My name is A.J. and I'm an ASE certified auto technician with my own shop in Mesa Arizona. I bought a '94 5.2 RWD Dakota back in August as a shop truck for $900. It needed a head gasket. Well, the head gasket turned into an engine because the previous owner left water in one of the cylinders too long and it got pitted. I could have rebuild it but I was looking at a lot more than a used engine. So since I had to replace the engine, why not upgrade? I found a 360 with 150,000 miles out of a '98 Ram on Craig's list for $450. It had Mopar Performance heads installed at 130,000 miles. What turned into a shop truck turned into my second love. My first is my 1988 Dodge Caravan that's turbo-charged running 17 lbs of boost with a best run of 15.3 in the 1/4 mile. I'm a regular on Turbo-Mopar.com. I've written about some of the upgrades on my truck over there in the "other vehicles" section, but I don't think they're appreciated as they would be over here. Some of the modifications I've done: 5.2 to 5.9 swap, installed '93 exhaust manifolds and Y-pipe and built a 3" exhaust from elbows and straight pipe, electric fan, converted the returnless fuel system to return, homemade oil catch can, cabin air filter, huge tranny cooler for towing. I plan on doing write-ups on the stuff I've done because when I was researching some of this stuff, this website was lacking the type of info I'm use to over on Turbo-Mopar.com so I hope I'll be able to help out others with information I was looking for but couldn't find.



When I bought it the interior was disgusting. My Dad and I took out the entire interior except for the door panels, head liner, and dash to clean it.





The best I could get it. At some point, liquid food product becomes carpet dye.



My van at the track

http://youtu.be/-XTqTAdm9-8

My Dad's '85 Chrysler Town & Country wagon that we built. That does 14.7 in the 1/4.
http://youtu.be/mv8Nn05Fa70

A.J.

 

WELCOME! I love those video's lol. You got that carpet cleaner than I would have thought too!

 

nice work. I think I might have some of your older videos of you running the minivan, nope, different colors.

I used to be big into the turbo dodges, CSXT#901, but I had to sell it.

 

Nice job! Lets see that Dakota at the track.

 

The smell in the truck was horrible. It would get worse in 115* heat with the windows rolled up. I wouldn't enjoy this truck as much if I had to drive around in someone else's filth.

There's a couple of us mini-van racers out there. You can tell my van from others because it's lifted 2" so I can take it off road to go prairie dog hunting. I'm currently working on a Neon SRT-4 2.4 DOHC engine for my van. The engine is done now I just need to finnish the transmission.

I need to locate and install a limited slip rear axle. This thing is a beast and the tires break loose too easily. I want to know what it does in the 1/4 mile but I don't want to spend the money on drag radials or slicks. It's much more fun beating V-8 trucks with a 4 cylinder mini-van than with a V-8 truck. Now that I have the fuel system worked out to run the 360 on the 318 computer, I can start looking for the rear axle.

A.J.

 

It is best to use the 5.9 PCM. I ran my 5.9 with my old 5.2 Mopar Per. PCM, it got to much pinging with high loads and RPM's. Once I put in the 5.9 Mopar Per. PCM it woke it up.

 

I'm trying. There's not too many 5.9's in the junk yard. There are plenty of 318's. Every time I find a van or Ram it's always something other than the 5.9. I had borrowed a friends Mopar Performance PCM for a 5.9 but it pinged real bad. There's a guy over on Turbo-Mopar.com that cracks the code on the chips in the computer so you can tune the factory PCM. I do that on my '88 Caravan. He tried to do it for the 5.2/5.9 SBEC II but he said the code is more complex than the earlier computers. He said he'll get it eventually but it's going to take some time.

A.J.

 

Just buy a new Mopar Per. PCM. This is the one you need. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/DCC-5249546/

If you want to tune the PCM I suggest B&G
http://www.bgperformancepcm.com/#magnum

 

Thanks for the links but that's more money than I want to spend. The most expensive thing I bought for my turbo van was the wideband ($260). The SMEC I socketed myself, I had to buy the chip burner (under $100), and the tuning software was free. If i can find a 5.9 computer for $100 then I'll be happy. Don't forget, this is a shop truck and I'm doing it on the cheap. The turbo Dodge/Mopar crowd is known for being cheap and going fast with junkyard parts. Too bad they're drying up in the junkyards.

A.J.

 

amen to that! atleat from my end...lol