04 E350 EB Build Thread

[Big_ern_101]

What is the advantage of circulating coolant and removing heat from the coolant via the fan and heat exchanger without adding heat back via the coolant heater? If I understand how your system is plumbed, you would be robbing heat from your hot water reserves and running a pump and blower with diminishing returns as the coolant in the coolant loop loses temperature and the delta T and therefore efficiency across the heat exchanger reduces.

Without tossing a few thermocouples on the inlet and outlet hoses of your heat exchanger and monitoring the outlet air temp of the heat exchanger relative to fan speed and coolant speed, its gonna be quite tough to develop a sweet spot.

Why not just control blower speed and let the existing heater controls control the heat and flow of coolant through the loop? If your heater set points are correct you won't short cycle.

 

[kbeefy]

That would most likely be the best way to do it. You could probably add some wifi smart thermostat/home controls as well.

Somewhere between best and easiest is where I land. I don't think it's that bad to let the heater run on the heater control. I'm a mechanic, not an engineer so I like to make things work before I engineer ever possible problem into the equation. Other people do things differently. If it sucks I'll make it better.

 

[Big_ern_101]

LOL don't lump me in with those engineering dorks.

 

[kbeefy]

Made some progress on lighting, Dimable LED strip lighting in channels with diffusers. And a dimmer. White only, 3000k for general lighting.

I also wired in another strip of 5000k white (no dimmer) on a separate switch in the 'garage' area. The switch is with the rear water pump and hot water recirc switch beside the rear shower mixer/quick disconnect.

Finished the external connections, hopefully done with holes in the van.

From left to right, an SAE 12v plug for solar input from portable solar panels, Shore power 110v, 110v consumer power plug for 110v exterior loads (cooktop? I don't know what else I would want 110v outside for....), and an SAE 12v exterior power port. I often travel with my ARB 43 qt freezer/fridge, and it's nice to set it outside once we settup camp. The fridge included is so huge I don't thinkI'll use the ARB anymore, but it will be nice to have the power port.


I think I'm about done in the 110v 'electrical bay'

Current path as it enters the van....


Bottom left is Shore power. This all passes thru a removable cabinet with drawerers so I wanted it to be easy to disconnect and reconnect.

Top left is a pair of switchable outlets powered exclusively from shore power.
Top outlet is 110v water heater, currently in the off position.
Bottom outlet is 75A battery charger, intended to always be on because why else would I have shore power.


Bottom Center is an Automatic Transfer Switch. It swaps the loads from shore power to the inverter automatically, with a bias towards shore power. This thing is super cool, and instantaneous.


Top right is the camper RV outlet.
It is powered from the ATS, choosing either Inverter or shore power depending upon what is available.
It powers the Microwave/convection oven and 110v outlets. There are 2 extra outlets for future expansion or a powerstrip for whatever.


In the bottom right you can see the 2000w inverter and the 75A shore power battery charger.

 

[Big_ern_101]

Probably day late and a dollar short - suggest ditching those SAE style plugs for 12V and going Anderson Powerpole.

I use these bulkheads and they are the business.

SAE have pretty high resistance and voltage drop compared to Anderson connectors, are not rebuildable, and their performance degrades over time since its a friction fit connector.

https://www.amazon.com/Housing-Anderson-Powerpole-Connectors-Resistant/dp/B077VWXXYG

I couldnt stomach knocking holes through my pristine sheetmetal so I had work make me some brackets to mount my shore power, rear air compressor fitting, and external +12V bulkheads under the bumper.

 

[kbeefy]

Mocked up my holding tank to see if I had enough material to build brackets.


When I found this tank at classAcustoms.com the dimensions seemed perfect for an econoline.

It does fit very well... A bit closer to the exhaust on the pass side and leaf spring on the drivers side, but I'll figure it out.

I'm going to mount it above the rear crossmember for a little extra exhaust clearance.
That forces it to be tilted a little foreward as there is a hat channel above the rear diff that prevents the tank from sitting flush against the floor.
If I drop the tank a few inches so the flange is inside the rear crossmember instead of on top of it, it sits flat against the hat channel. Thats probably how it is intended to be mounted.


Turns out I don't have enough material on hand so I'll be making a run to the metal shop. I need to get some plumbing supplies for the grey tank anyways, so I'll try to knock a couple tasks out with one trip.

 

[86Scotty]

Lookin' snazzy......

:b5:

 

[kbeefy]

I had attempted to add cruise control back in the beginning of this thread.
The van is a base model, and I added the correct clockspring and steering wheel with cruise buttons. It didn't work, so I assumed it needed cruise 'enabled' in the ECU.
I scheduled an appointment with Ford, since with my Scantool and Forscan I could not figure out how to enable it.


Well, a couple days before the appointment I went thru some of the pinnout checks to make sure all the other parts of the system worked. Everything did, but when I watched the behavior of the button values in the ECU something looked weird. Their behaviour did not match what they should be. I happen to have another van on hand, so I pulled the switches out of it and put them in my van. The values looked correct after that, so I took it for a test drive and it worked! No trip to the dealer required, I was so pumped!


I built this little panel for the outdoor shower.

The left switch is the water pump power, the momentary push button below it is a water valve for circulating how water back to the fresh water tank, and the switch on the right is the rear bay lights.


I have a quick disconnect on the shower controls to switch between the shower head and a garden hose...

Time to build something to hang the holding tank...

Chop, drill, bend, weld...

My original idea was to have threaded rod straight down from the floor and crossmember to hold this frame. After I mocked it up, it didn't look like it was gonna work so I had to alter my design a bit. Didn't take any pics of the updated design, but I think it's gonna work.


Gotta make another trip to the hardware store for more stuff for that, but heres a teaser for next week (maybe this weekend!)

 

[kbeefy]

This is my 'shift on the fly' holding tank hangar.

This is looking back at it over the rear axle

The left bolt appears to have an exaggerated angle due to using a wide angle lens. It's actually not that bad. Waiting for paint to dry for the final install.


Some may have noticed the suspension parts in the last post. I also need upper ball joints, so now is as good of a time as any to knock those out.

I'm used to doing 4x4 ball joints, these were easy!

I only did the uppers, the lowers were still really tight. Maybe they had been changed already, but they didn't look like it. As easy as they were, it won't hurt my feelings to tear it back down and replace the lowers in 15-25k miles or whenever they wear out.


Both sides stripped and ready for suspension disassembly...

 

[marret]

Nice! :d8:

 

[kbeefy]

Look at that, the whole thing comes off in one chunk.

Making my shop an even bigger mess...

Everything went pretty smoothly until reassembly. I've done lots of lift kits and suspension work, but for whatever reason I was really struggling with these coils.
I can't seem to get theupper and lower retainers seated at the same time. I think the new spring might be a little thicker, or wound a bit tighter than the original because I can get either end to engage properly alone, but then the other end doesn't. I left the upper retainer off for now as the hole is about 1/2 off. Maybe it will line up with weight on the wheels.


My main point of frustration though, was the drivers side upper shock mount.


I got it off easy enough with the aid of some flexy 'mountain' wrenches...
(bottom center in this pic)

Going back on was a different story. After dropping the nut for the third time and spending 30 minutes (unsuccessfully) attempting to find it, I abandoned my search.
Instead of sacrificing another nut to the lost hardware gods, I tried out this thing...

Wouldn't you know it, there is one spot that you can get it in and it went on first try!


I figured that was enough for today, best to stop before getting sloppy-er and making more mistakes.

 

[marret]

Cool. Glad you finally had success. Neat tool too.

I know all about hardware sacrifice, time spent looking, unfortunately.

Thanks for taking us along.

 

[Twoxentrix]

I wish I still had the drive & determination members like you portray kbeefy ! Fun watching your project come together.

 

[kbeefy]

Thanks guys, this has been my biggest vehicle undertaking thus far. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it's still quite a ways away!


I only have 8 days before a 2 month-ish road trip, so it's crunch time. I'm afraid there will be some loose ends when we hit the road.

 

[kbeefy]

Passenger side was easy, aside from the upper retainer. Everything went together smoothly and I finished reassembling everything.

The only hiccup on the front end (aside from loosing a nut) is that the weld on brackets occupy the same space as the diesel frame mounted fuel filter. I think I can modify the filter hanger in a way to make it all work, future me will figure it out. On to the back!


I had to get out my largest breaker bar for the fwd bolts on the rear springs. They have alot of loctite on them.

Aside from that fwd bolt, the rear springs came off real easy.
I found out why WeldTec doesn't recommend sulastic shackles...

I guess, because of the arch of the springs they probably need to utilize the full swing of the shackles. A longer overall spring and longer shackles would probably be a better solution, but I think you'd start running into clearance issues with the bed floor then. Oh well, back on with the stock shackles. I think these sulastics will fit my pickup, so not a huge loss.

You can see at full droop they use ALL of the shackle movement.


These dang springs are Heavy! 20 years ago I wouldn't have thought too much about it, but I may have hurt myself a little getting that first one in.

I used a lift table and some leverage instead of my back on the second one and it was a lot easier.

I was dissapointed to see that the shocks will be the limiters on droop, both front and rear.

As much money as I paid on the upcharge for Kings it would have been nice if they were an inch or two longer. I guess we will see when it's on the ground how much travel we have.


There is also no modification to or mention of the bumpstops. I'm not sure if the coils can collapse enough to still hit the bumpstops, but I think an extension would be helpful, both front and rear. The Radius arms will interfere before the bumpstops contact.


I still have to do something with this rear brake line bracket....

It's unbolted right now, I bent it a bit before unbolting it and I think that will be enough. I'll see tomorrow.


Pretty much everything else is buttoned up, going for an alignment when my tires show up.

 

[kbeefy]

A longer overall spring and longer shackles would probably be a better solution, but I think you'd start running into clearance issues with the bed floor then.

Longer, flatter springs, and a rear spring hangar flip to invert the rear shackles would be ideal.

 

[bigriver-SMB]

You are one productive son of a gun there Beef... Thanks for keeping us in the loop!

 

[kbeefy]

You are one productive son of a gun there Beef... Thanks for keeping us in the loop!

Thanks! It comes and goes... 1 week from our departure date now so I'm dedicating most of my time to the van.


I feel like we've discussed this before, but I drive thru the Gorge occasionally. Alot more when I lived in Central Oregon, now only when I'm headed that direction... I'm north of Tri-Cities near Spokane. I usually take 14 on the WA side vs 84 on the OR side, so much quieter there. At least until Hood river. Sometimes I drop to the Oregon side because it seems less congested for the westernmost 50 miles before Vancouver.

 

[bigriver-SMB]

yup - that's pretty much the way we play it going east. Have a great trip... where ya goin?

 

[kbeefy]

I had to remove the Fuel filter from the frame to install Weldtecs Radius arm bracket.
I had it bunjied out of the way, but I don't think thats a long term solution.
I figured I could hack it up and bend it about a bit to remount the filter assembly...


Some relief cuts (not near enough as it turns out)

Some hillbilly redneck cobbled together mess to try to bend it straight without a bender or heat.

A bit of hammering later...

I was able to use one original mounting point but needed another. This seemed easiest...

A bit of grinding later, I feel it's serviceable. Might not be the prettiest, but it won't fall off.

Time to finish the holding tank. My design needs a couple captured bolts so I made these T-bolts...

This is what they look like installed...

This is the front. It's kinda hokey, but seems sturdy. The next one will be a bit more elegant.

It's tucked up there pretty good, well above the spare.

I had a couple slow cranking events and some suspicious voltage readings, I suspected I had old batteries.
Time to investigate.


To my surprise I found 2 very nice (if not matched) Motorcraft batteries.

The were rated for 850CCA and tested at 935CCA and 1000CCA. I guess my issue isn't the batteries.


I cleaned up the rust in the boxes, straightened out and rethreaded the bolt retainers and reinstalled. The battery terminals were a little corroded so I cleaned them up and made sure they were properly attached. If the problem persists I'll look into the condition of the cables themselves.