Project "Whitey" mid 13 second DD minivan

[Ubmbass]

I have missed my van for a while now, and I have been searching for a proper replacement. I have been looking on here, TD and local classifieds to no avail. until last week I saw a listing for a turbo minivan for 600 bucks. After a bit of haggling we managed to come to an agreement on price and I dragged it home. here's a pic of the pick up.



As you can see, it has had a little bit pf playing done already. it has full 3 inch side exit, wheels have been changed out, has a tii garrett, gauges installed. Just the little things.

I got it home, changed out the broken cam and got it fired up after about an hours work. Went for a drive around the block and found out the engine has a rod knock. No big deal, I have a spare 2.5 common block out of a fellow TM'ers SL. So I need to take it down and have it gone through and get it installed.

Since I got the van it has sat in my back yard. It runs really good other than that annoying knocking lol. I lowered the front end and I'm working on making plans to lower the rear soon. here's a pic of the front lowered.



Since I have Teins on the Hoopty now, I just took the suspension off it and put it on the van. It has coilovers and they are adjusted about half way up. Plans are:

rebuild the 2.5
replace turbo with a decent sized turbo.
open up the head and intake/exhaust manifolds
get the suspension tweaked to handle some hard launches.
lighten it up slightly (not like Clifford, this one will retain stock functionality)
install my RPMVB from one of Clifford's stock transmissions.

I will accomplish this, hopefully next year. I don't want to run a ton of boost I want to reach this goal with 20 ish PSI. Also, try to do it on pump gas. i want a true DD 13 second minivan. We will see, I will update this thread as I update the van. Stay tuned.

[turbovanman²]

He's back,

Awesome man, as you know, love vans,

13's on pump is totally doable, I've done it as have lots of others.

[Ubmbass]

Oh I know it's doable. I don't want to do anything crazy with this one. Just some 13's. But, I might get a bug one day and swap the power train out of the Hoopty and see what happens.

[turbovanman²]

Oh I know it's doable. I don't want to do anything crazy with this one. Just some 13's. But, I might get a bug one day and swap the power train out of the Hoopty and see what happens.

LOL, do it,

[BadAssPerformance]

Nice project!

[Ubmbass]

LOL, do it,

Oh, we wouldn't want Terry to be in jeopardy of losing his king title, would we? lol

Thanks JT, let's hope I can have some more minivan fun. Be able to have yet another car on the Mopar Times list lol

[turbovanman²]

Oh, we wouldn't want Terry to be in jeopardy of losing his king title, would we? lol

Thanks JT, let's hope I can have some more minivan fun. Be able to have yet another car on the Mopar Times list lol

Well I am going to break that title if it kills me, lol.

[1BADVAN]

Awesome! What coil overs/ streets did you put on the van?

[Ubmbass]

I have stock Daytona struts with ebay coilovers. I have a set of Tein coilovers that i would use if I could figure out how to get the tophats to fit it. the thread end isn't long enough to use the stock tophat.

[speedfreek500]

Looks pretty cool slam'd down like that, I will watching this build. If this van can perform half as good as hoopty it will be alot of fun.

[Ubmbass]

It won't be as crazy as the Hoopty. This is just going to be a fun daily

[smdandb2]

I thought this was an 11 second van already?

[Ubmbass]

Oh ya. lol

[1BADVAN]

Do you want a rear sway bar? I got a couple

[Ubmbass]

ya, I just might. I need to figure out how to lower the rear safely and I'll take one..

[Vigo]

Take a look in my van thread for the AWD rear axle swap. Its a big-ish drop that doesnt lose any travel or change spring rates. It's also a brake upgrade!

Now, i know you know how to get a car to act right and go down the 1/4.. So im just going to say that YOU dont really need ported blah blah or a turbo any bigger than a t2 garrett to run 13s in that thing. Are you just upgrading for fun?

Jason Hagger ran his 5spd van with a t2 turbo and t2 ic to 13.4 @18psi. IIRC

[1BADVAN]

ya, I just might. I need to figure out how to lower the rear safely and I'll take one..

What Simon and others (including me) think is the best way to lower the van is to De-arch the springs. AAA springs quoted me $60 if i took them in. Seems cheap to me

As for the sway bar I have a second gen one with most of the brackets you can just have if you want, i got it super cheap and i won't use it.

[Ubmbass]

Sweet, you should bring that to the races on Oct 6th. I'll take it.

Vigo, I'll check out that thread. I would like to drop it without losing travel. I am just going to upgrade it with what I have laying around, so your ideas will definitely be taken under advisement. I still might port the head out though, I see no reason not to take advantage of a basically free mod. We shall see how this thing reacts to mods. I haven't touched a basically stock turbo van in, what, 10 years? lol

[turbovanman²]

What Simon and others (including me) think is the best way to lower the van is to De-arch the springs. AAA springs quoted me $60 if i took them in. Seems cheap to me

As for the sway bar I have a second gen one with most of the brackets you can just have if you want, i got it super cheap and i won't use it.

Yep, cheap and easy to do, and you don't loose much travel.

Sweet, you should bring that to the races on Oct 6th. I'll take it.

Vigo, I'll check out that thread. I would like to drop it without losing travel. I am just going to upgrade it with what I have laying around, so your ideas will definitely be taken under advisement. I still might port the head out though, I see no reason not to take advantage of a basically free mod. We shall see how this thing reacts to mods. I haven't touched a basically stock turbo van in, what, 10 years? lol

Not 10 years, 5 years maybe? lol.

[1BADVAN]

I don't think i will make other out unfortunately. But if you are ever going to be in the West Jordan or South Jordan area let me know and i van have it for you to pick up.