2.8L Chevy Adventurewagen

[fastmc25]

Thanks for the information. I can't wait until I finish.

Me Either !!!!!!

[bte_3]

HEY!

is that a dodge caravan 3.0L radiator???

if so, thats the same rad i used in my conversion...

2.2 subie into a 73 beetle... seems to work quite well

then again, its quite a bit of radiator for that size engine...

its ok... im all about overkill!

Ben

[fastmc25]

Yep, That's the one................. I think it looks small.... but if rated for a 3.0 it must work well......If it doesn't cool enough for my 2.8L then i'll change to a Aluminum racing radiator that's a little larger.............

[fastmc25]

Well, I'm Back........ I hope to get this thing running by December. I've been doing some small work on the radiator shrouding and on the cooling lines........ they are installed and now pressing on to the final stuff to get it started..... I had to work on my bug and get it out of the shop so i'd have more room.

I'll get back to updating my progress soon........

[new2bugs]

I love your work. I can't wait to see the Finished Product. By the Way I am in the NAVY and headed to the Persian Gulf in Two Day. I Just need to figure out which Motor that I would like to do a Conversion with.. Maybe a V-8....

Tim

[fastmc25]

Hey gang,

I finally got off my butt and did some stuff this weekend... ..... I finished the metalwork on the front rad mount. I had to add metal to the face of the bus because someone thought 1/2" of bondo was a suitable repair........Literally there was 1/2" thick below the front vent to the headlights.........I guess they tried to pull it out and gave up..... I tried ...... and decided to reskin over the existing damage to reduce the amount of filler.......... you could almost scoop up the filler, it was THICK

By the way.......... The airbox is fully functional........Part of my design was to keep all parts of the dash working.....


Any way, I mounted the rad and grill with the attaching hardware i plan to use....... I inserted threaded nutplates in the nose to bolt the radiator bracket tight.........works well.........Now i'n doing some filler work to smooth things out.......
I also mounted the Caravan electric fan and it pulls great.......
I wiil enclose the sides and top around the rad with rubber to direct all air pressure through the rad instead of around it...

I also made the motor mounts today...... Now the engine is fully supported...





More tomorrow......

[fastmc25]

I love your work. I can't wait to see the Finished Product. By the Way I am in the NAVY and headed to the Persian Gulf in Two Day. I Just need to figure out which Motor that I would like to do a Conversion with.. Maybe a V-8....

Tim

God Speed !!!! Have a safe cruise.......Been there.... Done That.... .....

Come back and get to work............Maybe i'll have Clyde running by then....

Peace,

[rayjay]

On the small body GM HEI ignitions the "inner" terminal [ often marked B ] gets hooked to 12v from the ign switch. The "outer" terminal gets hooked to the negative side of the coil.

Inner meaning the one closer to the dist shaft. As has been mentioned you want to eliminate any ballast resistor from the ign coil wiring. As long as you have 12v to the positive side of the ign coil you can hook the B terminal of the module to there. For a street engine I recommend .045" spark plug gap with the HEI.

On the large body HEI with the coil in the cap there is one terminal for 12 from the ign sw and the other is for a tach lead [ i.e. negative side of the coil ].

Having the distributor recurved along with the proper vac adv can will really increase the torque.

For a future upgrade you might consider the fuel injection as used on the Camaro's, Firebirds or Fiero's. You could power it with a Megasquirt or other ECU.

[jjenibun]

Hey fastmc25 I have a chevy FI 4cl 2.8l engine. My question is: Is there any way that I can put carb on this engine with some sort of kit so that I dont have to worry about the extra headache of hooking up the FI. If not what all should I remove from the engine so that it all works. Please

[fastmc25]

Depends on the year motor you have i think....... Early F.I. engines can use the Edelbrock intake and 390cfm Holley carb....... or you could use the early 2.8L Varijet carb that came on the S-10 Circa '83-87........ You can checkout some of these sites on conversions

http://www.angelfire.com/biz6/stalkerv6/drive.html
http://www.gmpartsdirect.com/performanc ... ameset.cfm
http://s-series.org/content/view/18/1/

There's lot's of reading here....... Hope this helps some.......... I have the Edelbrock intake and the 390cfm Holley............

Peace,

[jjenibun]

Fastmc25, my engine came off of a 1989 chev s-10 pickup. I am sorry for not stating that ealier. Oh yeah I had a chance to look at your photos of your progress it looks good man. I do have one question. Can you post some pictures of your finished exaust set-up when you finish. I own a 1969 vw bug. It used to be a hard top sedan. I have since removed the top, and added some fiberglass body pieces to the rear parcel tray area. Now it is a 4 seater convertable with no roof. The fiberglass wraps around the top of the rear parcel tray. I want to place my radiator there. My idea is to fit a bracket to the rad. I will then center the rad in the tray area, then I will cut a square hole just big enough for the bracet to fit without falling out of the hole. I would then attatch the bracket to the area using rivets. Then i will attach the rad to the bracket with just bolts, so that removal is pretty easy. Then I would add two rad fans to the set up, one pushing and one pulling. I will hook up one fan so that it comes on when the engine has been started. With the rad positioned in front of the hole, there should be plenty of are flowing through this area, when the car is in motion. Air provided from the fiberglass scoop that has been attatched to the area going down through the push rad fan, through the rad, through the the pull rad fan, and then finally through the hole, with air heading towards the engine. I am thinking that since there is a fiberglass scoop attached to the body after I cut off the top that there should be plenty of air flowing what do you think about this setup.

[fastmc25]

CLYDE......... IS..........ALIVE!!!!!!!!.....

I started him this evening........... fired on the first kick............. I preoiled the engine for 30 minutes with a drill and it pulled 60 lbs constant...... I placed about 4 gallons of coolant in him and hit the key........

Once it started the thing ran great and has lots of power.........I ran it for around 30 minutes at various rpms to break in the cam and rings............
I'm Stoked !!!!!! Water was circulating very well as was heat transfer through the radiator........I had no leaks at all.......

Now i have to work on the throttle linkage and install the rear axles........ I wanna road test this thing........

More tomorrow....................

[fastmc25]

Well........ today i rebuilt the front brakes............. new calipers,pads,etc........ also installed all new cables..... clutch,throttle... and took measurements for the carb linkage hook up.....

Then i worked on the rear CV axles........ with the bus raised 4" i had to install longer rear axles 21-1/4" to be exact.... i also have some large ball CV joints i special ordered to handle the angles...........they have larger cages and balls for increased operating angle....... They really went on better than i hoped....... ... I installed one side today and will finish in the morning..........

I ran the motor for another 30 minutes today....... no leaks yet..... i can't wait to drive it........

[fastmc25]

Clyde made his first trip around the block today........He really sets tall on the road........ I like it !!!!.........

I drove it around the block to try overall gearing and driveability...... It worked very well. The gears are perfect for this conversion... The carb has a small flat spot on acceleration though.... I think there's a restriction in the squirter on the accelerator pump...I'll dig into that later.....I'm using a VDO oil temp guage as a water temp guage and it registered just fine.....

I will work on the exhaust next...... I have to do some rearranging on the "Y" pipe. then it gets a muffler...... Maybe one of those "TRASHCANS" the kids have on their rice buckets... ......not really..... i want it fairly quiet...

Here is a link to the video of today's drive by......



I have some extra wiring things to do this weekend...... More later....

[regis101]

Try putting the plastic accelerator pump cam on the number two hole.