Sleeper Dodge van

I always wanted to have a mopar muscle but V8 cars are rare where i live and I can't afford buying one.
So my plan was to get beat up van with great potential V8, make it fast and put that drivetrain into something better looking.

I started with that



Dodge B250 318 V8 TBI, chrysler 8,25 axle with 3,55 gears, A500 automatic transmission with OD and lock-up.
factory roller with 302 heads



I removed air pump, egr, AC and other crap. Installed electric fans.



I couldn't stand appearance of that engine so I painted upper half



Hedman hedders 3",
used edelbrock 2176 intake manifold




stock TBI intake


Under manifold I found egg sized lumps of carbon



stock ports



little gasket matching



home made adapter to retain stock injection




result: a lot more torque in low-mid range, TBI still sucks. 0-60 in a few seconds less.

next step was carb swap



video

later i regretted purchase of that carb and distributor. Edelbroke had internal vacuum leak , cheap ebay distributor had weak solder and it lost spark when it was hot. test with borrowed carb



While I was waiting for new holley carb and pertronix distributor I painted the rest of ugly things and changed tires.







also removed unnecessary wiring




it took me some time to learn how to tune holley but it was worth it. after recurving distributor i was realy satisfied with its performance and throttle response. After carb swap the difference is huge.


0-60 video











now I don't care that it looks ugly. Instead of looking for another body i want to make it faster and spend money on drivetrain.
Most probably my next step will be converter, camshaft, porting those 302 heads + bigger valves and shift kit

Very cool! Lots of elbow grease, how long did it take you to get it to this point?

Cool ride!

Did anybody else notice that the odometer showed less miles at the end of the (0-60) video than the beginning?

Cool video!

it took me less than 18 months, but majority of time I spent on waiting for parts or diagnosis

Cool you're committed to using what you have, not many people are willing to take the hard path.

There is a dodge van like yours that shows up from time to time at the local drag strip and just makes mince meat out of everyone.
Our track is at 5800 feet above sea level and the van runs low 11s, really slaps some people around.

You can do it too. Might need a few more inches though.

Very nice van! It's not ugly, it is actually the best looking van ever produced! Well, at least after the previous generation Dodge vans...I'd actually want the last of those with the same beautiful dash as yours! One year only thing.

I see that is a "Nomad", did you buy it from Sweden perhaps? It has the ugly Swedish mandatory yellow turn signals in the back. I don't recall who made these conversions but I assume that they were made either in Finland or Sweden. A friend of mine in Finland had a mint one, exactly like yours except that it had a red interior. The lower body paint (also applied by whoever made the conversion) had to be some cheap stock as it seems to fade pretty quickly on these.

Keep up the good work with the van, enjoyed the photos and videos! Some people might be surprised by the performance Do you ever go to the US car events in Sweden?

yes, It's "Nomad" from Sweden, turn signals, carpet, comfortable seats, headlight sprayers and faded stripes which I painted black in very cheap way, even though it looks much better than before.
I've been once in Emmaboda but without my Dodge. I want to visit PowerbigMeet or Race61 in next year however I would have to gather passengers participating in cost of travel , otherwise such a trip would kill my budget for the next mods.

Cool, let me know if you have any questions about Power Meet, I've been going there for about 25 years. Hope you can make it!

Sweet!
I'm concentrating on my earlies, but I dig the Bs too!

This is a cool approach to doing something different

Inspired by "junkyard jewel 318" article and others I decided to make new setup for this season
Comp XR268 roller cam 218/224 duration @0.050 and 0.535/0.531 lift
ported #302 heads with 2.02 and 1.6 valves, comp springs retainers and locks. timing chain tensioner
Edge 2500 stall converter with lockup, Transgo shift kit



Home made tool for easy valve spring disassembly

combustion chamber clean up

opening the ports (don't reproach me those divider walls, they have been screwed before because of using wrong tools)



Narrowed valve guides, lesson learned here, My machinist not wanted to press in bronze guides cause he was afraid of making cracks, luckily mine were good enough for valve job alignment.



Valve job and blending to the bowl, That was stressfull. I've been a lot more conservative on the exhaust side.

Combustion chamber cc: 63 before, 64 after
Intake runner cc after all: not more than 140 (shadydell 302 heads have 151 cc)

Old and new valves. As you can see stock heads have problem with valve shrouding at low lift, with bigger valves it's even worse but in my opinion benefits of larger throat is greater than shrouding effect, my

cutted spring seat to accept dual valve springs and shortened guide because of cam lift and need of using PTFE valve seals. Easy job, just two tools from summitracing and drill is needed

after checking valve to piston clearance i decided to notch the pistons about 0.055 deep for intake and 0.020 for exhaust.

I reused stock roller lifters, after cleaning reassembly all started to functioning properly

I can't afford RPM intake at the moment so I ported mine performer, 4 of 8 runners have pretty bad angle that disturbes air charge. It gives hope that there is still something easy to gain on this setup.

I resseted my 1406 holley to factory setup, just added bigger squiter and manual choke

And shift kit installation in my A500 transmission, I did it on my own and now i think that i shouldn't. I'll describe that later.

Idle setting with this cam was a lot easier than I thought and sounds cool. One change o distributor advance spring and I was ready to hit the road
short clip

It's not the same ride anymore, aggressive downshifting, a lot more torque and hp, now it loves high rpm and hit 6k rpm easily. Lower vacuum so power brakes are weaker but now I'm used to that.
The same evening I did old school street racing and I couldn't find worthy competitor in my town. And the best is that there are still things waiting for improvement: carb fine tuning, ignition curve, better intake manifold.
I want to take my Dodge to chassis dyno after I get my trans repaired, Overdrive piston thrust bearing completely fell apart because I did something wrong during assembly.
I'll be back on the road soon and hopefully this summer will be better than last one.

I already started making plans for next winter: Rpm intake, A/F gauge, 8.8 axle swap with more gears and LSD and shifter maybe.
More modifications are just a question of time. I've got a feeling that its never gonna be fast enough !

http://youtu.be/6KW8t-PLqXU

definitely sounded good for a 318, nothing wrong that.

I'm impressed by your research, work and mastering the english language. Dodge vans are cool, after all, they are the best vans in the world. Have you planted this enthusiasm in your friends too? There is no tradition for American vehicles in Poland so it is a bit of outer space for most?

Keep up the good work

Everything with engine bigger than 2.0 litre is weird and irrational here, so any V8 is kinda outer space in this country. Among enthusiasts most popular are 3rd gen camaros and firebirds, 3rd gen chargers, 1st gen mustangs, c3 and c4 vettes, g20, 80s cruisers, 90s jeeps and pickups, As far I know I'm the only one with performance van. My friends gather around local custom garage Rodz Factory so we share the same passion and help each other.

some training vid

My Dodge was the slowest at the track but got more attention than shiny Audi R8 or C6 vette

winter update:porting job and cam combo made it feel like asking for more past 5500rpm so I recently switched to Rpm type manifold. We'll see what the next year bring

Thanks for the links! Very impressive variety of cool cars, looks like you guys have a lot of fun!

Very well done. You've worked hard on this project and I'm glad you're happy with the results. I am very impressed with your determination.

Good for you!

Thanks for posting.