she got a full engine rebuild. On the highway we cruise right along at 65 no problems, gas mileage could be a little better (10 - 12) but it's about what I expected. My previous van is a 1990 e250 conversion van (no RV stuff, probably weighs much less than the SMB) with the 7.5 460. The new van seems way down on power compared to the old van but I think that's expected as it's got a smaller engine and way more weight to get up to speed.
I'm trying to determine if I should be concerned about this or if I just have unrealistic expectations of what this old girl can do. On this trip we were headed for a stop in Lake Tahoe. Heading south from Truckee, CA we had to climb Brockway summit on highway 267. This is a relatively steep mountain pass that tops out somewhere around 7.2k feet. The van made it just shy of the summit before getting too hot to go anymore, I had to pull over and let her cool off. Once cooled off we made it the rest of the way and I didn't have any issues the rest of the trip.
The oil looks good, the coolant had been previously topped off, I wasn't towing anything or loaded up with what would seem to me like an unusually heavy amount of gear.
Should I be concerned or is this to be expected?
Here she is while stopped somewhere in Oregon for a lunch break