cowboy 4x4 ford van

[cowboy4x4]

well today I put new strut arm bushings on, new tie rod clamps and dust boots on the ends, did a home/garage alignment and took it to have it professionally aligned. I was only off by a 1/16 he said. Front end done for now. next week the sputtering engine (oh joy) I will deffinatley be taking you guys up on the help offers.

[cowboy4x4]

"started" to put new spark plugs in the van today.... 6 hours later and only five plugs installed, and that was on the easy side the drivers side !. I'll post up pics of a few things. started at the # 10 cyl. and the boot came off in pieces, it was stuck to the plug because some dingbat didnt use any anti boot sieze. I dont know if the boot was bad or not as I kept pulling it kept tearing. So I look at the plug and it is so worn/gap...is .98, spec calls for .54 that friggin spark had to jump the grand canyon. on to #9 pulled it off the boot came off complete, by the way the boots are a major PITA. I couldnt get the spark plug wrench on #9 so I used a mirror and a flashlight and the plug galley was full of sand and dirt.... now I'm freakin out as I when I pulled #10 I just pulled the plug and put the new one in. #8and#7 are a PITA as you can barely get your hand in there #6 was easy as it was at the front after #9 i used the air compressor and blew out the galleys before I removed the plugs but that #10 has me worried. I started removing a bunch of crap .... oil fill tube, trans fill tube, hoses on the passenger side so I can start on it tomorrow. Oh AND all the plastic clips that hold the wire/plug to the orange deal (not sure what it is) broke off upon removal.. these damn motors get so hot it just cooks the plastic. the ends are not removable and I'm not going to buy a new wire harness so I just had to zip tie them on so the would stay on. The design of the plug/coil/boot is the the most lame thing I have ever come across. Once you install the plug you slide the boot/coil down onto the plug but it is 4 inches away and you have no idea if the boot actually went onto the plug. There is no way to "click" the boot on.... put the bolt in the coil and pray the coil spring is on the plug. you also have to remove the complete air intake system to get to the plugs.I am so not looking towards tomorrow and the passenger side there is less room than the drivers side. If I ever come across/meet the person who designed the this friggin motor I'm going to sucker punch him in the head. I've had over 40 different vehicles in my time and this is by far the worst one to work on.
I can also tell you this.... I will deffinately being making a 3" body lift for this van just like I did on my previous vans three inches will make a world of difference when working on this thing.
OK so here a few pics

new plug/old plug
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stupid design spring/coil/boot setup
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this is the little tan plug that all the clips broke on
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anybody have any idea what the heck this is ? its on the back of the motor on top ... there are no plugs to it or hoses as you can see by the dust on all the connection points.
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[cowboy4x4]

got all the plugs in but now I can feel and see a miss and the SES light came back on during the test drive. I replaced 5 of the 10 coil boots going back to the store to pick up 5 more hopefully thats why it is running rough. The ones I left on were soft and flexable with no cracks or anything, should have just replaced all at the same time but was trying to save some money, now I have to take it back apart AGAIN.

[MTDewX8]

might seem dumb, but what about a fuel filter?

I have been driving and at idle it runs find, but if you give any gas it sputters?
just a thought really

best of luck.
nothing like getting a new rig and having to work on it on top of setting it up.
I bought a 4runner and 4 days later my axle housing sprung a leak. what fun it can be

[cowboy4x4]

so now I have all new plugs AND boots.... took it for a test drive and it idles like crap. BUT on the fwy the original problem of sputtering is gone and this thing hauls butt and smooth at top end. Come to a light and it idles crappy. So I came home pulled the engine cover and started looking to see if I missed hooking something up.... everything looked good... I sounded like a little tick comming from the #10 area coil I couldnt see any spark or anything so I pulled the coil, pulled the plug, gave the engine a quick crank, put the plug and coil back in tightened up all the elec. connection tabs that broke and fired it up again. The engine seem to run way smoother at an idle and it wasnt rocking/vibrating. Took it for a small test drive again... now this thing seems to move right along. Heading to work tomorrow so we will see how it does on a long fwy commute. Thanks to those of you that gave some input and possible help option.
High end sputtering problem diagnosis
way old spark plugs
several cracked coil boots
cost
10 plugs... $45.00
10 coil boots $45.00
2 days of me not job/working $way too much
so this was probably a wash if I had to take it in and have a full time mech. take care of it.

here is what #4 and #3 looked like.
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and the two cooked boots
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[nely]

Im gonna assume your van doesnt have an EGR valve. Thats what that black solenoid is for. Typically youd have 2 vacuum lines and an electrical connector plugged into it.

And i can only assume the engines are mass assembled so they get all the goodies added on and whatever isnt used is just left on.

Sent from my SGH-T959 using Tapatalk

[cowboy4x4]

cheap, quick and easy things first.... Black out the front grill. Tha van came with a silver grill and I like the black one . Rustolium black texered paint and all taken care of.
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[cowboy4x4]

so..... I found this guy on another site who was giving away 7 tires for free they were BFG Rugged Trail TA 265/75 R16 and they still had a real good amount of tread left on them. He just wanted them out of his garage but I had to take all 7. I said no problem as my van needed 4 AND a spare and I have 2 back up tires for later. I make the HI-Lift tube adapters so I gave him one for free.... I had to do something. Once I switch this van to 4x4 I'm going to need 5 new rims and until then I just painted the stock steelies black. The silver looked so "work van"
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[ujoint]

lookin good, it's amazing what a rattle can will do!

[cowboy4x4]

Time for some interior work.
This is the front area, leaving this as is for now.
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It came with this weatherguard sliding box, I was going to mount it so it would open up at the back but figured it would hinder putting anything tall inside so I will leave it here. This is where the recovery gear and misc. supplies will be kept.
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it originally had two shelving units inside I took the back one out and kept the front.
I also added a folding bed in the back
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Until I make my custom rear bumper w/swing outs I want to be able to carry extra fuel, so the two cans will be mounted to the existing rack inside.
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I want quell any post's that may pop up about carrying fuel inside. These are Wedco fuel cans and I have had them in 119 degree heat direct sunlight and have never had a leak. So I am not worried about carrying them there.
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I put fortiflash on all the panels to eliminate the tin sounds inside.
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I insulated the inside of the back doors and then covered the openings w/5 mil. plastic and then I will look around for factory door covers. The doors sound super solid when they are closed now.
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