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Thread: My 1988 Voyager 3.0

  1. #1
    Garrett booster
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    My 1988 Voyager 3.0

    I guess its not really a build log per say, but I wanted to share some pictures of my current progress and figured this would be a better place then tacking them onto one of my current threads. Maybe somebody can use them for reference one day. The new engine is almost put together and the van is almost ready to receive it.









    Here's a shortlist of whats been done:

    Engine:
    - 1993 Spirit 3.0- 10:1 Diamante Pistons, Bored .20 over, Magnafluxed crank, rebuilt with TopLine gasket set etc.
    - Home ported spirit exhaust manifolds, cerakoted
    - 52mm Polished TB
    - Swapped over van accessory drives/plates/fuel
    - Rebuilt heads. (valve job, cleaned, polished and smoothed)
    - New, stock Fuel Injectors
    - All hardware replaced, hand cleaned and polished/painted. Every aluminum part wire wheeled and polished or painted.

    Van:

    - Daytona struts/springs front
    - Custom spring pack work in the rear
    - ALL brake components replaced with NEW Raybestos parts
    - Energy suspension control arm bushing set.
    - 16" Wheels and tires
    - Took apart and repaired/rewrapped entire wiring harness.
    - Painted engine bay and front end.
    - All new wear components. (Radiator, hoses, belts, gaskets, ball joints, tie rod ends, washer pump, PS lines, etc etc etc.)
    - Kenwood stereo with 5.5" round kickers in the front Jensen 6x9 in the rear.
    - Dents fixed, Paint correction, bumpers removed and repainted, custom emblems, NOS bugsheild.

  2. #2
    Garrett booster
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    Re: My 1988 Voyager 3.0

    Looks nice so far! Keep up the good work and be sure to take lots of pics! Do you plan on porting the old style big plenum?

  3. #3
    Garrett booster
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    Re: My 1988 Voyager 3.0

    Quote Originally Posted by lightbulb010 View Post
    Do you plan on porting the old style big plenum?
    Its been on the list. I just haven't gotten around to finding a good way to do it evenly.

  4. #4
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    Re: My 1988 Voyager 3.0

    Just cutting out the big tube in the middle does a lot of good. The floor of the plenum where it turns into the lower manifold could use some radiusing also.

    You can also combine the top half of the older plenum with the bottom half of the newer plenum for a huge plenum. This requires longer plenum bolts and you have to relocate one of the TB studs. By using the bottom half of the newer plenum you get the better floor shape(it's especially better in the area I mentioned above where the runners turn into the lower) and the older top half gives you more volume and eliminates the tight radiuses in the upper part of the runners that people try to port out of the newer one. The best of both worlds. Some of the screws that hold the plenum together won't line up any more but they are really only to aid assembly anyway. The plenum bolts will hold it together just fine and once your sealant dries you can take it off without it coming apart no problem. I don't know if you have separated the older one yet but once you do you will see that there is a significant amount of aluminum to remove(depending on your methods). It can be a very messy job and I would suggest wearing a mask and doing it outside.

  5. #5
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    Re: My 1988 Voyager 3.0

    Useing the whole plenum from the 93. Mainly because I had it blasted and hot tanked when the block was done and I dont think I am going to start over with what I have. What are you using to seal the two halves back together?

  6. #6
    Supporting Member Turbo Mopar Contributor 2.216VTurbo's Avatar
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    Re: My 1988 Voyager 3.0

    You know what I've wanted to do on my van for a few years buuut it would have to be dissembled to the extent that yours is now to do it? Cut the tops of the shock towers off, extend them up with a welded spacer 2"-2.5" and then you would have a van amount of susepnsion travel but lowered to the Daytona strut ride level you seek. Believe me, when you give up 2" of travel for the ride height we want, it sux

    AJ (no More Alan) 84 Rampage RT TIII/568 Quaife 87 GLHS dealer optioned Red 16V Masi/568/Quaife
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  7. #7
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    Re: My 1988 Voyager 3.0

    To seal the plenum halves, I have used anaerobic sealer, red RTV silicone and ultra black RTV silicone successfully. The silicone being the messiest and least aesthetically pleasing. As long as you don't gouge up the mating surfaces you shouldn't have trouble.

    To separate it I usually stick a wood dowel or axe handle into the throat and pry at the top half while holding the bottom with my other hand. They are stuck together pretty good and it will take some force. You will need to chip away the original sealant(That's where the gouging can occur).

  8. #8
    Moderator Turbo Mopar Staff Vigo's Avatar
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    Re: My 1988 Voyager 3.0

    On my van i broke the oil pan open on the ground due to bottoming out on k-car struts (short tires too) so even with k-car struts which are a direct bolt in you're more limited by the guts hanging out the bottom than the up-travel of the strut. On my old crappy van now i have raceland 2g neon rear coilovers modded to mount on the front of my van and i made sure the struts hit the bumpstops before the oil pan hits the ground. You can change your bumpstop setup on any strut to achieve the same thing.

    Love the project!

    Dont push the red button.You hear me?

  9. #9
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    Re: My 1988 Voyager 3.0

    Quote Originally Posted by Vigo View Post
    On my van i broke the oil pan open on the ground due to bottoming out on k-car struts (short tires too) so even with k-car struts which are a direct bolt in you're more limited by the guts hanging out the bottom than the up-travel of the strut. On my old crappy van now i have raceland 2g neon rear coilovers modded to mount on the front of my van and i made sure the struts hit the bumpstops before the oil pan hits the ground. You can change your bumpstop setup on any strut to achieve the same thing.

    Love the project!
    I measured it out and it looks like I should be fine but real world driving will tell. Looks like if anything is going to contact it would be the transmission pan first. I had a miata that was virtually on the ground with no suspension and the only thing that ever scraped was the header. But we shall see. I thought about building a skidplate of sorts.

  10. #10
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    Re: My 1988 Voyager 3.0

    The weight of the drivetrain should also be a consideration. A 5-speed 4cyl set up is going to be at least 100lbs lighter than a 3l with an auto.

    Mine would hit the trans pan or the k-frame. I never scraped my 3l pan.

    I have homemade coilovers on my van with 400lb springs and it sits higher than it did with car struts. I can't say I don't agree with 2.216VTurbo To an extent. The ride seems ok on my van but I often wonder if my shocks are topping out on large bumps. My inside wheel squeels easily but that could be due to a number of other things. It handles great for how crappy my tires are. I have junk swaybar bushings on the front as well as a swaybar off a ranger on the rear all that probably worsens my squeeling problem.

  11. #11
    Supporting Member Turbo Mopar Contributor 2.216VTurbo's Avatar
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    Re: My 1988 Voyager 3.0

    When you top out, you know it. It's the worst clunk I hate that the most

    AJ (no More Alan) 84 Rampage RT TIII/568 Quaife 87 GLHS dealer optioned Red 16V Masi/568/Quaife
    90 Masi 16V White/Ginger/Black
    89 TC Masi 16V Red/Ginger/Black
    86 GLHS #110 RoadRace Built 89 CSX-VNT Recaro Car
    89 Turbo Mini 'Woody' 85 GLHT 'RedBox'
    2014 Explorer DD'r 3.5Twin Turbo Ecoboost AWD and 500HP
    My profile page has over 20,000 views, I'm somebody LOL

  12. #12
    Moderator Turbo Mopar Staff Vigo's Avatar
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    Re: My 1988 Voyager 3.0

    So when you bottom out, which i take to mean run out of compression/bump travel, if you DONT have a bumpstop on the strut shaft it feels horrible. Do it hard enough and you'll think you broke the chassis in half at first.

    When you 'top' out, which i would take to mean running out of rebound/jounce travel, it can also be a pretty nasty thunk. As far as struts go, some have internal jounce bumpers/bumpstops and some don't. I would guess that most of what you could buy to bolt onto a k-car does not have them. But, they also have a lot of down travel so you would rarely run into this in street driving.

    If you were to decide to adapt a damper from some other application, you could look for one with internal jounce bumpers. I don't think it's a big factor but it's out there if you care about it. You could probably also build a pedestal coming off the uprights of the k-frame on which to mount a bumpstop which would contact the bottom of the struts' spring perch if you cared that much.

    Dont push the red button.You hear me?

  13. #13
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    Re: My 1988 Voyager 3.0

    I have inside dampers/bumpstops on the strut shaft.

  14. #14
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    Re: My 1988 Voyager 3.0

    Very nice! Is this a 3 speed or 4 speed setup?

  15. #15
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    Re: My 1988 Voyager 3.0

    Quote Originally Posted by INVUJerry View Post
    Very nice! Is this a 3 speed or 4 speed setup?
    3 speed w/.091 gears. I wanted to manual swap it but I ended up with three automatics.

  16. #16
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    Re: My 1988 Voyager 3.0

    Update, Harness and engine are in and mounted. Took waaay longer then it should have but now I can begin on all the hard work of installing everything.






  17. #17
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    Re: My 1988 Voyager 3.0

    Looking good! What's the over all goal with this build? Going turbo in the future?

  18. #18
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    Re: My 1988 Voyager 3.0

    Quote Originally Posted by WarlockSyno View Post
    Looking good! What's the over all goal with this build? Going turbo in the future?
    Honestly I don't know what I am doing. I got the van for free and was just going to use it as a beater but one thing led to another and parts started accumulating. I honestly ended up on this board because I was trying to find some basic parts information (as nobody is really restoring minivans lol) got some good help, and liked it so much I decided I wanted to stick around. Theres good information and good people here, turbo or not. Hopefully my posts might help somebody else in the future.

  19. #19
    Supporting Member Turbo Mopar Contributor 2.216VTurbo's Avatar
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    Re: My 1988 Voyager 3.0

    Cleanest beater I've ever seen!

    AJ (no More Alan) 84 Rampage RT TIII/568 Quaife 87 GLHS dealer optioned Red 16V Masi/568/Quaife
    90 Masi 16V White/Ginger/Black
    89 TC Masi 16V Red/Ginger/Black
    86 GLHS #110 RoadRace Built 89 CSX-VNT Recaro Car
    89 Turbo Mini 'Woody' 85 GLHT 'RedBox'
    2014 Explorer DD'r 3.5Twin Turbo Ecoboost AWD and 500HP
    My profile page has over 20,000 views, I'm somebody LOL

  20. #20
    Garrett booster
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    Re: My 1988 Voyager 3.0

    Axles and front suspension back together:



    Began sorting out the wiring runs. I want to tuck it back towards the firewall but if I did so I would have to extend the throttle body wires.



    Saw this oil cap and had to buy it. I think it looks really good:


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