The most interesting '89 Caravan in the world

Well, I'm stuck waiting for flywheel bolts, and was stuck waiting until four today for motor mounts, so I decided to mock up the trans and fit the PTU. The guy who originally did this swap for his omni said he had to grind the pan rail to clear. His thread was kinda vague on how far you actually had to grind. Unfortunately he died later in a car accident so I couldn't exactly ask either. I found out that you have to clearance quite a bit.

But, I have a grinder, and by God I'll make it fit.

Eariler this week I got the engine off the stand and onto the work bench. Notice the precarious balancing on two pieces of 2x4.

Then eariler today I fitted the trans and got to grindin' (notice I didn't say tranny). I ended up with this:

Here is an older pic that shows that side of the block.

But, it fits:

Of course one success leads to another problem. I definitely have to ditch the factory 2.4 oil filter housing. I had planned on having a plate made with two 1/2 NPT fittings and running a oil cooler and remote filter. The cooler was to help with the oil cooled turbo. Now it looks like that is a necessity.

In other news I should have the rear diff done and the axle back in next week and can move on to the fuel cell mounting.

Rolled my own poly mounts.

80A two part urethane via Mcmaster Carr

Rollin' like the Walt White of the poly mount.

Tips: Use Gorilla Tape to tape up the backside, anything else will leak. Also, if you wait about 5 minutes after you mix the parts to start pouring, the mix will have started to thicken and you won't get leaks as badly. When you first mix it, it is slightly thicker than water, and will run out the smallest gap in your tape job.

Sweet project! I may borrow your baffle/windage design for my SRT-4 powered Locost.

Great idea with the mounts. I may have to do that with the rear control arms on the 308.

bgkast wrote: Sweet project! I may borrow your baffle/windage design for my SRT-4 powered Locost.

Go for it. I took a KISS approach as keeping oil near the pickup was more important than any actual windage benefits.

crankwalk wrote: Great idea with the mounts. I may have to do that with the rear control arms on the 308.

That whole thing snowballed, as many other things have. The small round piece with the square lug in the center is the rubber mount for the rear diff torque arm. I wanted to remove it and fill it with poly, as it had the bolt piece in the middle suspended by two rubber parts of the mount in a triangle kinda shape. In the course of removing it, I killed it with fire. Before realizing that no replacement was available.

So at that point I was committed to ordering the poly and rebuilding it. So I decided to do all the motor mounts also. The larger one is the later caravan front engine mount, it was the hardest to do and leaked quite a bit the first time I tried it. I had to go buy the duct tape as I didn't have any (points off my man card). When I got back the poly had start to set, and then I realized how much easier it became when it thickened up.

I got the trans bolted up for hopefully the last time last weekend, Here's a pic of the clutch I'm using.

Turbos Unleashed purple plate with a rigid 4 puck disc.

This is NOT what you want to see after you torque the pressure plate down:

After fixing that gaffe, I moved on to pulling the diff cover off. I got a little water in there when I pressure washed the trans. No pic of everything back together yet.

Yesterday, I pulled the old k frame out. That left me with this.

The plan is to have the engine in by the end of Monday.

Sweet, I love this.

So, the fix to the oil filter issues was to tap the holes in the pan for 3/8 NPT and plug them. The pan has plugs at the front of the engine that are from the passages being drilled in the pan. I removed those and block off the holes at the oil filter adapter. I'll run some -6 AN adapters, a remote filter, and an oil cooler when I get further along.

4/8/2013

4/9/2013

Pulled apart the PTU to see if the provision for the speed sensor was there. It wasn't

I will hopefully get the rear buttoned up this week and work on getting the engine mounts worked out Friday.

The lack of updates this time is for a good reason. I was too busy working on it to stop and post about it.

Week before last I tore apart the 93 AWD k frame and got the manual rack attached. Had some help last Friday and got it in. I had to elongate one of the mounting holes so the bolt would thread in correctly into the k frame.

I had to trim the piece that slides onto the steering column to get everything to play nice. I also had to ditch the plastic boot and trim the plastic shield around the base of the column. Sorry no pics there.

I ordered the rest of the parts to go ahead and rebuild the front end while it was all apart. I already had polybushings for the control arms.

First I removed the old ones.

Then I reassembled everything, rented a ball joint press and got it all together yesterday and today after work.

Driver's side

Passenger's side

Found out my engine alignment was off. I had tacked the pass. side mount in place, and thought I might have to correct it. I then determined I hacked up the mount too bad before, and need to get another one to hack up before I can finish the passenger side mount. I did tack it together so the engine can sit in unsupported. I started to mock up the header and turbo before calling it a night.

Great googamoga!

Oh my...... :drool:

Ugh, its been a little over 2 months with no progress. I had this issue last year as my work is busiest from June-August. I'm working 6 day work weeks and today is the start of 13 days straight. At the moment I haven't had much in the way of $$ so the OT at work helps at least. I either have time or money, never both.

This build is badass. Vids of it doing nasty 4 wheel burnouts and insane donuts are a must when it's done.

So here it is almost winter and I've gotten very little done. I've done some little jobs here and there, resolved the passenger side engine mount issue, buttoned up the valve cover, determined my radiator setup, etc. I still haven't had a lot of spare cash to buy any of the bigger things I need, but I'm hoping that I can get back on this after I get back from the challenge.

I seriously haven't posted here since November? I'll play catch up then. I've been on mandatory 6 day work weeks (minus two weeks in Feb.) for over a year so bear with me.

Nov/Dec 2013

I went on vacation to my in-law's in Sarasota as an excuse to spectate at the challenge. Got back did Christmas, and the worst winter I've ever experienced begins.

Jan 2014

The worst winter. Ever. Spent two days at home due to snow emergency/-17 below air temps. Made the decision to attend SDAC (end of June) only if I finished the van.

Feb./Mar. 2014

Winter won't let go. I made it out there to do some minor things but didn't accomplish much.

April/May 2014

If I'm going to do this I have to do it now.

First the brakes

Measured for then bought/mounted the intercooler.

Trying to keep it at least somewhat sleeperish.

Started mocking up my oil filter/cooler/turbo lines.

May 2014

Editors note: Somewhere around this time Dakota number 1 has a catastrophic rear end failure. The decision is made to press Dakota number 2 (eventual replacement anyway) into service as the work beater. Spend several days off prepping Dakota number 2. Get back to work and 1 week later Dakota number 2 starts dropping oil pressure at hot idle and after a couple days gets a light knock. More time off replacing the rods and cleaning junk out of the pan and I throw in the towel on it and get a company van (less dollars but less broken).

Moved on to the Fuel cell. I had internal debate on using the 12 gal summit racing cell I already had or springing for a used atl or the like to make sure I was NASA legal (you know for.... well reasons). Time and money won out and I decided to make it NHRA legal for now and deal with NASA compliance later. I then decided just to bolt it to the floor and deal with the rule books later since I needed to break in all the new parts (planned trip to SDAC would cover the miles for break-in).

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The list of items doesn't get smaller. For everything I check off 1-2 more things are added. The stress of 6 days weeks and spending any available time on the van, and realizing I won't have enough $$ to get everything I need in time, wears on me. I canceled the trip to SDAC and instead took a weekend off in Cincinnati. If you follow me on IG (you do follow me right) you'll see pics from the Carew Tower and other sites.

Early July

Been over a year of 6 day weeks now. Then on the 3rd my mom goes to the hospital with a brain hemorrhage. Spent the next month dealing with ICUs hospitals and rehab centers.

Now

Mom is home but still off work. Took a big hit in the wallet taking a good chunk of July off. I have most of the stuff to finish the fuel system and probably get it fired up for the first time. Project creep (AKA scope creep- see image below) keeps telling me I should just go MegaSquirt and ditch the factory ECU since I can't run a VSS and I wouldn't need the funky dizzy adaptor since I could use 2.4 cam/crank sensors. Money will probably keep that from happening so it will just evolve to that point later. Still need to get a few odds and ends done for the rear axle and driveshaft also before it can come off the stands, finally.

Long post is long.

TL;DR still not done, making excuses.

image below:

Mandatory 6 day work weeks? Ugh. What do you do?

I work for a Home Service Provider (read contracted installation company) for a Satellite TV provider.

Awesome project!

As the son of a former Dodge big shot who was raised in 2.2L vehicles and has more miles in a T-wagon than most people have in all makes/models combined, I think we need an update. For justice.

For this guy?

I've looked at it gathering dust. Normally I use the money I make during the summer when I'm busy at work to buy parts, and then use the time during the winter when I'm slow doing the work. Unfortunately since I spent a good chunk of the summer off work I'm pretty broke. Luckily my wife was able to pick up overtime and had school loan refunds to help out. There are some things to be done, but I haven't been motivated because its been below freezing on most of my days off.

My immediate to do list is:

Making a spacer for the rear passenger CV. It is a flange type. I need to make a 1/4" spacer so I can use an off the shelf axle. I'll probably find someplace local that can waterjet/cnc it out of AL.

Running the fuel lines - I need to add a bulkhead fitting to the fuel cell for a return and run the lines to the front.

Electrical - I decided to go to an aftermarket EMS, so I need to strip the factory ECU from the harness and purchase and install the aftermarket EMS probably a MSII or MSIII

after that it is little odds and ends to get it fired up for the first time... finally

What's driving the decision to do standalone right away as opposed to later? My SRT4 van runs well enough to need AWD even with the stock electronics and the distributor adapter. I know the distributor adapter is semi expensive if you dont plan to use it forever but on the other hand if engine management is one of the only things keeping you from getting it running and debugging the various OTHER issues that are bound to pop up before you open the whole other family-size can of worms that is a standalone, i would at least consider it!

How did those homemade liquid urethane bushings turn out? Any pictures of the finished (dried) product?

In reply to Vigo:

I have the stuff to use the factory ecu, but I don't have a lot of knowledge on the tuning side of it. I was going to have Rob do the tuning for me but he's not doing custom tunes anymore. I'd like to tune it myself but the idea of blowing it up after it taking so long to get it done sickens me.

In reply to ssswitch:

I didn't get any pictures after they were fully cured. They seem pretty stiff. I'll have more feedback after I get it back together.