This day represents the culmination to an entire series of maintenance tasks on the van. When I bought the van it had many problems, two of which were:

1. Squeaky noise from engine bay that increased with RPM
2. Stuttering when at 1/2 throttle

I knew the first problem was related to the serpentine belt system. When I lubricated the power steering pump pulley, the problem went away. I replaced the power steering pump and pulley but the noise remained. Next I checked the tensioner pulley. Same as before, when I hit the bearing wtih WD-40 the noise went away. I replaced the tensioser but the noise remained. I then check all the pulleys one by one with the belt off. They all worked without squeaking which just left the belt.

The problem was that the radiator was leaking coolant which was getting on the belt and contaminating it. To fix the squeaking for good, I would need to replace the radiator.

As for problem number 2, I though the surging was ignition related. I replaced a bunch of parts, including all the vacuum lines, but the surging remained. Turns out that fouled transmission fluid can cause this stuttering to occur in the torque convertor. A complete tranmission oil flush was in order however I could see that oil was seeping past the tranmission pan seal. Not only that, but the tranmission pumps oil to a factory cooler that happens to be in the radiator. If I am already replacing the radiator, I might as well address the transmission fluid at the same time to avoid introducing any contaminents into the new cooler.

I got a cheapo radiator off ebay. The quality actually seems pretty good. Its got pastic tanks, but it seems sturdy and has no leaks so far. Removing the old radiator was not too tricky. I ended up flushing the old coolant out using tap water from a garden hose. The new radiator is a Sunbelt SBR1456.

Likewise addressing the transmission was time consuming but straight forward.

The only gotchas oveall were that the new radiator came with transmission oil line fittings that did not seal correctly. They allowed fluid to leak past. I ended up using the old fittings from the old radiator. The new radiator also did not come with the correct size fitting for the auxillarly radiator inlet on the bottom. I had to make a trip to home depot to get a fitting that would work.

When I was all done, I fired up the van and was sad to hear the squeal remained, even after washing the belt and pulleys. The old belt was just too far gone. Replacing it addressed the squeal.

It is so nice driving a nice quiet van that runs at smoothly at all throttle positions. I love it!

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Smll Med Lrg bottom of old radiator, far right is aux coolant connection, middle is trans outgoing	Smll Med Lrg middle is trans incoming (oil pumped to radiator here) then water line	Smll Med Lrg transmission has signs of oil seeping	Smll Med Lrg prestone flush and fill kit was well worth the $4
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg two hoses in the middle end up going to the firwall	Smll Med Lrg prestone flush adapter fitted inline	Smll Med Lrg
Smll Med Lrg garden hose connected to provide clean water pressure to flush system	Smll Med Lrg old fluid pumped right out the top of the radiator, kind of messy actually	Smll Med Lrg coming out clean, old radiator flushed and also the front and rear hearter core	Smll Med Lrg disconnecting old radiator
Smll Med Lrg disconnected fan shroud	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg all lower fittings removed	Smll Med Lrg
Smll Med Lrg bummer, bolts are not accessible from inside engine bay, partially accessible throgh grill	Smll Med Lrg old radiator removed. It has seen better days	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg just some shots to document everything normally obstructed by the radiator	Smll Med Lrg
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg look at all that space
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg soapy water used to clean all the pulleys and the old serpentine belt
Smll Med Lrg all pulleys clean	Smll Med Lrg old belt cleaned, still had to be replaced though	Smll Med Lrg new radiator	Smll Med Lrg it came with an assortment of fittings, ended up reusing the old ones where possible
Smll Med Lrg the bit fitting is tranmission line, internally the line sits against the fitting wrong	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg 7 of 8 speed nuts broke when removing old radiator and shroud, replaced all of them with new ones	Smll Med Lrg new radiator installed
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg time to tackle the transmission, i ran the car for about 30 seconds to pump oil out before dropping	Smll Med Lrg pan dropped, old filter visible	Smll Med Lrg
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg runnings car for only 30 seconds with trans cooler line disconnected emptied most of the oil	Smll Med Lrg old gasket	Smll Med Lrg pan cleaned up, fuzzy magnet was cleaned and reinstalled
Smll Med Lrg shiny new filter, both shallow filters for 2wd vehicles like the E150	Smll Med Lrg new filter is not as deep but fits in position great	Smll Med Lrg the o-ring didnt come out with old filter, had to extract it manually	Smll Med Lrg new transmission filter and gasket, DW-FK180
Smll Med Lrg my old gasket was not reusable	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg drain plug for the torque converter visible, drained remainder of tranny fluid from here	Smll Med Lrg new radiator connection leaked, went back to old fitting from old radiator
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg tranmission supposedly takes 18 quarts, I put in 13 so far and level looks good but dipstick is bad	Smll Med Lrg castrol merc
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg have to fill tranmission through the dipstick tube	Smll Med Lrg make sure you have 8 hours free before you start adding transmission fluid because it takes FOREVER	Smll Med Lrg auxillary coolant line leaked, new connecter was 1/8, not the needed 1/4 inch
Smll Med Lrg used 1/8 hose, got it only a 1/4 in coupler to meet old hose. not ideal, but quick as rad was full	Smll Med Lrg old cap had bad seals. used new cap	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg the old belt kept squeaking. Too bad. Had to get a new belt.
Smll Med Lrg old belt on left, new dayco belt on right, looks very different but seems to work fine	Smll Med Lrg new belt installed, tensioner is way more tense	Smll Med Lrg my arm got tired of holding tranmission filler so I proped it up