Race van's which one?

If you go this route make sure you do your homework on the sprinter source forum and take your time to find the right one. There are deals out there, but a poorly maintained Sprinter will make you wish you had spent a litte more on a well maintained one. If you look any pull the plastic engine cover off and look for black goo around the injectors. If you see any put the cover back on, get in your car, and leave.

 

ok what am i looking for with this black goo your talking about, and what is the normal miles for these sprinters

 

We looked at sprinters for a long time before we bought the diesel van and we just could not justify the cost of the sprinters. Even the beat to shit ones were going for $8k-$10K it was ridiculous.

 

You will know the black goo when you see it. It comes from leaking injector seals and it is basically carbon making it out of the combustion chamber. It will start coming out around whichever injector is leaking and eventually it can fill up the whole area under the cover. Pretty much if you see black goo coming from an injector it is highly suspect that you have the problem. It is expensive and difficult to fix.

There really is no "normal" miles for a sprinter. You can find older ones with 50k on them and you can find newer ones with 200k. I don't know much about the newer models started in 07, but I have heard of the earlier ones up to 06 having close to a million miles on them. There are two schools of thought on them. One is get the lowest mileage one you can find so there is less chance of something going wrong. The other is get a higher mileage one (175K or more) that has been well maintained because by that point anything major, like a con rod failure, should have happened by now so regualr maintenance should keep it going. Mine had 209K on it when I got it and I am up to 223K now. So far, other than fluids, all I have had to do is put a new turbo on it, which ended up costing me about $600 including new oil.

 

I looked at them for a year and a half before I bought mine. You are correct, even the rough ones are close to $10K, and prices are probably worse on the east cosat. I guess the other side of that is it is a used vehicle that has a relatively high demand, so the value shouldn't drop all that much. If a nice one does pop up for a good price it doesn't last long. I got mine on ebay. I found it less than 12 hours after it had been posted, called the guy, asked a couple questions, and then hit buy it now.

 

5.4 is a half million mile motor if you don't mind the spark plug and coil pack problems. They're tough as nails. Just don't run it outta oil.

 

I wish I had a sprinter I see them all over wherever I drive and ogle over them.

 

I picked up a 97 Chevy Express conversion van. Getting about 17mpg on the thruway doing 70-80 mph. Fits everything, Pit Bull restraint, camp in it when it's empty. I love it. Oh I paid $1500. No leaks. I did rotors and added a hitch. Racing on the cheap!

 

sprinter all the way.

E350 Diesel if you cant swing the sprinter.

 

any more pix guys

 

These are from shortly after I got it. I have since added two black and gray removable wheel chocks, but that is about it. The plastic engine cover is the one you want to check under if you go look at one.

 

man thats nice anybody else

 

by the way I dropped the price on my 05 E350 to $8500, if any one is interested. its in the classifieds. Thanks Lance

 

Subscribed! I'm looking for a van to buy for next season, I would like the sprinter, but they are just way too expensive. I definitely prefer Chevy vs Ford for gas engines (pushrod generally gives you better gas mileage in my experience with the higher torque, but less power). Although I'm not too sure about who makes the better diesel. Apparently Nissan makes a nice cargo van as well (with a high ceiling), but its mega expensive as well.

 

I do not know if that is an accurate assessment as in my experience Ford's in general have always gotten poor gas mileage, pushrod or not.

 

Meh, lets say it was a semi accurate assessment. Gas mileage has many factors but thepower torque curve and the gearing has a lot to do with. This why corvettes can still pull off 25mpg+ where the higher revving lower torque m3 gets piss for mileage. The high torque at lower rpms allows you to cruise at 1500 rpms on the highway thus burning less fuel. You can make a 4 valve motor do the same thing by altering port geometry. This is also why diesels get gangbusters gas mileage.

 

http://www.wiju.com/r?q=Fiberglass ...dy-11-000/?ad=16197276&rnd=0.2821200517937541
Bombed across the country in one of these(Unicell) in three days with 20 dirt bikes in the back...can't remember how few times i stopped for diesel. It's huge inside.

As a side, our '08 'Vette gets 33mpg doin' 70mph at 1500rpm. Do you think I could ditch the hatchback and put a fifth wheel in it?

 

When you absolutely, positively HAVE to make first practice two states away!

 

so you guys are saying do not get a ford e350 diesels? If so what brand and model type should one get?

 

Low mileage Sprinter http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Dodg...Cars_Trucks&hash=item416cee1f0b#ht_585wt_1006