Great, now you're giving me all sorts of ideas about modifying my engine that I shouldn't be thinking about.

I'll post some pictures of the gasket install and cleanup when I get around to it for those who enjoy that sort of stuff.

 

Could be, but more likely it's because you disconnected the battery which wiped out the PCM's memory of your driving habits, putting it back to the factory defaults.

 

Neat thread, so this is my .02. Bought it about a month ago, and have replaced the entire front brake system including hard and soft lines (much cheaper than I anticipated). Started building a partition between the cargo area and the front using the passenger "metal" cargo type and a wooden/aluminum partition to the center and behind driver to build a "sound system area". Planning on running 4 6"x 9" , and a subwoofer to maintain some semblance of being modest.

 

What's up with mine? Big Mac died on me and had to be towed to a garage, which means i get to dig the old Sedona out of moth *****, and finish my route tomorrow, oh joy. Once i recover from that, adding DRLs and blind spot signals to it, assuming he isn't dead (and if he is, time to find another van, maybe a cheap old Dodge church van?).

Speaking of vans, there's an odd ball in Fenton that i'd pick up ifn i didn't need a bigger van, an 83 with a slant 6 and a 4 speed.

 

Can pick up some decent Dodge vans pretty cheap down here in SA. People run them into the ground. I wouldn't bother with a '83 though since its hard enough to get parts for a 13 year old van!

 

Laughs, "Keep in mind, mine's a 92 with a 318 (too old for all that metric crap ) and a four speed (727 became a 500 i think?), so we're justing talking about a ten year older version of the same van with different go parts. SA? Church vans are pretty cheap any where, had one out of Potosi i wanted, an 87 Ford, those E series EXTs look ridiculous which is why i wanted it."

 

San Antonio, Texas

I've been offered tremendous deals on extended "church vans" here as well, and a few even had really low miles (50,000 - 60,000) . The problem is, they are three feet longer than my garage.

The factory paint on all Dodge trucks after 1992 sucks. Dodge switched over to water-based paint and it just peels right off. Only way to flip a vehicle like that and make a few quick bucks ( and these vans are a pretty difficult sell anyway, nobody down here is interested in a 12mpg vehicle) is do the bodywork and shoot it with a fresh coat of paint. An extended van simply won't fit inside my garage, so thus far I've had to pass.

I initially wanted a Ford van but they hold their value better, at least around here. I got my Dodge van for 1/3 the money they get for a thrashed 1998 - 2001 Ford van down here.

 

For me, its a matter of a practical, cheap and reliable vehicle. I'm a courier, mostly mail (what i move is along the same lines as SurePost or SmartPost), weight is less of an issue than volume, although there is an account i sometimes help with that can get silly (on the 4th i had 2272# from just that account on board), so bigger is better, but fuel mileage becomes a problem with a step van or box truck. Now a church van, especially a high roof, now that could work without too much of a drop.

 

Here's a little tidbit: I've cleaned out my brake fluid reservoir, and here is the difference in fluid now.

Before



After

 

Today I have to finish scrubbing the fibreglass roof on my dad's 1991 B250 Roadtrek. It's weird that it has a black tinge to it from a couple days in Chicago but the water turns brown when cleaning it off!
I'm actually getting my 2004 Ram 1500 back from dad tomorrow but I hope to get my hands on the van for another couple months next year.
Steve