I picked up a 2005 Ford E350 shuttlebus. I actually traded a gun for it and hired a guy from Uship $250 to haul it home. I have very little invested in this van. It has spun rod bearing that was disclosed when I traded for it. I would typically do a rebuild myself but I am considering buying a reman engine to save my time. This is the Ford V10, 2 valve PI heads.
There are tons of engines out there on the market from $3 - $5K. What I don’t want is a Frankenstein motor that has one hole is +.25 and another is +.5 and one that is sleeved.
Rock Auto has a reman engine for about $3K. I buy a lot of my parts from RA but not so sure about an engine rebuild. Anyone have any experience with a RA reman engine?
People are typically high on Jasper engines but they will not sell to the DIY installer.
No experience w/RA rebuilt engines, but I’d expect them to be as good as most name brand sources. They can’t afford to risk the value of their brand, so they’ll exert a certain amount of quality control on the actual vendor. Have you done this sort of thing before? B/c that’s going to be a huge job. I wouldn’t recommend starting the learning curve with an E350 myself. I drove an E350 powered 16 foot moving van one time from Denver to San Francisco , that’s a very powerful and physically big engine. But if you have the experience, I don’t see any reason to avoid the RA product. I’d probably look for an engine from a wrecked truck first from the local auto parts recycler myself, just so I have someone local to work to solve problems as they come up. If a problem develops with a RA engine, you may run into a logistics problem getting help.
While I trust RA overall, I’d rather buy from someone local, so that if there’s any problem I can go back to them. Check the various parts stores, I’ve seen crate engines at various shops around here.
What exactly is a “crate engine”? Brand new? Rebuilt by a shop that doesn’t nothing else but rebuilding engines? Or just somebody got one from a wreck and put in in a crate? It is possible I think to buy brand new engines, Chevy has those LS series, and Ford has one too, forget what they call it, and those probably come in some kind of crate, right?
I guess this wouldn’t be a ‘crate’ engine, those are typically new ones from the manufacturer, often for restorations and hot rods, etc. This would be a remanufactured engine. For example, Autozone lists about a dozen reman engines for the E350, with 3-4 year warranties, $2,700-$3,800. They’re all ‘deliver to home’, so I’d be curious what happens if there’s a problem.
Not my first. I have done many engine swaps. Cars, trucks, new, old, big, and small. Done them all. The most difficult was stuffing a 347 into a ford ranger. It required major modifications including fabricating my own motor transmission and rear axle mounts.
I would get the Ford one for a little more if I were you. Odds are they will have gone through it and made sure it is up to spec. I know people who have had mixed results with those parts store remans. Sure, they are good about warrantying them but what is your time worth swapping one out?
One buddy had a dud on the first go. It had no oil pressure and clatter from the start so had to be swapped for another one. The next one has been fine and will hopefully remain that way.
I looked into this. The ford reman engines are outsourced to engineguy.com. The price seems reasonable through ford. The short block is something like $1600. I think the complete reman is something like $5K that is advertised that fits this van. There are aparantly a few minor differences between the F series and E series (oil pump and timing cover). The price difference is nearly $2,000 which seems a little crazy for those small changes.
I think my GM diesel replacement engine was referred to as a crate engine from GM. It was remanufactured though not new, although everything was there except the bolt ons. I like RA but had had a few quality issues so I wouldn’t necessarily think their engines would be any better than anyone else’s. They are kind of like Amazon though where stuff is shipped from suppliers all over the place. Personally I would rather trust a re-man engine from Ford where at least you could be sure about parts replacement and quality control.
I looked it up and looks like it comes out the front after removing the core support. I removed a 391 from a 40’ blue bird before. I made a I beam trolley that attaches to my tractor mounted forklift. I think it will work after I make an intake lifting plate. I’s say that I am an advanced DIYer. I have a pretty vast collection of tools for working on just about everything.
If you can build a trolley to successfully remove a V-8 from a school bus I feel certain you can find your way to swap the engine on that van. I suggest you remove the transmission before pulling the engine. And you might consider removing the front bumper. On the 6 cylinders that I have swapped in Ford Es I found it worthwhile to remove it.
OP, sounds like you are well equipped and have a lot of experience. I doubt you’ll have much trouble (other than freeing up enough time) to accomplish your goal. Sorry I can’t be of much help. My car repair experience pales in comparison to yours, so really I should be asking you questions rather than the other way around … Best of luck.
Best of luck.