Hey All, I am new on the site here but not new to vans. I have owned my 2nd van for around 15 years now, it is a 74 dodge tradesman 200 maxivan with a total top that replaced the original popup top. I am saddened to say that it was a storage van for years, but now I am working on it and hoping to make many road trips and camping trips with it until I retire in it permanently in abut 8 years. She is currently running hot so I want to do a rebuild or new engine swap since the easy repairs did not solve the problem. The body is nice and it is an original Az van so it has very little rust to speak of. I mainly joined to just read the posts and get interior and paint ideas to help me build me ride.

Welcome to the site Jay ...

Welcome.

Jay to the site. Good to have ya aboard.

Welcome aboard!

Thanks for the welcome everyone.

from Florida
Cool looking van you got there.

Thanks Lukester, Hoping to get the engine repairs done soon and start driving it again.

Running warm is caused by any of the following:

plugged/damaged radiator
Timing wrong- verify TDC.
Fuel delivery/ running lean
Water circulation issue
Head gasket

Running warm is not a "rebuild" issue necessarily.

Thanks for the tips.

So far I have done the following:

New Radiator
New water pump
New thermostat
New fan clutch
Fresh coolant every time I drained the engine/radiator
New fuel tank (for different reason)
New fuel pump (for different reason)
Flushed out fuel lines and installed new filter (for different reason)
Carb rebuild (again for different reason)

every time I needed to drain the coolant there has been a grayish colored substance in the coolant.

Next test is a compression test and possibly a cylinder leak down test.