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Engine Specific Info and Questions => Non VW Group Diesel => Topic started by: pengyou on June 28, 2006, 10:53:10 am
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I have a 1986 Dodge Caravan with a 2.4 liter gasoline engine. The car is in very good shape but I need to start doing a lot of cross country driving. Can someone recommend a diesel engine that will let this van cruise at 75 mph, pull at least 55 mph up steep grades (through Colorado) and is relatively easy to find in the U.S.?
I don't ask for much, do i? :)
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they have diesel caravans in europe. ebay maybe?
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Yeah, you could see if you could get a european caravan, which apparently came with a 2.5liter turbo diesel
http://www.allpar.com/model/caravan.html
It appears that those only came with the 5 speed manual transmission, so I don't know if it would bolt up to an auto tranny from the US version.
Now, finding one of those and getting it to the US would probably be somewhere between really hard and impossible...
Why not get something like a VW vanagon and put a TDI in it? I bet it would be cheaper (plus what you'd end up with would be a much better vehical) than trying to bring a diesel caravan or conversion donor over.
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Or, I bet a TDI would do okay in the caravan, if you could make it match up to the tranny.... Slow, but considering the TDI jetta's can make the passes in Colorado at 75mph or higher, it should still pull 55 in the minivan.
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What about the old Dodge Omni's that came with a 1.7 Vw engine and a auto trans i think.Why not try to swap the trans in?My bro and i have thought about doing this a few times.
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I thought about that one myself. I have a manual transmission from one of those old Omni's and figured it wouldn't be too hard to use it and a TD VW engine in a Caravan body. Couldn't be any more gutless than the original automatic. The only thing that really scared me away from it was the thought of designing some sort of shifting linkage for it. I've never seen a standard Caravan around here.
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A buddy of mine had a 5 speed turbo 4 gasser in his Caravan. This was circa 1990. It was the same engine offered in the Shadow. It was about 140 horses and 170 tourque. About the same as the early 3.0 Mitsu V-6's. Boy that thing would move.
Bernie
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I beleive the Izusu Chevrolet Duramax is the lightest light duty truck motor readiliy available in the US today. Mount it low in the middle of the car, and it should hit 150 with little or no engine modification.
Unfortunately, your FWD platform doesn't lend itself to easy conversion, so unless you are blessed with plenty of time and strong fabricaton skills, or lots of money, you might bre better off looking for a more siutable vehicle.
Possiblly a turbocharged(real hared to work on) Ford if it must be a van.
The cheap route wold be to get a wrecked diesel truck, and replace the body with your Caravan....kinda soccer mom hillbilly style.
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A co-worker has done several Caravan VW diesel conversions. Use the VW engine and trans. Get custom axles made up. Simple and easy according to him, and he says the Dodge service mechanics don't know what to think when they hear it running. As far as I know, all of his were mechanical pump engines, so wiring changes were minimal - glow plugs and fuel shutoff.
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A co-worker has done several Caravan VW diesel conversions. Use the VW engine and trans. Get custom axles made up. Simple and easy according to him, and he says the Dodge service mechanics don't know what to think when they hear it running. As far as I know, all of his were mechanical pump engines, so wiring changes were minimal - glow plugs and fuel shutoff.
Roger that, I remember seeing a video on YouTube where a guy had an 80s era Caravan with the a A3 TDI. Was a great swap. Of course I cannot locate this video ...
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i just bought an 06 motor from a seat ibiza. it has side mounts like the dodge caravan.
there was a guy on youtube that put a 1.6TD in a caravan, but the video has since been removed... not sure why!!!
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Big oil conspiracy ;) lol. I would so rock a TD Caravan, it would be great for the kids.
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Big oil conspiracy ;) lol. I would so rock a TD Caravan, it would be great for the kids.
he claimed to get 1200km with the stock caravan tank & 1.6TD.
imagine a PD engine? get around 300-400 ft/lbs torque, 200hp... 40-50 mpg.
damn!!!!!!!!! that would rock the kids :lol:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkf4cxAaTmA I don't know if this is the same one, but it was up today.
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That is very cool. It would be great to take it to a Chrysler dealer and ask for a a timing belt job hahaha.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkf4cxAaTmA I don't know if this is the same one, but it was up today.
This is actually a different video, but wow, fantastic find! "Davidsfarm", the user who posted this video, has all sorts of neat things on YouTube. Being a Chrysler guy this really gets the gears in my head turning!