So have am considering buying a 2006 E350 van with the V10 that has a spun rod bearing. I have been looking and it seems like bad rod bearings is a somewhat common thing on some of the V10’s. Was there a material issue with these that Ford never resolved or maybe a design issue?
I am considering buying or doing some horse trading with the guy. I can rebuild an engine so the expense of an engine swap is greatly diminished. I have seen several of these that have early rod bearing failure and not sure I want to take on a project only to have the rebuild fail prematurely due to a design flaw.
I can’t give any input on the quality of the Ford rod bearings on this engine, but how many miles are on the van? do you know if the engine is the original, and if it has had any other work done? 11 years can be about forever in a work van- with the abuse and mistreatment they get.
If this is the original engine, I would think that speaks volumes to the design of this engine (of which I have heard mostly good things about.)
Its only 105K miles. Low miles by any modern standard. I have looked at a few others that had similar issues hence the question. As far as I am aware it is the original engine.
No experience w/that engine, but maybe the previous owner was hauling 40 bags of cement in it, or not following the manufacturer’s maintenance schedule, using the wrong kind of oil, generally abusing the van. I was at the local home products store the other day buying some fasteners, and on the way out there was a guy loading up his newish F150. He’d already put a bunch of sheetrock and many bundles of wood flooring products in the back. He was about to load 15-20 sheets of plywood on top of that. As I walked by he asked the fellow helping him load up the truck if he thought it would be too much weight to carry 10 5 gallon buckets of paint too.
More than likely the spun bearing was the result of inadequate maintenance or running the engine low/out of motor oil.
I would not assume the cost of rebuilding a V-10 is greatly cheaper than buying another engine. A spun bearing will often damage the connecting rod and crankshaft journal.
This is a shuttle bus used for a non profit. Has the wheelchair lift on it. Likely not from over worked but bad maintenance. I plan to trade a gun for the can so my initial cost will be tiny. In going to look it this weekend.
Commercial use such as this and limousine, taxi, security patrol, etc can involve a lot of idle time and those unfamiliar with fleet use may not be changing the oil often enough. I have seen good, durable engines sludged up because of many hours of idling between oil changes.