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Thread: Converting a 87 van to turbo.

  1. #1
    Hybrid booster
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    Converting a 87 van to turbo.

    Hey all it’s been a while since I have posted here. Looking to get back into the hobby. I found a 87 Plymouth voyager locally. It’s a Le, so it has a ton of options. But it is a 2.6 Mitsubishi motor. How difficult would it be to convert to turbo? Not looking to do a stand alone system, but use exhausting turbo harnesses. It’s a shame it’s in decent shape.

  2. #2
    Hybrid booster
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    Re: Converting a 87 van to turbo.

    not too difficult if you can find a running donor.
    a 84-90 T1 or T2 car would make it pretty easy to do the swap.

    you will need quite a bit of things that can be sourced out seperatly. but easier to obtain the entire deal as a chunk with a 500-1000$ donor rust bucket.

    suggest looking for lebarons and shadows and daytonas in your area for a rusty running car.
    The physical swap can be done in a day. the wiring will be up to you and your skills/ability.

    honestly .. dont fear a stand alone.. 350$ MS. with a 100$ trigger wheel and away you go.

  3. #3
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    Re: Converting a 87 van to turbo.

    Quote Originally Posted by masterjr33 View Post
    not too difficult if you can find a running donor.
    a 84-90 T1 or T2 car would make it pretty easy to do the swap.

    you will need quite a bit of things that can be sourced out seperatly. but easier to obtain the entire deal as a chunk with a 500-1000$ donor rust bucket.

    suggest looking for lebarons and shadows and daytonas in your area for a rusty running car.
    The physical swap can be done in a day. the wiring will be up to you and your skills/ability.

    honestly .. dont fear a stand alone.. 350$ MS. with a 100$ trigger wheel and away you go.
    So basically looking for an entire 89 van underdash and body harness? I do have a 89 van t-1 harness. The idea of pulling the dash out and interior makes my head hurt, especially since this van has every conceivable option available......

  4. #4
    Supporting Member Turbo Mopar Contributor GLHS60's Avatar
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    Re: Converting a 87 van to turbo.

    Compare the bulkhead connectors, it might be easy.

    I know the 1989 Van harness, 50 pin, plugs into a 1988-89 L body, but 87 and older L bodys bulkheads were 40 pin vs 50.

    I'm not sure if the 1987 van is 40 or 50 but even if the bulkheads don't match you can chop and splice them.

    The 1989 Turbo van underhood harness is pretty much self contained electronics wise.

    The things that go through the bulkhead are mostly lights etc, fuel pump will probably need a new wire.

    I'm certainly no electronics wizard but these are easy to do using 1989 harness and SMEC.

    1989 and newer 2.5 T Engine will make it easy as well.

    Good Luck!!

    Thanks
    Randy


    There is no logical reason to call an Engine a motor.

    Randy Hicks
    86 GLHS60
    86 GLHS 373 : SOLD, but never forgotten
    89 Turbo Minivan
    83 Turbo Rampage : SOLD
    Edmonton,Alberta,Canada

  5. #5
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    Re: Converting a 87 van to turbo.

    honestly its another good reason to consider megasquirt.
    no need to pull the dash. or rewire the body.
    you will just need to tap into the fuel pump wire. and the ignition power wires. and tach signal.

    everything else is under the hood.

  6. #6
    Boost, it's what's for dinner... Turbo Mopar Staff Aries_Turbo's Avatar
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    Re: Converting a 87 van to turbo.

    I'd look around for a 87 van service manual. Libraries sometimes have these. Take a pic of the bulkhead connector. Compare to 89 van. I know 90 van and 87 Daytona and 88 reliant are almost identical other than 2 wiper motor pins are in a different location.

    You shouldn't have to rewire the whole dash. Probably add a wire for a fuel pump off of the positive wire circuit that feeds the injectors and coil.

    Brian

    Quote Originally Posted by turbovanman
    This one is easy, I have myself to blame, I rush things, don't pay attention to gauges when I should, change to much stuff at once then expect miracles, the list is endless.

  7. #7
    boostaholic Turbo Mopar Contributor
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    Re: Converting a 87 van to turbo.

    I will echo that the conversion really isn't bad. You don't need to change the interior wiring, especially if you go SMEC. I converted my 83 Scamp to 89 SMEC, and in the end, it only required about 8-9 wires to be spliced. I kept the original lighting wires, and windshield wiper/washer wiring, but all the engine control wiring came out of the 89 P-body harness I was able to buy.

  8. #8
    Supporting Member Turbo Mopar Contributor GLHS60's Avatar
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    Re: Converting a 87 van to turbo.

    Agreed, no need to do any interior wiring other than the mentioned fuel pump and it doesn't need to go through the interior.

    Not knocking MS, just no experience with it, but SMEC underhood is so simple even I can do it!!

    Thanks
    Randy


    There is no logical reason to call an Engine a motor.

    Randy Hicks
    86 GLHS60
    86 GLHS 373 : SOLD, but never forgotten
    89 Turbo Minivan
    83 Turbo Rampage : SOLD
    Edmonton,Alberta,Canada

  9. #9
    turbo addict Turbo Mopar Contributor iTurbo's Avatar
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    Re: Converting a 87 van to turbo.

    Agreed, SMEC conversion using an '89 turbo Caravan harness is what I'd do. I've done a few cars this way. 90% of it is usually adapting the bulkhead plug, and the last 10% just converting everything else over if things like headlights/turn signals, wiper motor etc don't match up right.

    Watch out for the bulkhead plug between the '87 and '89 vans though. I know the '89 uses a male 50-pin bulkhead plug on the engine bay side of the firewall. If the '87 does too, then you're in luck and can adapt that very easily with probably a minor pinout change here and there. The pins unclip from the shell and can be repositioned as needed.

    Most of the time on my conversions, I'm unlucky enough that the bulkheads don't match physically. Either because it's 40-to-50 pin or because of the sex change they did on the 50-pin plug on the later turbo *cars*. Be even then, it's not that bad to do if you have the FSM wiring diagrams.

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