Ford Repair: 1996 Ford E350 intermitently dies and will only start again after a rest, ford e350, whole lot of things

Question
I see you have experience with this problem with another E350.  Engine dies occasionally while driving and will not restart until engine has rested 10-30 minutes.  Will restart and go all day or may die again.  Sometimes the engine runs fine and will not restart after shut down unless the engine rests 10-30 minutes.  

Check engine light is on.  Brought to Ford dealer.  They said it was a poor fuel mixture code and changed the fuel pump.  Light went on again.  Dealer said code is for cylinder #5 with bad fire and recommends new wires and plugs.

Engine died again today while on fwy.  Cranked back up after 30 minutes.  Still had towed to dealer.  They claimed to have run diagnostics all day and found nothing wrong.  

I have seen other complaints exactly like this online, but there is no clear answer.  Is this a common problem?  Do you have any insight that might help the dealer (and me) solve the problem?

Thank you!

Brad

Answer
there are a whole lot of things that can cause this-first make sure your smaller black wire coming off the negative side of battery is secure and clean-i doubt very seriously if wires and plugs will fix your problem unless you have a bad coil wire-first thing need to get in no start situation and check for spark & fuel-being this is a van i know it can be inconvenient but you need to have your engine cover where you can remove it when it stalls and won't start-pull the cover off then locate the coil wire on cap and pull off cap and hold approximatly 1/4 inch above tower on cap and spin engine over if you don't have spark look at the ignition module-cam sensor or pick up coil located inside distibutor and ignition coil-of course you can always have a wire problem or ecm/pcm-after checking for spark make sure all wires are connected then unplug electrical connector on ignition coil to keep it from firing. locate shrader valve on fuel rail remove plastic cap and push schrader valve spin engine over and see if fuel sprays out-be careful and not get any in your eyes-let any excess fuel dry before trying to start with coil plugged in-remember the electrical connector to coil not the coil to distributor cap wire. this still won't tell you if you have correct pressure but if pump is working-if you have fuel and spark it should start unless injectors aren't pulsing but they should be as they work off of pickup coil and module signals to the ecm. if you don't have either spark or fuel tell dealership what you have found. you could also have a relay going bad. good luck.