3rd Gear nonsense! 93 Econoline 150 5.0.

Well, turns out I had it on the wrong firing order on top of having a bad cooling fan clutch. My guess is that the bad thermostat caused excessive heat which damaged the springed element in the center causing low fan speed and overheating.

Still getting the codes though. Probably have a damaged wire/short somewhere. I've heard that the chassis ground from the battery can cause some similar issues.

Problem solved! Turns out I replaced A BUNCH of parts that didn't need it. There was only really one problem to begin with, but due to human error (it's me...I'm the human!) it became two. When I changed the plugs and wires, I didn't record what firing order it was in. I looked up 3 or 4 different firing orders for 302's from around the late 80's early 90's. Of course, I had the wrong one going. That's all fixed now and on to the other problem of overheating. What I think and am fairly certain of is that the lower radiator hose had a spring/coil inside it to prevent collapse and stalling the coolant flow. I tried giving the engine direct throttle while looking at the lower coolant hose and sure enough....caved right in on itself. Pretty certain it had a spring, but being from 1992 it was more than likely rotted mostly. So when the spring broke and the hose collapsed causing ALOT of heat which broke the fan clutch as well as jack up the thermostat. It didnt occur to me at the time, but when I changed the water pump there was a good 1/4 inch layer of black gunk on the back of the tin plate.