Have any of you hot-rodded your van?

[steamjam1]

Hot Rods are fun, and maybe someday I'll hack together another one. But for the foreseeable future I am just happy my van/Rv is all one color that ISNT PRIMER and runs drives.

 

[highdesertranger]

aren't building hot rods and converting a van to 4wd the same thing. highdesertranger

 

[steamjam1]

aren't building hot rods and converting a van to 4wd the same thing.  highdesertranger

No not really. By making 4x4 vans, I'm making them slower....

 

[highdesertranger]

same thing, highly modifying a vehicle doesn't matter if it's a street racer or a low rider or a 4x4 van. highdesertranger

 

[eDJ_]

I helped my Dad once with an old Ford Van which had a 6 cylinder inline 240 ci engine.  He got parts from an outfit called "Clifford Research  6=8".  He just wanted some more bolt on power and what he got was a dual carb intake manifold and a dual exhaust port exhaust manifold.  He had to get a second carb just like the original and we rebuilt both of them for the project.  Then everything was put back together  The engine "breathed better"  and had more pep, but it wasn't until he played with the distributor "advance" mechanism to take advantage of what the improved breathing could do for the engine that he got results from the old Van.

His motive for doing this was he liked to  go up into the mountains of North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia
to go hunting and fishing and the original engine just didn't seem to satisfy him on those trips.  Before he was done with it he had installed an Bendix fuel pump at the fuel tank and ran oversized fuel line to the two carbs. 

On the flat highways of North Carolina there was no problems.  But when loaded and headed to the mountains there just wasn't enough umph. 

Dad never saw himself as a "Hot Rodder" but was inclined to speak of "volumetric efficiency".  

This is a Clifford dual quad set up for a 6 cylinder engine.  Just to show you an example of he stuff that
they made for hot rod 6's.

But he got what he was after with the modifications and was always willing to show and tell with other interested people.  On one of his trips he found a guy who was so interested that he sold it to him.
He then purchased a newer van with a V8 and never had any complaints after that. 

If I were going to be operating between long haul flat interstates and going up into the steep mountains,
I think I'd look for the Ford Vans with the V8 460 ci engines.  I just think those cubic inches are hard to beat.

 

[muddy]

You guys are no fun...I sit and scour the internet dreaming of BB 460 700HP crate engines to put into my 16' cube van, envisioning putt-putting along beside someone on the freeway. Hammer down and I am gone in a cloud of smoke and gasoline vapours, all while watching the fuel gauge drop like a stone. Dual tanks Baby!!!!! Vrooooooooooooooom

Sounds good... maybe one of the next ten Fast & Furious movies can be about vandwelling.

 

[muddy]

Fast & Furious XXVI: Dominic & the boys are living the dream off the grid in the United States, finally safe from the government. Until one day the BLM agents track them down, and inform them that in order to avoid prosecution for their past crimes they've got to do one last job. Apparently an international ring of criminals has been stealing pic-a-nic baskets in national forests across the nation. Their goal: obtain fully hot-rodded vans & RVs, infiltrate the group and destroy it from within. Only one thing's for sure: the stakes have never been lower, and neither have the American film industry's standards.

(note: I have seen all the F&F movies in theaters and enjoyed them...)