Congrats on making it. You sound like me, pulling all nighters and trying to do the impossible, sad to say but I still do it, even 11 years later,
Congrats on making it. You sound like me, pulling all nighters and trying to do the impossible, sad to say but I still do it, even 11 years later,
1989 FWD Turbo Caravan-2.5 TIII, GT35R, auto, a/c, cruise, pwr windows/locks, fully loaded with interior and ran with full exhaust. RETIRED FOR A FEW YEARS!
1984 Chev Getaway van, 6.2 Diesel with a remote mounted turbo setup burning WMO-For sale.
2003 GSW 2.0L TDI, auto, fully loaded, modified, 360K-wife's.
2004 GSW TDI, 5 speed, fully loaded, modified.
Aurora ignition wires for sale. Link to info
Super60 roller cams or custom/billet cams. Link to info
Well, I got back from SDAC in the van with no problems. It ran great once once I manually rigged up the lockup switch. The torque converter I got is way too high of a stall. It stalls around 3800. I need to see if I can get that fixed because I asked for 2800 rpm, and based on the rpm/mph the van gets and the torque curve of the 2.5, I think right around 2800 rpm would definitely be the perfect stall. In playing with spool on the highway in lockup, the little mitsu is spooled by 2200 rpm, so I can't imagine the garret T2 I'm planning on putting in needing more than 2800 rpm to spool.
Without the lockup hooked up on the ride out, I averaged 15 mpg and the van ran on the hot side the whole way out due to the converter slipping any time I went into boost (3800 rpm is about 95 mph in the van). And going through the mountains on 84/81/80 in PA and NJ required boost most of the time so it was not a fun ride out and rpm's were in the 3200-4000 range the whole way out.
On the way back using lockup, the van averaged just over 24 mpg. With the lockup on, the van ran between 2500 and 2900 rpm cruising in the 65-75 mph range. It was great! I took a look at my gas receipts and the van burned about 53 gallons of gas on the trip out and only about 33 on the way back. That means by not having the lockup rigged up I wasted about 75 dollars paying for extra gas on the way out...silly me
The only other problem encountered was leaving my hatch open the night before the drag race day and the light killing the battery. After getting the car jumped (big thanks to Wayne and Dan for helping with this), it started throwing codes and had charging issues. It seems that draining of the battery may have been too much for a 7 year old low cranking amp battery. So I replaced it and all seemed fine so I headed out and got to the track just as they were starting to let cars run.
The van ran great, but was pretty hilariously boring to run down the track in stock form. The times were right in line with what I thought they would be. It generally ran between 16.9 and 17.2, with the best time being I believe 16.92 at about 79 mph (I'd have to check the slips to confirm exact). 17 seconds with an automatic transmission seems like an eternity when you're used to running 12's and shifting a 5 speed...LOL!
Jon
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