Three questions..7.3L

[andrewbrown_89]

Well I found a ridiculous deal on a 97 e350 diesel...it has 153000 miles and its in pretty good condition...Im waiting for my shipment of fuel filters and air filters.

My first question is..White smoke...its not hard to start and runs fine..it just has white smoke when idling until it warms up..also it drips some water out of the exhaust and its yellow and smells like diesel but its not thick...im hopeing this isnt a bad sign..some other forum the obs forum said it could be water in the exhaust and a clogged cat..also could this be a dirt fuel filter?

Question 2..getting to the fuel filter..should I go from the back? should i go from the front..and what should I take out to get to it..?

and question 3 is..the turbo..I want to hear it whistle I love to hear turbos going but I can barely hear this one...I plan on cutting out the muffler and cat and putting straight pipes in until i get an exhaust mocked up...would this help? I just really want to hear my turbo diesel whistle..

Thanks for any help you guys have!

[Dietoremain]

sounds like condensation burning off in the cold sounds normal.. how much u get it for?

[majek5]

As for the fuel filter, just the engine cover, if it is on there, three nuts. The filter cover just unscrews off. BE CAREFUL when putting it back in, the filter will push down hard at first and then splash diesel all over! As for whistle, a cat and muff delete will give you whistle.

[andrewbrown_89]

I got the van for 1300..it has a little rust here and there but im fixing it right now and I got to keep my f150 to...I couldnt pass it up for 1300..I cant believe he took it either.

Well I got the engine cover off but if you have seen the vans its not as simple as you might think..I know how to get at it on a truck but since this is a van its so closed off i either have to take off the air box or I have to go in from the back of the engine..

[andrewbrown_89]

I plan on doing a write up on what I do to it..I should have started but i forgot...I have already gutted it and now im putting the seats back in and prepping the back end for diy truck bed liner and then im gonna throw a rubber mat down over the whole back end...do you think people would like the write up? cause I plan on making this like daily driver/ adventure rig..I hope chicks dig it once its done...some of my friends give me **** because Im gonna have a van but once its done I think ill be the one laughing on my hunting trips..

[Ears93]

To do the fuel filter you have to remove the air filter assy. When doing this, break the resonaotr when pulling it out and cap off the hole when putting it back together. It does nothing but get in the way whenever you go to work on these. I used a cap off of a brake clean can to plug the hole.

[elibenson]

Originally Posted by Ears93

To do the fuel filter you have to remove the air filter assy. When doing this, break the resonaotr when pulling it out and cap off the hole when putting it back together. It does nothing but get in the way whenever you go to work on these. I used a cap off of a brake clean can to plug the hole.

^^^ what he said. Every word of it. Break that stupid resonator out with a hammer. It will be both therapeutic and functional.

Another thing I do is put a little grease on the "elephant trunk" intake pipe, and leave he hose clamp on the far end tight enough to hold, but not tight enough that I can't just pull the "elephant trunk" off after I remove the filter box. Then when you reassemble it, it can be slipped back onto it's intake elbow with a little twisting from the front end.

It won't fall off, and it won't leak. It makes maintenance a lot easier on these vans.

[andrewbrown_89]

Ok this might be a stupid question but what am i gonna be looking for when i try to find the resonator..like that does it look like? Thanks for the hep so far because I thought id have to go from the back to change the filter I have had the dog house and passengers seat out this whole time...

Also Ive read a few places to pour in a can of sea foam right into the fuel filter bowl when i change the filter. Of course id drain the whole thing first but would that clean out my fuel system? Id just hate to dislodge something into my injectors.

[elibenson]

The resonator box is a thing that attaches to the intake pipe, and has no particular purpose. It doesn't change the sound of the engine in any way that I can see. If you look on top of the engine from the back on the passenger's side of the engine there will be a black, roughly square, 4" thick, 12" wide black box that attaches to the intake pipe with a hose clamp. It's a pain to get at the clamp, that is why it is popular (and fun) to just smash it to bits to get it out. It is really hard to get it out of there with all the stuff on top of the engine. That is also another reason to remove it abortion style.

About the filter bowl, don't fill it with anything, just start cranking the engine, and it will fill by it's self. One thing I like to do on the older trucks (97 and older) is to get the engine warmed up for a few minutes before I change the filter. That way you only have to deal with the fuel shortage instead of a cold engine that doesn't want to start and a fuel shortage. That engine doesn't have an electric fuel pump, so priming it just means cranking it.

The reason why you don't want to fill the bowl before you put a filter in it is because the bowl is probably really filthy. If you fill the bowl with no filter in it, the "clean side" will get debris in it from the dirty side.

At some point you may want to remove the fuel bowl and clean it. Every one that I have removed has been horribly dirty. While you are there, you can replace all the o-rings in the bowl. It will help prevent future leaks. www.dieselorings.net has everything you need at really reasonable prices.

[andrewbrown_89]

Ok yeah I think I know what your talking about..the huge black box that comes off the side of the intake tube? And it covers like half of the top of the engne? So what do I plug that hole with after I remove the box? It looks like it's gonna be a huge hole and it's after the filters right?

Also what I ment about the sea foam is I read on here people drain the fuel bowl and put in a new filter and then put a can of seam foam in to clean the injectors..