I've just been given a 84 b-250 van with a 318. The van sat for 3 years, and now it pops and skips horribly when I take it down the road. It makes the whole van jerk around pretty violently.

Could this be condensation in the gas tank, or something a simple tune-up could fix?

Thanks for any info.

Pull the plugs and see what they look like and pull the carb top & eyeball the bowl (debris/water globules)

if you didn't, I would dump all the gas out and get fresh gas into the system and see what that does.

hey james..long time no see

yea,I would unhook the fuel line and run it to a small can on the ground and run it some to clear the cyls

may need a set of plugs also

sitting and bad gas is a givin...may need the carb opend and clead out

when gas evaps in one it will leave all kinds of grainulary sediments from the gas that will clogg them up also

if the carb was not pluged it would deff be bad gas after that long of a time

what does it smeel like at the gas cap?

just smell dont huff

try those first IMO

fresh gas is a must after sitting that long

After cleaning out the fuel system, check out the motor too.
do a compression check and check for timing chain slop. Do a good tuneup to wake it up.

Check the distributor cap and rotor really good for any corrosion "growth" as this can cause some radical misfiring if any moisture built up in there and corroded the copper or alluminum contacts. Good luck!

I would look at the cap/rotor and pickup coil first, if it runs at all the fuel most likely isn't the problem.

Thanks for the info.

Another thing is that it'll idle great, but as soon as you put it gear, it'll want to stall. I had a chebbie pickup that would do that too a couple years back, and a set of new plugs and wires really helped.

The "ram-rod", as I call it, does great a lower rpms, but as soon as you get up to cruising speed, the pops and jerks begin. And I swear I can hear backfire noises coming from the air cleaner.

Thanks again for any help.

Hope that tranny you got from me is working out for ya scratchin'.

Could a stopped up catalytic converter be the problem by any chance?

Is there any diff on the way it runs ... when the engine is cold .. or hot ?