ViaVacavi adventure vehicle build log

[ViaVacavi]

I actually started on the journey of picking out a van, and starting the conversion a couple of months ago.  I figured before it's too late and I start forgetting things, I better start a build log.

Vehicle: 2000 Dodge Ram Van 1500 5.2L Elk Conversions hightop conversion van
Upgrades: 1 ton axle and rear suspension

Here are the original pictures from the craigslist ad:

<<<will update shortly>>>

 

[masterplumber]

I don't see the pictures ;-(

 

[ViaVacavi]

For some reason the button to edit the original post disappeared.  I'll try to re-add the pictures

Here are the original pictures from the Craigslist ad:
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While we didn't have an exact idea of what we wanted, we were sold instantly by the skylight layout of this high top.

 

[BradKW]

Those skylights are really cool...don't remember ever seeing that before

 

[ViaVacavi]

Backstory, continued...

This was back in February of this year, in the lovely frigid Ohio weather.  After calling the seller and talking to him, this is what I had found out:
- He believed that it had a bad water pump, as it was pouring water out of the front of the engine.  He would simply keep refilling it, and only drove short distances
- The exterior picture was a couple of years old.  He said that it had some minor paint peeling issues
- It's a florida van, and had only been in Ohio for a couple of years
- The heater fan only had one working speed
- The van had 109,000 miles

Due to the water pump and paint issues (still unseen at this point), I had talked him down from $4500 to $3500.  The van was located across the state and was a 5 hour drive away.  I decided that I liked the look of the van enough that I was going to chance a drive out there.  I ordered a water pump and a new resistor for the heater blower, and about a week later made the trip.

When I got there, I noticed that the paint was peeling a little worse than what he described. The running boards were also cracked a bit here and there, and the front tires were pretty bald.  Also, when I started the engine, it had some pretty loud lifter tick, even with a normal oil pressure reading.  At this point I was really on the fence on whether to take a chance on the van.  It was going to need some exterior work that I didn't plan on, and I knew I was taking a gamble with the engine.

I made a deal with him.  I would hand him $3000, after which point I would attempt to replace the water pump with the limited tools I had with me.  If it fixed the overheating problem, I would give him another $300.  If it didn't fix the problem, then that $3000 was all he was going to get. I was reluctant, but I was hoping that if the gamble paid off, it was a really good deal.  I figured that the worse case was that the lifter tick was a serious issue, and I may have to change the engine.  At $3000, I decided that I was ready to take the chance.

The money was exchanged, and I got to work replacing the water pump.


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As you can see, I brought a limited set of tools.  It's not apparent in the picture, but the temperature was just below freezing that day and the ground was frozen.  If you look closely, you can even see my feet hanging out from beneath the front of the van.  I remember being amazed at just how tight everything was squeezed together and asking myself what I just got myself into.

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I didn't have many pictures from this,  but I spent 5 hours under the front of the van.  I could not for the life of me get the fan to break free from the water pump.  Somehow, I was able to wiggle the entire pump, fan and all, out from the bottom of the engine bay and get the new one in place. 

I was feeling great.  It was already later than I wanted to be there (I had budgeted 2-3 hours to change the water pump, and I was already at hour 5!).  This didn't last long, however.  After starting, going for a short drive then letting it idle for a while, not only did it start overheating again, but now that it had water pressure, water was spraying from the block!  Upon closer inspection, one freeze plug was leaking, and there was a good sized crack above another.  Yep,  worse case news!  A crack in the block!

The deal had already been made.  Money had already been exchanged.  I am a man of my word, and wasn't about to demand my money back - I knew what I was getting in to.  But I still couldn't help but be struck by a feeling of panic.  I was out $3000, and there was a van 5 hours away from home that I now owned, with a cracked block.

I spent a few minutes researching options on my phone, and many people had reported very good success using JB Weld and other adhesives to patch minor cracks in blocks, and ended up lasting for 100,000 plus miles afterwards.  With nothing to lose and 6 hours already invested (on top of a 5 hour trip), I decided to give it a try.  I ran to AutoZone, got some JB weld and applied it to the leaks.

To my amazement, after an hour of cure time, JB Weld really did seal up the leaks.  There was not a leak to be found.  I took it for another drive around the block, and it overheated again.   I finally had to pull the plug and come up with a plan "B".  What a long, pitiful 5-hour drive home that was!


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Here you can see the crack radiating from the freeze plug.

 

[ViaVacavi]

Getting the Van Home

During my drive home, I called some friends.  One had a diesel truck and farm equipment hauling trailer.  I arranged to borrow it for a return trip in a couple days to get the van.

A few days later, and another 5 hour drive, I arrived.  It was pouring down rain.  Until I got the trailer near the van, I neglected to realize just how high up the trailer sat up!  It was made for hauling farm equipment, not a high top conversion van!  But after such a long drive, I had to find a way to get the van loaded.

Initially, I couldn't even get to the ramps of the trailer.  They were so steep that the would hit the front bumper well before the front wheels were anywhere near close to the ramps!  I finally resorted to exploring the property of the man I bought the van from (nobody was home) and found some old lumber.  I made some make-shift system to get the front tires of the van onto the ramps finally. 

When the moment of truth came, it was extremely scary.  The ramps were so steep that with the front tires of the van on them, all I could see was sky.  Trying to creep up the ramps slowly wasn't working either, as the rain had everything so slippery that I kept sliding back down. (The neighbors must have been having a blast watching this out of their windows!)

I finally decided to give it one last shot.  I backed up as far as I could while keeping my front tires on the ramps, and I gunned it.  I had gained some serious speed, and the dovetail of the trailer was so slick that the back tires of the van fishtailed a bit, and just barely crested the dovetail of the trailer.  I honestly couldn't believe that I got it loaded!




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The pictures don't show it well, but the combination of the high trailer and the hightop of the van was so high that I was actually worried if I would fit under power lines and underpasses!  It was very unnerving!

 

[Dust-In-the-Wind]

Thanks for the photos and the detail. Amazing story. What a character builder!

 

[masterplumber]

Wow! Quite the adventure.

 

[TequilaSunSet]

What doesn't kill ya they say makes ya stronger... if nothing else you have a great story

Miren them sky lights... I think you'll be OK in the long run...

 

[ViaVacavi]

Unloading the Van and Getting to Work

It was late when I got back with the van.  11 hours of travel time and a couple of hours loading the van and strapping it down, and I still had to get the truck and trailer back to my buddy that night.  Unfortunately I don't have a lot of pictures from unloading off of that high trailer, but I do have a picture that shows how steep it was offloading - the rear bumper was barely able to clear the ground backing off of the trailer.

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The next morning I went right to work.  I had a lot of work to do, and I was determined to save the engine to keep my costs low.

The first thing I did was support the van on a set of 5-ton jack stands and removed all of the tires so that I could inspect brakes, bearings, tierod ends, etc.  I ended up replacing a couple tierod ends, an upper ball joint and both steering pitman arms.  Over the next week I also ordered brass freeze plugs (only $18 from amazon for an entire set) and installed them, and worked on troubleshooting the engine.

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Here you can see the van up on jack stands.  This really made it easy to get underneath, inspect and work on things.

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Here you can see one of the new brass freeze plugs installed.  If you look at the goopy JB Weld job above it - that is the quick repair of the crack I had attempted the first day I tried to go and get the van.  The JB Weld is holding up great through lots of test running, and at this point I was even considering grinding it off, heating the block with a torch and doing a light weld job on the crack.

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It's amazing how much of the engine had to come apart to replace the thermostat (pictured in the center above).  The intake ducting, various coolant hoses, the alternator, the air conditioning compressor, the entire front accessory bracket and serpentine belt, and a few other items.. Just to change the thermostat!  It was a good 3+ hour job!  If you also look above, I have a flush kit hooked up and I spent hours flushing the engine, the heater core and the radiator.

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The cooling system was absolutely disgusting!  You can see above how nasty the old thermostat was!  If you look even closer, you can see it's also stuck open.  Between the amount of junk in the cooling system, it's very clear that the previous owner really abused this van (and later, it gets even more obvious, but we will get to that).  Apparently they had dumped tons of those block/coolant sealing compounds into the system.


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Test drive after test drive, the same thing would happen.  After a good 5 miles of driving, it would overheat.  I borrowed a pressure test kit and did several tests that would be a good indication of a blown head gasket, but it would pass all of these tests.  I'd end up turning back to the radiator.  Each time it would be plugged off with gunk.  I made an adapter to hook directly to the bottom of the radiator and flushed it.  Again and again this process repeated.  I would drive, it would overheat, and I would find the radiator plugged again.  Upon inspecting the radiator, my flushes were only getting a couple of the circuits clean, which would quickly plug off again.


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Eventually I decided that the radiator was just too packed full of junk and bought a new one.  A replacement from Autozone was less than $200, so I was pretty happy with that.  Aside from being a pretty tight squeeze, I had the radiator changed out in a matter of 2 hours, and everything topped back off.

I finally had my first stroke of luck!  I filled the fuel tank and over the next week or so I took it out for a drive daily, 15-20 miles at a time with no overheating and the JB Weld repair holding up great!

 

[ViaVacavi]

Another Cooling Issue Fixed

Things were going really well with the new radiator.  However, i was slowly losing coolant, and it it was very spurratic .  I couldn't figure out why sometimes it would lose some, and other times it wouldn't

Finally I got to see what was happening by chance.  The van has a rear auxiliary heater and A/C unit.
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There is a vaccum-acuated valve that sends coolant to that unit if the heat is on and the fan is turned on.  Whenever I would run the rear heater, i was losing coolant.  It was physically leaking out and I finally found it dripping from the bottom of the van at a rear corner.

I did some research and learned that a new heater core for the unit was a bit over $200.  But before shelling out more cash, I took it apart.  The leak was very easy to find


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If you look above, you can see the stream of water shooting from one of the end copper loops of the heater core (I hooked the line to the core up to a garden hose to pressure test it).

Its not the prettiest solder job, but i sanded around the split in the copper tube, and soldered it up.  I wanted it to be strong so I kept adding solder until it bridged all the way down to the next coil.
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After this, i was no longer losing coolant, and even test trips of 40-60 miles were give absolutely no cooling issues and no coolant loss!  The cooling system was finally working as it should, and there were no more leaks.  I was also relieved that there was no blown head gasket causing all of this!

 

[ViaVacavi]

Diagnosing Oil Pressure Issues

Now that the van had a new water pump, new thermostat, new radiator, had been flushed to hell and back, new freeze plugs and a patched crack in the block, I was finally happy with the cooling system and it was operating great.

However I had been noticing during all of those test drives that sometimes I would have normal oil pressure, and other times it would go away.  I replaced the oil pressure sending unit - that was cheap and easy (located just under the doghouse, it was the easiest job I've done on this van yet!)

Even after replacing the sending unit, i continued to have intermittent oil pressure problems.  Hooking up a manual gauge confirmed that I was actually losing oil pressure at times.  So my next task is getting these problems fixed, as they will seriously impact the life of the engine!  And it was very obvious that it was a real issue.  Within seconds of the oil pressure gauge going to zero, the engine would get very noisy with plenty of clattering and valve noise.  I was still optimistic though, as I had yet to hear a knock or any other serious mechanical noise.  I figured that if I could keep flushing the engine, I may get the oil pressure back, and have years of use left in the engine.  On a side note, lots of research into the problem showed that oil sludging is very common in Dodge 318 engines that aren't maintained properly - even though they are considered very dependable engines when maintained properly.

I spent a good month experimenting.  I would change the oil, run an additive for 100 miles or so (Mystery Oil, Sea Foam, ATV in the oil, you name it).  I would hit times where the oil pressure would be great for days at a time, just to disappear again.  I continued flushing the engine, and each time getting terribly black, clumpy oil at each change with only 100-200 miles between changes.

I read about some old-timer tricks online that I was nervous to try, but I was getting desperate by this point to get the oil lubrication system working properly.  I thought about going after the oil pump, but from the junk that was coming out from the changes, it was obvious that sludge in the engine was the culprit.  I read that some old timers would do what they called a "diesel flush" where they would literally drain the oil, refill with pure diesel fuel and idle the engine for 5 minutes, then drain it out.

I did this several times over a couple weeks.  Each time I would flush the engine with diesel, I was getting thick sludge out of the engine that had viscosity of grease.  This engine was obviously abused - most likely not keeping up with oil changes, and the repeated overheating the owner told me about.  But after each flush, the oil pressure would stay longer and long.  I was finally getting a little confidence in the engine so I decided to take it on a longer trip of about 100 miles.

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I took it to many fun spots - waterfalls, nature trail areas, you name it.  I was finally getting to enjoy the van!  And I loved it!

 

[ViaVacavi]

Engine Woes

After a few more fun trips to keep gauging the engine health, it starting losing oil pressure again, and nothing I did was bringing it back.  I figured that those diesel flushes did wonders in the weeks before, so I did it again.  Once again I got oil pressure back!
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 So of course it was time for another trip to keep working the gunk out of the engine.

That's when disaster struck.  I was driving along, with good oil pressure.  Then the oil pressure dropped to zero and the engine would start clattering as usual.  But this time, I heard the dreaded knock, and I was 20 miles from home.  Within half a mile that knock went from mild, to down right shaking the van, just before POW!

Yep, it threw a rod, right through the side of the block!  Luckily i coasted right into a roadside oil well access drive, front first and coasted to a stop.


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I did my best to keep my chin up while I called for help.  I figured that I would be waiting for a while, so I kicked back in a zero-gravity chair to reflect on my string of luck with the engine while I called around.

About an hour later, a tow truck showed up, and towed me back to the garage to come up with a plan.  While I was a little upset about losing the engine, I was glad that it happened close to home and not out trying to travel.  I was also glad that aside from extra oil changes, not a lot of money was wasted trying to clear the oil pressure issues.  Even the radiator replacement was a necessity, even if I was getting a new engine




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It was a sad sad day watching the tow truck hook up for the drag back home

 

[ViaVacavi]

A New Beginning

I'm not one to give up.  That's especially true when my heart is really into something.  I wasn't going to let this set me back long!

I called around.  I checked for rebuilt engine prices, prices to have the engine replaced, advice on  how to do it myself.  Finding a re-manufactured long block for under $2000 was proving near impossible, and the quotes I was getting to have the engine replaced were just astronomical!  I had no idea that blowing an engine could land you $4000-$5000 in the hole quickly!

I determined that there was no way that I was going to pay that kind of money to get the van back on the road.  I made up my mind almost instantly after making those calls that I was going to do this by myself.  While I'm very mechanically inclined (I worked on aircraft in the Marine Corps), and I've changed a couple of small engines with buddies in the past - I had no experience with a big V8, or the complications of getting one in and out of a van where it looks nearly impossible!

Over the next week i was scouring ebay and Craigslist.  I finally found a motor just an hour away - a 5.2l from a 2000 Dodge Ram Van with just over 50,000 miles.  I called and spoke directly to the person who had removed the engine from the van.  I got a good feeling about the guy and his description of how well the motor ran.  I talked him down to just $600 for a 50,000 mile engine!  I decided to go for it.  Within a week after blowing the engine in the van, I was already on my way to pick up a replacement, from the same year and model as my van to boot!

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Everybody I talked to about changing this engine out thought I was crazy.  I was repeatedly told that there was no way I was going to do this at home.  I didn't even own an engine crane!  But within a couple days, I had already arranged to borrow one.  This gave me a couple days to research what I was getting into.  But as much as I researched, I couldn't find any information at all relating to doing this engine swap in a van, so I watched a few Youtube videos of the procedure done to a Ram truck.  I guess I have nothing to lose at this point

 

[ViaVacavi]

the Engine Swap

I'm not sure where to even start with this.  I had 3 days off of work, and I was determined to change out this engine.  One thing I was sure of, was that I had to be very very organized.  I disconnected and labeled every wire, every vaccum hose, everything I removed got labeled.

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I labeled baggies in number order.  As I removed things, I would bag the fasteners in number order, and zip-tie them to whatever component was removed.  My reasoning was that after the new engine was in, I should be able to just grab my parts in reverse-number order and get things back together without problems (i hoped)

And so it begins..
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Man, that sucker is really back in there!!!

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Inside of one day, I had the engine pulled! (I'll get to that in next post).  I will say, for anyone attempting an engine swap in a van.  Be organized!  Label everything!  Write things down in a log, and take lots of pictures as you go.  In the end, having this level of organization made things so much easier than they could have been!

 

[ViaVacavi]

Out with the old!

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There was literally no room to get the engine crane over the top of the engine.  There was barely a couple of inches between the top of the engine and the cowling.  There is simply no room!  After scratching my head for a while,  decided that I was going to grab the engine with the crane from the crank shaft pulley in the front, and use my SUV jack to support the back of the engine, with the jack wheels pointing in the direction I would be pulling the engine so that hopefully the jack would follow and continue to support the engine.

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It ended up being a multi-step process.  I was able to slide the engine forward about 3" before the SUV jack was up agains the crossmember.  At that point, I supported the rear of the engine with blocks, and moved the jack in front of the cross member.  Again I was able to move the engine forward a few inches before the jack came up against the steering linkage.  At this point I was able to lower the rear of the engine onto the cross member and grab the engine just forward of the the midway point. You can see above that the SUV jack (bottom) is still supporting the engine and assisting in getting the angle right to get the engine out.  But in the end, I couldn't get the engine to clear the front bumper.

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After removing the front bumper, between the suv jack angling the engine upwards over the front crossmember support and the engine crane, I was finally able to get the engine to pop out.

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I think this picture pretty much sums it up.  I was so happy to have pulled this much off - from getting the van home, to fixing the cooling issues, to getting the engine out.  I remember the feeling of just knowing that I was going to get this done regardless of what is thrown at me

 

[ViaVacavi]

OH NO!

Engine swap; day two.  I was still on an emotional high from my victory the previous day.  I was so ahead of schedule that I wanted to do a few extra things while the replacement engine was so accessible.  So I went ahead and changed the oil pan gasket, valve cover gaskets, thermostat, etc.  Lastly, I wanted to replace all of the sparkplugs, and be sure to use a never-sieze agent to make sure changing them in the future would be a pleasant process.

Unfortunately, on my very last spark plug, it busted off in the head.  I just couldn't believe it!  They were all pretty hard to get out, but I used penetrating oil and even heated a few that were extra-tough - this one included.  This was the last thing I was going to do before putting the engine in, and just had to snap a plug off!  Oh well, I guess it is a good time to replace head the head gaskets and intake manifold gaskets while I was at it!

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I do understand that the plug could be drilled out with the head still on the engine, a helicoil installed and I could be on my way.  But this gave me a good chance to inspect the internals of the engine, and besides, I was nervous that if I did the work with the head on the engine that I might do a poor job of getting all the metal shavings out and end up with a 2nd dead engine!

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The inside of this engine was VERY clean.  No gunk anywhere.  Cylinder walls were very smooth and clean as well.  I was happy knowing this, and happy that I decided to go this route to fix the head.  In actuality, the head repair only cost me half a day of work, and it was well worth it.


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I knew with half of the day burned, I wasn't going to get the engine in, so I might as well do some busy work

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There, now that's a little prettier!

 

[ViaVacavi]

In With the New!

Engine swap, day 3

Per my original plan, I pretty much did everything in revers order, including using the combination of the SUV jack and engine crane to maneuver the engine back into the engine bay without destroying anything.

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And it's in!!!!

I didn't get too many pictures of putting the front back together, but I just continued doing things in reverse order until the last bolt went in.  I can't stress enough how helpful it was to be organized through this process!

 

[ViaVacavi]

That Heart-sinking Feeling!

After hooking up my last wire, and double and triple-checking everything, I jumped in the drivers seat. With my heart racing with excitement I turned the key.  The engine would turn over, and turn over, and turn over.  It was turning over so fast and easy that I didn't think it had compression.  I tried for minutes to start the engine.  I could feel my heart sinking.  It was such a low feeling.  All I could think about was the money spent for the engine. All the time and effort doing the swap.  Did I mess something up when I removed the heads?  Am I going to have to pull the engine again to fix what I broke?  I had to go for a walk.  It was such a big blow.

After getting some common sense back, I walked back to the garage.  This is an internal combustion engine.  It needs fuel, spark and compression.  Surely I can find what the issue is.  First I checked the pressure at the fuel rail.  Yep!  I have good fuel pressure.  Next I tested for spark. BINGO!  There is no spark, but why???

Back to trusty Google..  I found an awesome website with great troubleshooting information ( http://troubleshootmyvehicle.com/chrysler/3.9L-5.2L-5.9L/how-to-test-the-ignition-coil-1 )  I highly recommend everyone bookmark this site now, it is literally brimming with information!  Following their simple instructions, within 20 minutes I had narrowed down the problem to my crank position sensor.  And luckily, I have the old one on the blown engine!  10 minutes of changing it out and...


VROOM!
The engine fired right up!  And it sounds BEAUTIFUL!  Great oil pressure, perfectly silent running with no clattering.  I was beyond excited!  This engine runs so good and so smooth!  Since installing it about a month ago, I have done countless short and long trips.  There are no dash lights illuminated, the engine is smooth and powerful, and life is just great!

I guess it's time to convert it!

 

[ViaVacavi]

So What Was Wrong with the Old Engine??


Remember that old engine?  Well of course I had to rip it apart just to see...  And holy cow!
All those engine treatments.  All those flushes with diesel.  I filled half a barrel with oil from all the changes.  All those chunks that came out, out that greasy grime that was chunked up in the oil.  Surely the engine can't still be THAT dirty, can it??

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This is below the intake manifold.  Yes, that is pure sludge!

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I know the previous picture can't show how truly bad the sludge was.  Here is a picture with a golf tee sticking into it.  It's thicker than axle grease!

I hope somebody can learn something from this.  Please, maintain your vehicles!  This condition was from pure neglect!  Change your oil as you should.  When you experience a cooling problem (or any problem), get it fixed as soon as possible.  Proper maintenance is essential for your vehicles - and this should be doubly important if that vehicle is also your home, or even your main travel vehicle.


Ok, now with all of that history out of the way, in the coming days I'll show how the conversion has been coming along.  I have found and fixed other problems along the way, experimented with layout ideas, done the tearout and have a good start on the conversion.  It may take me a few days to get it all on here, but I'd like to get caught up so that I can start posting regular updates as they actually happen.