Before I get started I'd like to send a big THANK YOU to everyone who has helped me get to the point I am at now. Especially JT who has been helping me either hands on, or over the phone as tech support, from the beginning.
Well I figured after 6 years of building I thought I'd share some of my build. First I started with a stock, totally filthy and pretty rusted 89 Caravan 2.5 Turbo. I played around with the car using a volvo intercooler and a 50 shot of nitrous. The volvo intercooler was plumed in with PVC piping!!!! needless to say those rubber 90 degree elbows were not intended for boost applications, but I still managed to turn a low 15. Here is a video of one of the first times I took my van to the track.
http://s41.photobucket.com/user/glhs...78MOV.mp4.html
That video got me through a lot of LOOONNNNGGGGG months trying to get the van running. Shortly after that video the turbo went out, and it was then that I decided to spend some money on the van and go for the minivan record, which at the time was mid or low 12's NOT the stupid fast 11's (THANKS TERRY!!!!)
So I placed a few orders with FWD and Turbo's unleashed. Picked up a old powerstroke intercooler and started assembling the van. Some of the go fast goodies included:
t3/t4 50 Trim
+40's
255 walbro hp
+1 MM valves
.040 over forged pistons
FWD F4 Cam
I pulled the engine and had machine shop assemble the head and bore the block. when re-assembling I removed balance shafts. Here are a few pics from the intercooler install.
So after installing the intercooler, of course I had to make some intercooler piping. Some of you may have seen my "welding" Saying it was a little rough, was putting it nicely.
I then added rear disc brakes to the van, which jacked up the back of the van a little bit
So now I've got good brakes and some real nice intercooler piping, now it's time to start racing right???? WRONG!!!
I struggled with the van running a best time of 17.1, and the tune being rich as hell. I had multiple people try and make me a tune, but nothing would work. It took a long 4 years until the van would finally start to show it's potential.
I eventually bought an Ostrich and starting messing around with the programming myself. The best I can figure is that I bought my +40's before they were being flow checked and I must have a real rich set of injectors. I ended up scaling my fuel tables for 58# injectors and the van started running right.
At the end of the 2011 racing season the van had turned a best time in the mid 14's on drag radials. here is a quick video of that:
S[/URL]hortly after that day out at the track the van's oil pump took a crap, and chewed up the intermediate shaft. The van then sat for the winter and most of the spring of 2012 until I had time to put everything back together.
During that winter I did some research on the F4 cam, and found that it's major power is made in the super high rpms, where my engine isn't turning. So I went to the junkyard and found a cam roller cam out of a GLH and installed that.
It was at that point that the van started turning into what I always thought it could be. I started fine tuning the car, and working some bugs out and the van's ET's started dropping. I was running on some drag radials and was able to turn some high 13's
Also at this point it was time to start having fun with the van
After smoking up the drag radials it was time for some slicks. I picked up a set of used 24's and headed to Monster Mopar armed and ready to put a hurtin on those V8's
At monster mopar the van started turning in low 13 second time slips and I had my fingers crossed that I'd reach that magical 12 second time slip. After doing a slip and slide headgasket swap the van decided the time had come....
The van is my first 12 second car!!! I was sooo excited. That lasted for about 15 minutes until I thought, "How fast can it go??"
I made it to the track a few more times, and ended up getting a best time of 12.51
I[/URL]'m not 100% sure if the nitrous system worked on that run. It purged but when I went to spray I never felt the hit. I was spraying a 75 shot so there should have been a little something, but anyway that was the last good run of the 2012 season.
Over winter I've made a few improvements including:
1) Replacing my +1mm unported head with a ported big valve head from Badass Performance
2) Replaced my stock 1pc intake with a hogged out 2pc with 52 mm throttle body and prepped for some "additional HP"
3) Replaced my stock exhaust manifold with a custom Badass Performance equal length tubular header.
4) Replummed intercooler piping for more efficient cooling.
After spending 17 hours at BadAss Performance HQ yesterday (I think JT can add some pics of what we did)the van is almost ready to be running and racing again. I'm hoping to get it tuned and ready to go for SDAC TOP VAN!!!!
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Originally Posted by joeduno
