95 E250 SMB 5.8/351W won’t run -Any Ideas/advise?

rnj · 02-15-2020, 02:24 PM

I haven’t used my van a lot but it has always started easily and run within a few seconds until today. ~70K miles.
Today it turned over easily but stumbled and wouldn’t run. I tried starting fluid, just a couple squirts, to see if it would catch and it fired right up. I moved it forward in my driveway and ran it for ½ an hour to completely warm it up and it ran great when hitting the gas pedal. It started right up when I wanted to move it back and ran great again and I completely warmed it up again.
I went to start it again and it didn’t start it just stumbled and wouldn’t catch. I tried starting fluid multiple times but it didn’t catch.
Can a fuel pump go bad just sitting? Also once it started it ran great so would this rule out fuel pump?
Anybody have ideas of other things to check? Any advice appreciated.

Thanks, rnj

Grampswrx · 02-15-2020, 02:49 PM

Could be fuel pump not priming. How old is the gas? Could be old gas. Could be a clogging filter.

JWA · 02-16-2020, 05:25 AM

A lot of things can happen when a vehicle sits for long periods of time--the age of your van despite its low mileage could be an issue. Seals and o-rings wear out or degrade over time whether its running or not.

First thing I'd do is diagnose fuel delivery via fuel pressure checking both at idle and at various speeds while driving. This would include making sure fuses & relays, the inertia switch, the fuel filter, fuel pressure regulator along with any other part of the fuel supply is working properly.

It would seem your have good ignition so for the time being that can go untested.

HTH

robertg · 02-16-2020, 10:17 AM

Could also be an engine computer or ground issue. I had a 96 Ford 460 which started having an intermittent starting problems and wouldn't leave a code. I replaced filters and in the end it was the computer.

rnj · 02-16-2020, 11:08 AM

Thanks all for the advice. I do have ~ 1 year old gas, that hasn’t been a problem before and generator ran good but I did add a tee with shutoff in the generator line with a hose so I can siphon down to a ¼ tank and add new gas. I will see about getting a fuel pressure gauge, need to look to see where to attach it. I recently got a fuel pump from rock auto as a just in case so have it available. Hopefully not a computer as that may be hard to find.

rnj