Vannin' Home
Posted By: 74AzMaxi Another Arizona Newbie - December 02nd 2017 2:25 am
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.

Attached picture 1151.jpg
Posted By: frscke1 Re: Another Arizona Newbie - December 02nd 2017 2:27 am
Welcome to the site Jay ...
Posted By: oldskool73 Re: Another Arizona Newbie - December 02nd 2017 7:15 am
Welcome.
Posted By: newkirkinc1 Re: Another Arizona Newbie - December 02nd 2017 1:29 pm
welcome Jay to the site. Good to have ya aboard.
Posted By: Dyno_Dave Re: Another Arizona Newbie - December 02nd 2017 4:46 pm
Welcome aboard!

[Linked Image]
Posted By: 74AzMaxi Re: Another Arizona Newbie - December 03rd 2017 1:04 am
Thanks for the welcome everyone.
Posted By: lukester Re: Another Arizona Newbie - December 03rd 2017 1:48 am
welcomefrom Florida
Cool looking van you got there.
Posted By: 74AzMaxi Re: Another Arizona Newbie - December 03rd 2017 11:51 pm
Thanks Lukester, Hoping to get the engine repairs done soon and start driving it again.
Posted By: Hasan Ben Sobar Re: Another Arizona Newbie - December 04th 2017 3:08 am
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.
Posted By: 74AzMaxi Re: Another Arizona Newbie - December 04th 2017 11:30 pm
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.
Posted By: 74AzMaxi Re: Another Arizona Newbie - December 05th 2017 12:20 am
I did forget to mention that I did set the timing also, that was an interesting job but it got set to specs.
Posted By: Wedgy Re: Another Arizona Newbie - December 05th 2017 4:52 pm
Hey Jay,

Welcome to the site! Sounds like you are on the right track. Head gasket failure is indicated by water in the oil, also, exhaust can leak into the coolant as well. Which in turn, displaces the coolant. That will warm up a motor. How do I know that... Ha!

Good wrenching in the Zone
Posted By: 74AzMaxi Re: Another Arizona Newbie - May 07th 2018 2:43 am
I finally got my van off the back burner sort of speaking. I checked for water in the oil, negative..no water in the oil. I checked for exhaust gases in the radiator, no bubbles indicating an internal leak and also negative on the tester fluid kit. I drained the coolant down a few inches, let the rad cap set loose on top of the rad while the engine was warming up and then poured the test fluid into the tester and held in place for ten minutes while using the vacuum bulb to pull coolant vapors through the tester, and the fluid remained blue indicating no combustion gases were present in the rad. I ran a compression test on all the cylinders and they are all within 10 psi of each other. All the spark plugs looked nice, and still idles beautiful after the engine gets warmed up. I did readjust the timing, was reading 4 degrees before tdc, and so I re-set it to tdc like the book says. The only thing left is to do a pressure test on the cooling system and maybe rebuild the and adjust the carb since it has been setting for awhile. As soon as I get the new spare tire mounted I can take it for a test drive and see what happens. The tires are about 15 years old and I hate to take it anywhere without a good spare, need to get new tires as soon as I can afford it.
Posted By: newkirkinc1 Re: Another Arizona Newbie - May 07th 2018 10:54 am
I would get new tires for it. Everything else sounds good.
Posted By: 74AzMaxi Re: Another Arizona Newbie - May 08th 2018 2:16 am
Yes it definitely needs new tires. I am thinking that maybe I can afford one new tire a month. Used tires around here are so dry rotted that they are not worth wasting money on.
Posted By: Hasan Ben Sobar Re: Another Arizona Newbie - May 08th 2018 8:38 pm
You might want to put the timing back to 4 degrees.
Posted By: 74AzMaxi Re: Another Arizona Newbie - May 09th 2018 1:31 am
Why do you suggest 4 degrees? The recommended setting is TDC according to the manual. I am always open to tips tricks and suggestions, but would like to hear reasons behind them too.
© Vannin' Community and Forums