Best minivan for Lemons? (Page 1 of 2)

I'll say...Chevy Astro.  You could have one with a variety of GM's V6 engines, all of them good runners and all of them leak oil.  The Van is RWD so it should be a bit faster...um...less slow then the FWD Chyrsler stuff.  The Astro has a lot in commen with other GM trucks and cars, so parts/upgrades should be pretty easy to come by.  The Astro has a strong sub frame so after the brakes melt and you run into something the damage should be minimal.  Don't bother with the AWD Astro it makes them even less fun to work on.

Yea, I agree but I would think you could fix a lot of that if you tried.  Maybe jack the torsien bars a bit to get it lower in the front and put a block under the leaf springs.

Dunno, its an uphill fight in many ways, but even I have to confess it souds like fun.

Besides, thats one less minivan off the road.

How about a Corvair van? This one is $725 and "ran when parked"!

http://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/cto/1396622205.html

The Astro/Safari twins. 

Not offered with a variety of GM V6s, just the tried and true 4.3L that shares many parts with the 350 SBC, though you can find some underpowered ones with the inline 2.5L Iron Duke.  Look hard enough and you can find one with a T-5 manual transmission.

Go with a RWD for simplicity. 

The front brakes upgrade to 3/4 ton pickup calipers and pads.  The rear brakes upgrade to 11" drums using the backing plates from a junk yard police spec or wagon B-body.  Both of these are direct bolt-ons.

Mount the rear axle on top of the springs and heat or cut the coils in the front to lower it.

These vans have pretty good low end power stock, but removing the restrictor plate from the throttle body's butterfly valve makes them a bit more fun.

While that's a nice idea, there's no way I'm ever going to find one around here that isn't totally rusted out. What was the engine / transmission combination for that van, anyway? Perhaps a later model year could be retrofitted?

I believe the 2.5 in the turbo van was the standard corporate 2.2/2.5 turbo found in a variety of craptastic turbo Dodges.  I have no idea if the front subframe, axles, or mounts were different for the 3.0 V6.

If you go with an auto Caravan/Voyager of the  "box" era, check the trans. A604 types would throw the spider gear shaft out the side of the case if you encounter wheelspin....the fix is a simple retainer plate but if you don't do it it might be terminal....also some sources (including at least one Chrysler tech I met) swear that you must use the original ATF3 fluid. Can't confirm that, but the solenoid packs are also prone to stick, so flush it throughly and lock out the overdrive. Also, the rad and condenser are side-by-side so you can mount a huge trans cooler that's independent of the engine cooling system. Sounds like a fun project!

Thanks for the heads up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voyebVqu … re=related

Honda Odyssey chock full of Acura parts and fastness.  Not quite within the Lemons budget, but awesome just the same.

Yeah, I remember that.  And that one was stock.  The one above has a turbocharged big Acura V6 in it, a great deal of lightness added, and a very well-tuned suspension.  It's fast.  Not just "for a minivan" fast, but fast!

All this and this:

We're not shushy old librarians. Perhaps we need to prove this with an A-Team bookmobile!