'04 SRT-4 engine in an '88 Caravan build

[black86glhs]

I like large female clientele, my washroom is the cleanest in town,

Fixed it for you.

[A.J.]

Go for the womens market, few copies of cosmo in the waiting room and a patient attitude to explain things. Enlist wife/gf to check out your customer side facilities for hints to make it more female friendly or less intimidating... have some problem description sheets printed up they can draw a big x on the car where the noise seems to be coming from etc.

You mean the American Rifleman and the NRA's America's First Freedom with my girlfriends name on it isn't enough? I take extra time to explain things to women so they feel more comfortable. I tell them that I want to educate them about their vehicles so if they can't make it back to me they're more knowledgeable and less likely to get ripped off. Some take the time to learn, others just want to get in their cars and go.

A.J.

[A.J.]

I told my parts guy at O'Reilly's he should come by to check out my van. He hasn't seen it since I started the swap and he's a car guy building a '65 Dart. He shows up with beer. I never drink while I'm working. I'm surprised I didn't loose a finger or burn my shop down. I had to stay until 9:30 to sober up so I could drive home. But I did get a few things accomplished.

I got the trans pan studs in. Since I'm going to have to drop the pan quite a few times to get the adjustment on the governor right, studs are the way to go. Ace wanted $2.60 a stud and I needed 14. So instead I bought 100mm threaded rod for $1.60 a piece and got 3 studs out of one rod. On the studs that didn't bottom out I put a small dot of braze on them to keep them from turning all the way in.





I started working on the passenger side mount. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves until I get it finished.

Factory 2.2/2.5 up to '89 passenger side mount.













I need more threads on my 5" long bolt.



Son of a........ Damn grade 8 bolt. And I was using cutting oil.



The big guns.





Now I have enough threads.



A.J.

[turbovanman²]

That looks good,

I studded my pan this year, so much better,

[A.J.]

I got my passenger side mount finished today. It's bad a$$. Lots of redundancy. I doubt even the biggest naysayers will challenge me on that one. I wish I had taken a picture of it before I sent it to the welder.

I also sent my aluminum Neon SRT-4 thermostat housing to be cut and re-welded to clear the PT Cruiser intake. I didn't want to use the plastic PT t-stat housing.

I got my exhaust manifold flange and sent that and the elbows to the welder.

So for the next week I doubt I'll have any updates while I'm waiting for parts to return. I did drill some vacuum barb ports into my throttle body adaptor.



I think I'm going to have to run a cone air filter. I really don't want to. Even if I use a Honda battery, I can't use an 80's turbo air box or a FWD Chrysler 3.0 air box (the only two I have in possession to test fit.) If anybody has any suggestions on air boxes I'd like to hear them. I want to pull air through the computer the way Chrysler intended but if I can't I'll just get a fan and wire it into the ASD relay to be on with the ignition.





A.J.

[turboshelbys]

where is the flux capacitor going to go?

[A.J.]

I don't know. Maybe underneath because I won't get grief at the track for relocating it.

A.J.

[turbovanman²]

Why pull air thru the computer? no one does it anymore, lol.

[speedfreek500]

I have seen people use a small 12v fan in the smec before, I will try and find a pic to show ya what i mean.

Geat job on this build, You van guys are crazy lol.

[Aries_Turbo]

simon, he is in arizona... not BC....

Brian

[A.J.]

Why pull air thru the computer? no one does it anymore, lol.

I pull air through the computer and have never had a computer problem, other than self induced socketing mishaps. Chrysler paid a lot of money for R&D and came to the conclusion that it's a good idea to pull air through the computer so that's what I'm going to do. Same reason air dams are put on cars. They're there for a reason.

I have seen people use a small 12v fan in the smec before, I will try and find a pic to show ya what i mean.

Geat job on this build, You van guys are crazy lol.

I figure any small 12v fan will work. We have an electronic store out here that sell an assortment of those small fans.

A.J.

[black86glhs]

Small computer case fans work nicely from what I have seen.

[turboshelbys]

i'll post a pic of one tomorrow

[A.J.]

I need air box ideas, not computer cooling fan ideas. Hook a nigga up.

A.J.

[wallace]

I need air box ideas, not computer cooling fan ideas. Hook a nigga up.

A.J.

Move the battery to the passenger side and relocate the computer...looks like you might just be able to fold the computer up and lay it near where the fuse box sits above the strut tower? That should give you a pretty large area to install an air box.

[AzShadow]

moving along nicely. just skimmed the last few pages, where is the new shop?

[A.J.]

Move the battery to the passenger side and relocate the computer...looks like you might just be able to fold the computer up and lay it near where the fuse box sits above the strut tower? That should give you a pretty large area to install an air box.

I can't move the battery to the other side. My AC lines are in the way. I just spent $97 to get the '98 compressor ends put on my '89 lines. I don't what to re-do them again.

I'm going to take some pictures of the area with my tape measure laid across at different angles and go to the junk yard. I'm thinking maybe the cone air filter housing out of a 4.6 Ford pick-up. That housing may be to big but we'll see.

moving along nicely. just skimmed the last few pages, where is the new shop?

Same complex different suite. I'm in the building directly behind (south) of where I was. Come by if you're in the neighborhood.

A.J.

[Reaper1]

Use a cone filter and make an airbox for it to go into that fits in the space you have. You could also fabricate an airbox that will use a common flat panel filter, if that's what you want, but I personally think that is more work.

[A.J.]

Use a cone filter and make an airbox for it to go into that fits in the space you have. You could also fabricate an airbox that will use a common flat panel filter, if that's what you want, but I personally think that is more work.

I was thinking about that. I really need to get the turbo mounted before I get too involved with the air box. Too many times I start something without having everything in place and have to re-do it. Just look at my intake debacle.

A.J.

[A.J.]

My kick a$$ passenger side mount.

I cut a piece of aluminum and had it welded to the mount I bought. I drilled and tapped the new piece of aluminum so the 7/16" bolt is threaded through both pieces of aluminum.





Assembled using the pieces I altered from the "up to '89" mount.





The bolts that came with the mount were 5/16". I can under stand why. This way they slide through the 10mm holes in the Stratus 2.4 mount. I wanted something better so I drilled and tapped them to the 10mm bolts Chrysler intended.



10mm hole on the left, 5/16" hole on the right.



Assembled



Before



After





There is a gap that if needed I could slot the holes in the Stratus mount and slide the assembly towards the engine. I don't know how secure that would be though.



A.J.