Fordguy100
New Member
Hello all!
We just upgraded van's and we ended up with one we have always really wanted. First van was a 2005 SWB E-350 12 passenger, w/5.4. Seating's important as we have 5 boys. We ended up buying a travel trailer right at the weight limit of the van, and its "adequate" unloaded performance was severely highlighted when pulling grades here in Oregon. 2nd gear @ 30 mph happened a few times.
Anyways, a good friend of ours had purchased two Quigley Van's in 1998 new, and since their kiddo's are all grown up they asked if we wanted to buy one. So we are now in the possession of a 1998 E-350 LWB/15 passenger van. V10/4.10's. Besides the obvious hit in fuel mileage from the previous van, we are extremely pleased. We were averaging 14.5-15.5 MPG on our normal driving previously, down to 12.5-13 with the new van (in the grand scheme of things its not that big of a fuel mileage hit comparing the differences). I do wish it was a Powerstroke but beggers cant be choosers. We got the van with 69k miles on it a few months ago, its now sitting at just under 74k. Same trailer on the same grades as the previous van are now 55mph in 2nd which eases some of my towing stresses. I can actually tow in overdrive on the flats which is nice.
The back end of the van seems real "loose" when towing compared to the preivous. I had installed a rear sway bar on the old van, and it seemed to help. This new van seems to be a handful on secondary roads (curves, bumps, potholes) to track down the road straight compared. We do have a weight distribution/stabilizer setup on the trailer .So while searching the googles for things to do to help out the new van I stumbled upon this website.
Wife wants bumpers, a lift/larger tires. That would mean gears so we wouldn't kill the towing performance. It does have the crappy Y-pipe T, maybe one of the SPD Y-pipe is in order. I need to go through and do coil packs and plugs as I don't think they have been changed and while it has low miles they are old. On cold starts this thing starts rough like its running on half cylinders and if its too cold it dies. Immediately cycling the key and restarting and it runs normal. I've cycled the key on/off several times prior to the original cold start and it still does the weird cold start issue above. Its fine starting until it cools off again, and starts normal on a "cold" start it temps are above 50ish degrees.
It also has a weird trans shift issue, where starting off from a stop it feels like it almost downshifts to first at 10 mph. So you come to stop. Take off and it acts normal until right at 10 mph and you feel a "clunk" and than with the same throttle position it accelerates much faster. Maybe its starting in 2nd gear or something. If I start out in 1st gear per the selector it does the same thing. The few times towing (I know, towing with an obvious trans issue is no bueno) it does the same thing but there's so much more strain on the drivetrain you don't feel this "clunk." Trans fluid is clean and it was serviced in 04 @ 30k miles.
We just upgraded van's and we ended up with one we have always really wanted. First van was a 2005 SWB E-350 12 passenger, w/5.4. Seating's important as we have 5 boys. We ended up buying a travel trailer right at the weight limit of the van, and its "adequate" unloaded performance was severely highlighted when pulling grades here in Oregon. 2nd gear @ 30 mph happened a few times.
Anyways, a good friend of ours had purchased two Quigley Van's in 1998 new, and since their kiddo's are all grown up they asked if we wanted to buy one. So we are now in the possession of a 1998 E-350 LWB/15 passenger van. V10/4.10's. Besides the obvious hit in fuel mileage from the previous van, we are extremely pleased. We were averaging 14.5-15.5 MPG on our normal driving previously, down to 12.5-13 with the new van (in the grand scheme of things its not that big of a fuel mileage hit comparing the differences). I do wish it was a Powerstroke but beggers cant be choosers. We got the van with 69k miles on it a few months ago, its now sitting at just under 74k. Same trailer on the same grades as the previous van are now 55mph in 2nd which eases some of my towing stresses. I can actually tow in overdrive on the flats which is nice.
The back end of the van seems real "loose" when towing compared to the preivous. I had installed a rear sway bar on the old van, and it seemed to help. This new van seems to be a handful on secondary roads (curves, bumps, potholes) to track down the road straight compared. We do have a weight distribution/stabilizer setup on the trailer .So while searching the googles for things to do to help out the new van I stumbled upon this website.
Wife wants bumpers, a lift/larger tires. That would mean gears so we wouldn't kill the towing performance. It does have the crappy Y-pipe T, maybe one of the SPD Y-pipe is in order. I need to go through and do coil packs and plugs as I don't think they have been changed and while it has low miles they are old. On cold starts this thing starts rough like its running on half cylinders and if its too cold it dies. Immediately cycling the key and restarting and it runs normal. I've cycled the key on/off several times prior to the original cold start and it still does the weird cold start issue above. Its fine starting until it cools off again, and starts normal on a "cold" start it temps are above 50ish degrees.
It also has a weird trans shift issue, where starting off from a stop it feels like it almost downshifts to first at 10 mph. So you come to stop. Take off and it acts normal until right at 10 mph and you feel a "clunk" and than with the same throttle position it accelerates much faster. Maybe its starting in 2nd gear or something. If I start out in 1st gear per the selector it does the same thing. The few times towing (I know, towing with an obvious trans issue is no bueno) it does the same thing but there's so much more strain on the drivetrain you don't feel this "clunk." Trans fluid is clean and it was serviced in 04 @ 30k miles.
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