Hello there community,

I am reaching out to anyone who has experience fixing ford econoline vans, more specifically fourth gen vans. I have pictures to accompany my issues but first and foremost i will provide CONTEXT:
Buddy of mine said i can keep his work van if i was able to fix it, was sitting in his garage for two years, cosmetically perfect but said it doesnt run (duh) and will need the tranny (liberals say wuuut ?) replaced, Upon opening the hood i immediately noticed that part of the air filter assembly was missing (the bigger molded rhombus shaped part) and that a red wire with the brittle black conduit guard thing was dangling on top of the battery with its end taped off. I have worked and repaired my own vehicles before more specifically my 08 Colorado and 03 Explorer but the configuration under the hood of this van threw me way off, especially finding what looked like a toiled black squishy thing that im assuming is for air or fuel purposes that was resting on the air hoses.
Ive ordered the actual shop manuals and they will arrive next week but in the meantime my questions to you all are:
Is there a real life video or pic (not a pic of a diagram in black and white were parts are indistinguishable and mashed together and their label above) picture of the under the hood configuration 95 E350 V8 and possible descriptions of them ? all the pics i found on google were diagrams and im looking more of a custom pic with someone describing the parts inside the hood, with connections and solenoids and the smaller electrical and electro-mechanical components as well (sorry i dont know what i am looking for cause this van scares me)

Why do i have 2 battery trays on the passenger side and the driver side in the engine bay ? from doing a quick search it looks like my battery is suppose to sit on the passengers side, HOWEVER when i got it, the battery was resting on the drivers side...what gives ? is there suppose to be extra components resting there and are missing ? or is that a spot for another battery ?

what is that black buoy balloon looking thing with hoses coming out its bottom ?

in my photos uploaded there are approximately 3-4 connections that are not terminated to anything. 2 are on the wiring loom on the driver side and passenger side and then the third connection which is a lot wider and slimmer (which i thought terminated to the pcm but boy was i as wrong as the progressive state of gender ideology in the US)

Can you guys please help me with links to other postings/videos/pictures/discussions that could help me out ? i apologize to all the OCD mechanics for fudging up nomenclature and such but again im not a mechanic, just a construction worker who refuses to pay for repairs and rather do it himself to save a months worth of rent

 

The sponge bob thing is the vacuum cannister. It hold vacuum to operate various components like heater louvers etc