RIP Old Brown Van

[MinamiKotaro]

Our '84 Caravan has finally kicked the bucket. A blown head gasket led to hydro-lock led to a chunk out of a piston. Haven't torn it down far enough to see if there's further damage. It's really not worth trying to fix.

30 years, 450,000+ miles. RIP.

 

[Rick in PA]

I had to look it up, but that's like a trip to the moon and back (well, you know theoretically). The Old Brown Van done good!

 

[ls1mike]

2.6 or 2.2?

 

[Kuato]

Wow 450k, well done, a testament to your maintenance plans and early 80s Mopar.

The BITOG questions are: what oil did you use and at what interval? What viscosity was recommended and what did you put in?

Ever replace the oil pump?

How many transmission rebuilds?

It would be interesting to see how much bearing material is left after that much driving.

 

[mene]

Originally Posted By: MinamiKotaro
Our '84 Caravan has finally kicked the bucket. A blown head gasket led to hydro-lock led to a chunk out of a piston. Haven't torn it down far enough to see if there's further damage. It's really not worth trying to fix.

30 years, 450,000+ miles. RIP.


I feel your pain, if you were closer I'll go and pick it up, we have the opposite problem, the body is gone but the engine is great, oil pressure hot at idle 17 PSI and 172~175 PSI across the cylinders less than 5% leak too. I know how you feel believe me, I do know, I wish I could do something but it is not worth it.

 

[Kuato]

Originally Posted By: mene
Originally Posted By: MinamiKotaro
Our '84 Caravan has finally kicked the bucket. A blown head gasket led to hydro-lock led to a chunk out of a piston. Haven't torn it down far enough to see if there's further damage. It's really not worth trying to fix.

30 years, 450,000+ miles. RIP.


I feel your pain, if you were closer I'll go and pick it up, we have the opposite problem, the body is gone but the engine is great, oil pressure hot at idle 17 PSI and 172~175 PSI across the cylinders less than 5% leak too. I know how you feel believe me, I do know, I wish I could do something but it is not worth it.


Seven or eight hundred miles to drive your van, do an engine swap with a fellow BITOGer and drive home your new vehicle? 4-5 day 'vacation' near Orlando? Priceless.

 

[simple_gifts]

Quote:

a testament to your maintenance plans and early 80s Mopar.


As is your question about the # of transmission rebuilds.

I can't imagine owning a vehicle that long; I'm about 1/3 the way there.

Sorry!

 

[mene]

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
Quote:

a testament to your maintenance plans and early 80s Mopar.


As is your question about the # of transmission rebuilds.

I can't imagine owning a vehicle that long; I'm about 1/3 the way there.

Sorry!



IDK about the OP transmission but in our case we bought the van with 146K miles and we were told the tranny was rebuilt because of the diff. bearings can't say if it was done or not; I did have to replace the bearings twice without touching the tranny itself every 80K miles or so 3.5 years more or less, the last time the bearings were shot the front clutch pack was weak so we pulled the whole thing out and re-did the transmission but changed the front clutch from a 4 disks to a 5 discs and the whole diff. to one from a '96 V6 50% bigger bearings and better located also I tightened the valve body mods. a little, that was ~140K miles ago, still fine.

 

[MinamiKotaro]

2.6 Mitsu engine. One tranny rebuild - turned out to be unnecessary, since the noise Dad was trying to cure wasn't the transmission at all. IIRC, oil pump was replaced when Dad put in neutral balance shafts, sometime during the 90s.

It developed a tendency to eat head gaskets for a while. Turns out the factory head was warped one of the many times Mom overheated the sh!t out of it. A new head took care of that ... 'til now.

Oil used was probably Havoline 10-30 or straight 30 for a long time. Since at least 2004, when I took it over as a bicycle transportation device, it's been getting whatever was on hand.

 

[robshelton]

Impressive. I'd take some pictures and call it a good one.

 

[Chris142]

the 2.6 i had in my 86 d50 needed a valve job @35k,then the rings went and it drank oil.. crank broke at the rear main @44k.

 

[mene]

Also 2.6L changed timing chains at ~250K and oil pump because I was there nothing else, the old one was at specs. valve seals at the same time, oil used was M1 5W50 for the first 300K. of our ownership then swapped to Amsoil ACD and then HDD when 5W50 disappeared from the shelves and wanted to "try" this thinner is "always" better deal, the engine didn't liked one bit, became noisier and the wear rate increased a lot, somewhere between 150~200% higher, I was going back to at least a thick 40 like a rotella T6 but parked it before that. I was using it as a work truck, very much like an UPS truck, that's heavy.

 

[daves87rs]

30 years old....pretty much a classic. If the body is in good shape, just list it for sale, and someone will drop a new engine in it to keep in going..

Why not just drop in a new engine? After the years of service, it can't hurt.

 

[NHGUY]

If it was a 2.2 you could get a Cometic MLS head gasket (no fiber,all steel) and never blow a head gasket again.

 

[Thermo1223]

All I remember about my Dad's 84 was it would warp head after head.

I think it had a reman head twice on the 2.6l Mitsu motor.

 

[copcarguy]

I feel your pain... My parents bought a brand new metallic brown 1977 Ford E-150 when I was 5 years old. I had that van my ENTIRE life up till a few years ago... it ran great, the ol' 4.9L inline 6 was the best engine! Unfortunately living in the Northeast finally took it's toll with rust and she just wasn't safe anymore. I was going to pull the motor to "just have" it, but I kept the gauge cluster instead which is hanging on the wall in my shed. I clicked on your post because it said old brown van lol. I will admit I shed a tear or two when they towed her away to the junkyard...