New to E350 Club Wagon have few questions

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camg042 - 14 Apr 2006 21:59 GMT

I recently purchased an 85 E350 (5.8 L 351 CID V8 )Club Wagon from an
auction. I am trying to fix it up and have a few questions.

1) on the driver side floor, there is a tubular shape button / Switch?
What is that? Pix here

http://www.njhouseholdgoods.com/img/van3.jpg

2) under the access panel, on passenger side. there is some kid of
metal tray / box under the manifold, what is that? This metal tray/box
is coming from the front of the van where the air cleaner inlet hose is
also connected to. The metal tray on my van is pretty rusted and just
hangs there. Where does it suppose to be mounted to?

http://www.njhouseholdgoods.com/img/van1.jpg
http://www.njhouseholdgoods.com/img/van2.jpg

TIA

Dave

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Whitelightning - 14 Apr 2006 22:42 GMT

> 1) on the driver side floor, there is a tubular shape button / Switch?
> What is that? Pix here

High beam switch

> 2) under the access panel, on passenger side. there is some kid of
> metal tray / box under the manifold, what is that? This metal tray/box
> is coming from the front of the van where the air cleaner inlet hose is
> also connected to. The metal tray on my van is pretty rusted and just
> hangs there. Where does it suppose to be mounted to?

exhaust manifold heat sheilds, and nice shots of some nice leaky valve
covers too.

Whitelightning

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camg042 - 15 Apr 2006 15:37 GMT

Thanks for your help with the high beam switch. However, I am not sure
if the second item I described is just a heat shield. Especiall it is
connected to a hose. Also it is so rusted and fell off the mount. It is
just haning in there. Here are more pictures and hope this will
clearify a bit

http://www.njhouseholdgoods.com/img/van5.jpg
(this is the metal tray that is just hang there. on the righ hand side,
it's connected to a hose and eventually to a box under the battery)

http://www.njhouseholdgoods.com/img/van8.jpg
(the bottom hose is connected to the rusted metal tray)

http://www.njhouseholdgoods.com/img/van9.jpg
(here is another shot of the metal tray from the engine bay)

In regards to the heat shield. this heat spark plug heat shield fell
off. It is suppose to bolt on to the manifold bolt. But the bolt is too
rusted to be loosen up. Can I just leave the heat shield off ???

http://www.njhouseholdgoods.com/img/van6.jpg

Lastly, there is a crack on the manifold. Instead of replacing it, can
I just patch it up for now? What would be a good product? The reason is
that I might be selling this van once I get it all fixed up.

http://www.njhouseholdgoods.com/img/van2.jpg

TIA

Dave

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camg042 - 15 Apr 2006 15:40 GMT

sorry the last picture about the cracked manifold should be van4.jpg,
not van2.jpg
here is the link:

http://www.njhouseholdgoods.com/img/van4.jpg

Dave

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CJB - 15 Apr 2006 19:19 GMT

Again, you're dealing with a heat shield. The "hose" in question is for the
heat riser. It's a system that ducts warmer air from around the exhaust
manifolds up to the intake for cold starts. When the engine warms up, a
damper changes position to get cooler air.

Since you have a cracked exhaust manifold anyway, the right thing to do
would be to replace the exhaust manifold and have the correct heat shield
put on at the same time.

CJB

> Thanks for your help with the high beam switch. However, I am not sure
> if the second item I described is just a heat shield. Especiall it is
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
>
> Dave

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CJB - 15 Apr 2006 03:34 GMT

Glad you got a heavy van. I love them, but the engine bay access is not
ideal. I've had 3 of that model van myself, plus I've worked on 2 or 3
church vans of the same era. I've moved up to the newest generation of the
Club Wagon to haul my wife and 5 kids.

The questions look like they've already been answered. The button near your
left foot is the dimmer switch. They used to be down there on all cars and
trucks, believe it or not.

The heat shields are not worth fooling with unless they cause a problem.

The valve cover gaskets are indeed leaking. Do you have fuel injection or a
carburetor? On the carbureted version it will be much easier to replace
those valve cover gaskets than on the FI version, but I've done both.

Lastly, I think you have a PCV valve at the back of the intake manifold.
Look to see if you have a round 1.5" hole with a rubber grommet, a metal
plug of a thing, and a vacuum hose going to it. If so, pull out the PCV
valve and the rubber grommet. under it you'll find a metal screen with a
metal mesh under it. Pull the thing out and replace it. Those PCV screens
get stopped up and cause all sorts of bad oil leaks on those old 351's and
on the 302's.

If you have any other questions, hit me up.

Good luck!

CJB

>I recently purchased an 85 E350 (5.8 L 351 CID V8 )Club Wagon from an
> auction. I am trying to fix it up and have a few questions.
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
>
> Dave

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