Hello, I’m a new member here and this is my first post. Six months ago, I bought a 1984 Ford conversion van. It has 35,000 original miles on it. It has a 5.8 HO engine with a four barrel carburetor and C6. When I bought it, the previous owner had contracted it a mechanic to go through it and they had installed a new battery, new plugs, a new radiator, a new distributor cap and rotor button, and oil change, and a new fuel pump. I bought it and drove it home and took it on another drive about 60 miles and parked it in my garage. The next morning, I started the van and it jerked everywhere the engine did and it was a rough idle and then it started ticking. Very long story short it had a bent pushrod (mechanic contracted by prior owner had not tightened distributor and it turned). In trying to diagnose the issue, I replace the fuel pump and spark plugs and spark plug wires. After the new mechanic replaced the pushrod and both fuel tanks, the van drove fine and I drove it 1200 miles (trip to SC) I drove it a couple more times around town and all was well. And about a month ago, I was driving the van and it died while I was pulling up to a stop sign. It started right back up. I was driving it later that day the same trip and it died in the middle of an intersection and I was almost hit by a car. I brought it home and it had a rough idle. It also almost idled too low it seemed and when you turn the air-conditioning on the fast idle switch on the carburetor move the linkage and the engine idols at a higher RPM and will not die when you put it in gear or at intersections or stop signs. It also previously idled very fast when the air conditioning was on. Too fast as in 2500 RPMs but curb no AC idle was correct. Now, the idle with the AC on is lower probably where it should be with the AC being on.
I took the old EGR valve off and it had carbon on it and the port had rust in it. I cleaned the port and vacuumed it out and lubricated the EGR valve. I replace the EGR valve with a new unit that NAPA had provided me but it ended up being the incorrect part number. It looks the same but it is not the proper part number for the van. So, I reinstalled the old EGR valve and test drove the van last night. With the incorrect part number EGR valve the van we’re not idol with the old EGR we installed, and it does function by pushing the plunger, I drove the van round-trip 60 miles and it idols lower than what it should while in park and the idle is rough and it died two times while coming to stops mainly when there was a downward angle or upper angle elevation to the stop sign or intersection. I’m not sure what’s going on I’ve taken the van to the mechanic further issues and I’ve tried to diagnose it myself. I’m to the point of being ready to take it back to the mechanic for this issue but would rather fix it myself if I can. I hope that someone may have experience with this and can help me. I really appreciate it ahead of time.
