'The Boost Bus'

[trreed]

Recently made a purchase.  It is a 1996 E350 Club Wagon, complete with a forged rod 7.3L Power Stroke.  Buddy found this van on Craigslist for $1000 advertised as non-running, non driving, had a bad title, and no pictures.  But they guy responded.  So we headed to look at this thing, and found that it DID run, DID drive, DID have a clean title, and of course was nasty cause he was living out of it off and on (and it was $1000).  We talked the guy down to $600 and the Boost Bus was acquired.  Right now the rear seats and interior panels are completely stripped out, side doors don't work, only one rear door opens, and the lock cylinders in the front doors don't work so the lock is a padlock on the rear barn doors.

I want to lower it, put a tuner on it and take it down the drag strip at least once.  Eventually we want to put seats and a mini-bar in it.  Additional thoughts or ideas?

 

Of course, a $600 vehicle with 309k miles is not without issues.  Turbo needs a little help before any burnouts can take place.

 

Edited August 10, 2018 by trreed

[Mopar1973Man]

OMG... 7.3L Ford are killer engines to play with. Once you get that turbo straighten out and a tuner dropped on with some fresh injectors I'm sure that thing could haul the mail down the track. 

[trreed]

Needs an intercooler as well.  But that'll be easy.

Oh, and #firstmod is a Cummins sticker on the back window, to show how little we care.

Edited August 10, 2018 by trreed

[notlimah]

100% agree with the drop/drag. 

 

Did I hear you say hood stack or side exit exhaust??

[trreed]

Obviously the most obnoxious hater pipe I can fit!  You also might have heard 300/200's and a 467.7.....

Edited August 10, 2018 by trreed

[dave110]

Where am I when these deals come around? Good purchase. My 95 PSD was the most trouble free vehicle I have owned.

[Me78569]

I always wanted one of those.

[trreed]

Bought it off a hippie in Boulder.  Always for sale, for cheap!

20 minutes ago, dave110 said:

Where am I when these deals come around? Good purchase. My 95 PSD was the most trouble free vehicle I have owned.

This is the first deal I've come across like this, and I didn't even find it.

Edited August 10, 2018 by trreed

[Mopar1973Man]

6 minutes ago, trreed said:

Bought it off a hippie in Boulder.  Always for sale, for cheap!

Now you can buy it off a Cummins Redneck... 

[BBHD]

1 hour ago, trreed said:

Bought it off a hippie in Boulder.  

I was going to guess Nederland...but Boulder totally fits!

[trreed]

13 minutes ago, BBHD said:

I was going to guess Nederland...but Boulder totally fits!

It's the second diesel vehicle I've purchased out of Boulder... My pickup came from the north side of town.  This wonderful piece of engineering came from Pearl Street.  i'm surprised it was allowed to be that close.

[SavageTusk]

I'd go this route with it, 

[Me78569]

5 hours ago, trreed said:

It's the second diesel vehicle I've purchased out of Boulder... My pickup came from the north side of town.  This wonderful piece of engineering came from Pearl Street.  i'm surprised it was allowed to be that close.

that's why the ad says it didn't drive.  They were scared to.  

 

 

 

[trreed]

I wish that was the case!  Instead the guy said the "cam ignition sensor" was bad, so he towed it to a shop where they "had it running for over an hour" and then he parked it and never tried to drive it again.

[Mopar1973Man]

On 8/10/2018 at 8:00 PM, Me78569 said:

that's why the ad says it didn't drive.  They were scared to.  

 

 

Typical Ford owner... 

[trreed]

Got the turbo off for inspection and prepared for a rebuild.... only to find someone has had their grubby mitts on it recently (no surprise).  The good news is the turbo looks like it was recently rebuilt, and everything came apart easily.  The bad news is they didn't replace it with the correct, 'more desirable' turbo. Stock OBS turbo has a 1.15 A/R exhaust housing.  Stock van turbo had a 1.0 A/R housing.  We found the 1.15 housing.  Oh well.  No idea on what went through the turbo.  My guess is the PO was trying to fix it on the cheap and a shop goes "well, we got this used turbo laying around", not mentioning the wheel damage.  Oh, and it's reverse rotation, and the oil feed is up from the bottom, so swapping to a S366 or some variant is more challenging.

Edited August 13, 2018 by trreed

[Mopar1973Man]

1 hour ago, trreed said:

Oh, and it's reverse rotation, and the oil feed is up from the bottom, so swapping to a S366 or some variant is more challenging.

 

How in the heck did it ever build boost if the compressor wheel was a reverse rotation? 

[trreed]

Cause the turbine is reversed, the housings are reversed, everything is backwards.  It turns counterclockwise instead of what we're used to.

Edited August 13, 2018 by trreed

[Mopar1973Man]

Nevermind... I must need to get some rest these days. I look at the wheels and swore I saw the one reversed rotational to the other in the picture. 

[trreed]

It happens.  I'm lucky as the guy who I split this van with is friends with a couple 7.3 owners (he himself has one, so I'm the only Cummins guy around 4-5 7.3's  ) and therefore we have access to plenty of secondhand parts.  We probably are gonna mess with the HPOP since the turbo is out anyways, to get *just that much more* flow to the injectors.  Maybe then it'll do a burnout!

Edited August 13, 2018 by trreed