I have 94 B250, 5.1L and engine is so far in drivers compartment it drives me crazy, i'd think crush rating is very low because of this and also stinks inside the cabin especially on older engines that throw out gas and oil.

I wanted to do manual conversion, but it seems impossible in this layout as stick will be behind the driver seat.

Somehow engines are not as far back in any other van that also have large engines e.g. Econoline, Astro etc, why such unusual design in Dodge?

 

Kinda just the way it is. At least you got a seat to sit on while working on the engine.....

 

You have a shorter nose, the seats are closer to the front, you have more cargo space.

 

That only thing that makes sense to me, you know exactly how much more space it is though say versus ford econoline?

 

Sorry -- I don't know. Probably have to get measurements from rear doors to back of seats to compare. I'd guess about 50 cu. feet more, and that's assuming the long nosed vans have seats mounted a couple of feet further back into the cargo compartments.

 

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