Meiser TBI Van

[Dave]

Quick run down of dad's TBI minivan.

Bought, I believe, two years ago from Rich (guy who used to own our old 90 big turbo Caravan and also who bought Terry Ryan's 11.76 van) at ~230,000 miles on the clock. Factory TBI, factory Non-A/C, factory 5 speed (A523) with basically no rust!

Did all the maintenance on it; trans fluid, coolant, oil change, fuel filter, all new struts and rear shocks, etc. Good running little van, although, slower than ----.

A few weeks ago dad noticed coolant in cylinder #2. Checked and confirmed headgasket is on its way out.

So last night we went ahead and started ripping into it.





He can't control himself...


Timing is everything.


Can't be too careful.


No idea WTF is going on with the intake valve (on cylinder 2 and 3) - we have never seen valves "rust" before...


Head off.




Cylinder walls look like garbage...


Divider plate is cracked in manifold. Doesn't appear to hurt anything though.


Reman cylinder head, but used for ~600 miles.


He needs to stop.


Also, can't find the air box base gasket anywhere. Our's is torn.


More cleaning and painting.


Mmmm, that's a yummy firewall.


More tomorrow.

[ShelGame]

A black van? Sweet.

I may have to see what Rich would sell me my old van for...

[BIG PSI]

A black van? Sweet.

I may have to see what Rich would sell me my old van for...

You should call him. I am sure that he would sell it....

He moved from the house where you and I did the tunes and bought a fixer-upper home.

Chuck

[Dave]

Almost done.



One sexy TBI if I do say so.

[IMG][/IMG]

[Vigo]

I loved the hell out of my 90 TBI/5spd non-ac 523 van.

I averaged 27 mpg at *Texas* highway speeds (~75 avg) and would do 33 mpg (!!) if you averaged 55mph.

It ran 18.2@73 very consistently bone stock. To me it felt less slow then it actually was. The very low gearing of the 3.85FD a523 made it feel like a 16-second car from 0-50 so in normal traffic it didn't feel 'slow' at all.

The same unopened TBI motor i was loving so much has survived 1/4 mile passes at 16 psi and short bursts of 20 psi last time i drove it. It is still in one piece although i cracked the block running too little coolant during a hard freeze. I'm going to put those tbi pistons/rods in another block and keep boosting em.

[BIG PSI]

i loved the hell out of my 90 tbi/5spd non-ac 523 van.

i averaged 27 mpg at *texas* highway speeds (~75 avg) and would do 33 mpg (!!) if you averaged 55mph.

It ran 18.2@73 very consistently bone stock. To me it felt less slow then it actually was. The very low gearing of the 3.85fd a523 made it feel like a 16-second car from 0-50 so in normal traffic it didn't feel 'slow' at all.

The same unopened tbi motor i was loving so much has survived 1/4 mile passes at 16 psi and short bursts of 20 psi last time i drove it. It is still in one piece although i cracked the block running too little coolant during a hard freeze. I'm going to put those tbi pistons/rods in another block and keep boosting em.

sweet