Um, I hate to be a party pooper, but K&N is a waste of money, especially in a street driven vehicle. Just get a good quality stock air filter and leave the stock air box alone. There are better things to spend your money on.

Read about a real-life comparison test HERE

and

HERE

I have been pretty happy with the K&N filter in my 5.0 but like every thing else there are pros & cons.

keep up the good work

I have to agree with Reed on the K&N thing,but as lukester says pros and cons to both. You have to make the choice. Its your van. You have to go with what you like. The input from vanners is great, the experience of these guys is invaluable, but in the end, you have to like your ride.
I happen to like the look of the ladder on the back as well as the rear tire carrier. I have the rear barn doors and have the louvers as well. However if you are one Facebook and look up Scott W. Kauffman, he has a sweet chevy, Emerald Express. His spare tire is actually used as an ottoman in the passenger compartment. You can add me on facebook (J. Daniel Downie) I have lots of pic of my van. After Keystone, I will post pics of my latest body mod. Its the body work where real creativity happens!

Ok, I will admit I just threw a name out there. I didn't really mean a K & N per se! I was looking at the stock air box and realizing the air intake starts at the lower right passenger side, then works up into the box, goes across the engine (which the box sits directly above the radiator, aka heat source), then curves back at the drivers side to run to the intake. What my plan entails is running 2 to one then turning down to the drivers frame rail where there would be a cone filter. The things that come to mind is this, the stock rubber hoses have creases in them, thus it would seem it would restrict air flow to the engine. With my idea the tubes would be completely smooth inside. Another thing is, less twists and turns and a shorter route for the air to get to the intake. So, essentially I would shorten and smooth out the air path. Does that make sense? Cost wise, I dont think more than $40 for it all.

Thank you Luke!

Check out my post about swapping my 89 from a 302 to a 351 HERE I HAD to come up with a way to go from the double barrel throttle body down to a single air intake tube. It isn't as easy (or cheap) as you would think.

The stock air box actually does a god job of keeping sound down, keeping the air cool (it has the snorkel that sucks in cold air from above the battery), and providing good filtration. The generic cone filters you find at auto parts stores are loud and don't provide as good of filtration as the stock air filter. Again, I hate to be a wet blanket, but I would leave the stock air filter system alone.

One of the downsides of a fuel injection motor, especially a speed density injection system like is on your 300, is that you can't do much customizing without having to buy expensive tools or chips. Remember that the engine control computer has a preprogrammed set of parameters it bases your timing and fuel mixture on. If you go changing the characteristics of the motor (even changing the thermostat away from the factory specified temperature rating) the computer will consider that an error and start "correcting" timing and fuel mixture to compensate. This typically means error codes, default to limp-in mode, poor performance, and poor fuel economy. The speed density system is very limited in how much it can adapt to modifications. I know some people have been very careful in picking high performance components and keeping their speed density computers happy, but that costs lots of money and is usually done to 302. 302s have a much larger aftermarket support base than do 300s.

I recommend you focus on getting the motor running as good as possible in stick form, and then save up to do the best modification possible, switching to MAF based fuel injection. That swap won't be cheap (I would say between $700-$1000+), and you may decide you are happy with a stock motor. It is your van, your money, and your choice, I am just trying to offer you my viewpoint based on how much time, money, and research I have spent learning about Ford fuel injection systems in vans.

Ok people.. take a guess at who broke the Ignition Control Module tonight while adjusting the distributor while cruising down the road??? Good god I cannot believe my luck. I drove the thing down to the store with the mutt hut off. I discovered HEAVY pinging under load, OOPS! So, I loosened the dist lock nut and gave her a turn, still pinged, so I gave a dif turn, still pinged.. gave a push with the foot so I didnt have to pull over.. SNAP .. coast and die in the middle of the road. Luckily I was a few blocks from home.. so I had the ol lady come get us.. went and got the tow strap, hauled it in with the Escort. The ol lady got a lesson today on how to tow! I dont know who was more nervous, her or I!! I have pics I will upload later, right now I have to get some homework done. BTW.. feel free to cast stones, drop an anvil on me, run me over.. I dont think I would mind!

Distributor - I put the dist back in one tooth off (forward). I thought hmmmmm if it pinged one way and the other I thought the timing was off. So I bumped the engine around, checked the mark on the crank, checked the position of rotor and it is about 20 degrees before TDC now. Could it be that thing engine ran two teeth off? Or was the dist way out of wack? The thing sounded like a sewing machine with how quiet it was at idle, but under load heavy pinging. How can that be?

try running high test mite make a small diff.

High test?

Oi. The base timing on Ford fuel injected motors is not something you should mess with. The timing is controlled by the computer. You need to disconnect the SPOUT connector and set your base timing to 10 BTDC, lock down the distributor AND DON'T TOUCH IT.

It isn't like the old carbed engines where the timing control was completely independent of the carb and you could play with base timing, advance curves, and vacuum advance. The computer controls it all and isn't happy when you play with it. Setting the timing anything other than stock specs make the computer try and compensate and it screws everything up.

Time to school you a bit about Ford fuel injection. you can't be working on your fuel injected motor thinking it is like a carbed motor. At best, you will waste time and money, at worst, you will damage something.

First, learn how to run a self-test of your engine systems HERE. The factory computer does a fair job diagnosing problems it has, and you can get the trouble codes and run the tests very easily without special tools.

Once you have codes, see what they mean HERE and HERE

Here is how you set your base timing. Your 300 has an EEC-IV ignition system.

There is loads of free info about the Ford EFI systems on www.fordfuelinjection.com. It is worth your while to spend some time reading some of those articles and learning about your fuel injection and ignition systems.

Good luck, and don't be afraid to ask questions.