Kiki 06 Ford E-350, 6.0 Diesel, Van Conversion

kikisadventures

Advanced Member
Joined
May 14, 2021
Posts
61
Hello everyone,

This is Karen. She just to be really uptight, caused by years of being stuffed full of crap and used and abused commercially. Just when she thought she had enough, some ************** millennials got ahold of her, brought her out to California, and showed her how to shake that sweet dash. Now Karen has a whole new lease and perspective on life. She is ready for her makeover and to make new van friends. She's changed her name to Kiki and now lives by the motto "Grab life by the balls." -Kiki, or Karen, 2020.

Kiki is a 2006 Ford E-350, Extended Commercial Cargo Van, 6.0 Diesel. We bought this van to both adventure in and tow an offroad truck. That is why we picked this platform. There aren’t many vans with a great towing capacity. We aren’t planning to live in it so we don’t plan to go overboard on the electrical system. We're Jon and Mara. Nice to meet you all

Plans:

Platform -
Custom 30" Hightop.
CL rear side windows on drivers and passengers side
Polyiso Insulation
Sound deadening
Laminate Flooring
Roof rack (ideally one we can sit on for when we go to races)

Motor -
Bulletproof EGR
Tuner
Oil bypass filter
Coolant filter

Front Suspension -
I’ll either buy weldtecs 4” ocotillo lift or build my own beams and radius arms that raises it closer to 2” and pushes it forward ~1.5”. I don't want to lift it too much because I'll be towing and it will have a lot of weight up top. Fox Shocks. I’d like to run 33” tires.

Rear Suspension -
1-2” lift blocks. Airbags. Fox Shocks. Differential Locker

Kitchen -
Full size sink
Accumulator
Induction Stove
10 gallon tank, under cab
5 gallon drinking water
Fridge
PEX plumbing

Wet Bathroom -
Compost Toilet
2.5 Gallon Boush heater
10 gallon tank, under cab

Sleeping -
Main bed will be on a lift and stored against the ceiling
Table will turn into a bed

Climate -
Eberspacher diesel heater
Roof Vent
Roof AC

Electrical -
400 Watt solar
TBD Ah Battery bank

Details and part numbers will be added as we figure things out. We're super excited to start this build (after I finish the truck)
 

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I'm moving this thread over from expeditionportal so please bare with me.

Is everyone using photo hosting sites instead of attaching the pics? Thanks
 
This is the project truck she'll be towing. Jon designed and built the whole truck himself. The plan is to do all the necessary research and design of the van while the truck is finished
 

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Welcome.
Your list seems to be missing the last entry - Missed by many, but most crucial to the budget...usually just labeled as "Miscellaneous" - this is the one that will cost you dearly.
 
I built a coffee table as my first wood project. Good practice before I start building the cabinetry.
 

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I finished replacing the ball joints and swapped in new shocks. I tried to get fox shocks for the front and rear but weldtec doesn't sell them by themselves and Agile wasn't responsive enough to get the order through. I feel like there's a market to sell shocks to non-lifted/non-4x4 vans so I'm not sure what their deals were. I ended up going with bilstein comfort shocks (33-176840, 33-187563 ). I found the best deal here: https://www.shocksurplus.com/products/bilstein-b6-shocks-set-for-1999-2014-ford-e-350-super-duty-rwd. I don't plan to do a ton of offroading so I probably didn't need the fox anyway. It drives night and day different. The old shock were completely blown. I like the new shocks so far but I don't have a lot of miles on them yet.
 

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I swapped to towing mirrors. Somehow my drivers side and passenger side doors are different. I think my drivers door got replaced after an accident by the previous owner. These are the mirrors I got, https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Manual...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

The passenger side mirror was cake. The drivers side however required a lot of modification. This is the video I used for reference,

Step 1: Mark where the holes need to be with a sharpie

Step 2: Drill the holes. I first did a pilot hole on the exterior and used the pilot hole to locate the interior hole. Each support is a different diameter. I went 1/8" over on each support using a step drill. The interior holes i did 1"

Step 3: Paint the holes (one of the extra holes wasn't from me...). I used POR-15. At first I wasn't really happy with how thin it went on, maybe i didn't shake it enough. But after it dried, it was a really hard enamel paint so I'm beginning to like it again.

Step 4: I've seen people remove the studs that come on the mirror with a bolt and fender washer but I decided to machine some spacers. I slotted the bolt holes because the studs we're centered in the interior holes I made
Flange OD: 1.25"
Flange THK: 0.125"
Body OD: 1.00"
Overall LG: 2x were 0.5" and 1x was .75"
Bore Dia: 0.75"
Bore Depth: 0.375" and 0.625"
Slot: 0.25" OD x 0.125" LG

The mirror lined up perfect. I'm really happy with these tow mirrors
 

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Also got the stereo in
Stereo: https://www.crutchfield.com/S-Dlw3wOEdtgu/p_130DM1500/Pioneer-DMH-1500NEX.html
Wiring Harness: https://www.autozone.com/electrical-and-lighting/stereo-wiring-harness/ford/e350-super-duty/2006
Mounting Adapters: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0024L8I02/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Step 1: Wire the harness. I just did color to color since the pioneer instructions didn't have a wiring guide. The only tricky one is the orange for the dimmer. you can connect the orange to orange/black or orange/white. I did orange/black but I'm not sure if that correct. The green wire is for the parking brake to allow for media to play. I'm just going to leave it unhooked for now or bypass it later if I feel like I need to watch videos on there.


Step 2: Cut the stereo hole bigger. The top and bottom just need to be ground flush. I didn't touch the sides. You can probably do this with the dash in but I already had it out.


Step 3: I showed how I ran the aux and USB in a previous post since this doesn't have the connectors on the face. I also had to run the mic to the visor for hands free talking.

Step 4: Install the mounting brackets. Since the Ford uses a non-standard size there's no place for a standard din stereo to mount. This grabs onto the side flanges in the dash

Step 5: Make the electrical connections. The stereo just pushes in the front. I don't believe there's a way to remove the stereo without removing the entire dash piece and unscrewing the mounts so be sure you're ready for that step when you do it.


The speakers seems to work and the apple play works on Mara's phone. I haven't had a chance to connect it to my droid to check that compatibility but I'm happy with the stereo so far
 

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I got the EGT in. Getting the harness through the firewall was definitely the hardest part.

Drilled the rear of the D-Side exhaust manifold. Started with a 1/8" pilot then a 21/64". I used a magnet to try and get shavings out but it didn't really pick up any.


Tapped with a 1/8" NPT. I only ran the tap in about halfway so the fitting would sit just shy of flush on the inside

The wiring is tried up next to the brake fluid


I couldn't figure out how to make the existing grommet work so I ended up just drilling out a hole. The previous owner already had a small hole for some alarm wires so I just opened it up to 5/8" to get the connector through. I'll plug the hole with a grommet when they come in the mail


The wiring is a little messy but I have to reroute it all when I put the grommet in
 

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I fabricated a bracket for the backup camera since it was meant to mount the other way around and you can't flip it in the software. I sealed the hole with a grommet and sikaflex. I need to tend to the rust where the roof meets the rain gutter.


I decided to get new speakers to go along with the stereo. The old ones were blown. Don't forget the wiring harness. I sound deadened the doors since I was in there (most of it is hidden on he inside of the door). It's always a snowball effect when you start on something...


Got the hitch installed


Lastly, finished the work to front D-side. I managed to damage the ABS sensor when I tried to replace the ball joints without an impact gun. The abs pump would kick on every time I came to a stop. In order to replace it, you have to pull the disc assembly off. what a pain. I was waiting to do the last shock until I did this other work as well. This one shock took as long as the other three. I just cut the old shock out but getting it the new one back in was a nightmare. I was able to thread the nut most of the way by spinning the shock body but that was starting to damage the grommet once it got tight. then i was one click of the ratchet at a time.
 

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Wow! In comparison to myself you seem to have the plans before the van. for me it was the other way around :-D

not sure how heavy your van will get and how soft it should ride in the end, but:
I had the general springs 43-1085 (9 leafs, 3460 lbs capacity) installed on my 2006 E-350. This lifted the whole rear up a bit and a 33" could perhaps work. It was fairly stiff for our more or less empty van.
I just took out 2 leafs each side last week to get a smoother ride until I have my new rear springs from Weldtec.

Depending on your plans and location (and capacity rating for a diesel) you can buy them in 2-4 (?!?) weeks here in the Bay Area. If interested, shoot me a PM.
 
I'm planning to do airbags since I'll be towing frequently but I'll keep that in mind if I end up needing more spring. Thanks
 
Just for clarification: once I have the new leaf spring set in the rear, the current 43-1085 is available. not only the single leafs.
 
There might be a factory hole in the driver’s side floor just above the top of the shock mount to access that nut. Maybe some vans have it and others don’t. Mine does and it makes things much easier
 

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