Hi everyone my name is Steve and I've just acquired a new to me 2003 AWD Safari with 112k on it. I will be the 3rd owner and this is my 3rd Astro/Safari in the past 20 or so years.
I'm 60 years old and plan to stop working in about 6 years and move back to Southern Oregon from where I live now which is North San Diego county. For the next 2-3 years my needs for the van will be primarily as a cargo van. And then I will start to shift more toward setting it up as a casual adventure van. I've been lurking here on the site for a few weeks and know there are a couple of you who also live in San Diego county. I'm looking forward to sharing what I do to the van and I will definitely need your advice on a few things.
I already have 2 questions:
1) Has anyone ever swapped cargo van rear doors onto a Dutch door van? If so, where there any issues?
2) Has anyone tried to either shed weight off the rear bench seats or grafted a different (lighter) seat onto the attachment claws/feet of the GM brackets?
Before I forget here's how the sliding door does with the new tires and wheels.
And I even remembered to swap the spare tires between the Burner and my van.
The spare from the Burner is not the same brand or width as the meats on the wheels but it is the same diameter - about 31.5".
Here's how it does down in the spare storage area:
So back to my brain fart about where/what was causing the coolant leaks. When I replaced all the gaskets I put in new TTY head bolts. These bolts came "pre-loaded" with what I ASSumed was thread sealant. So I didn't add anything else to the threads and just proceeded with the proper TTY process. As I was working on the van getting ready to drag the subframe out from under the body... and I mean with just minutes left before I did this, I started wondering about that thread sealant on the new TTY bolts.
Which led me to do a little internet research. Which made me wonder if maybe the coolant was dripping out of the middle cylinder short head bolts? Which made me wonder if that was what the original problem was back before Labor Day? Which made me decide it was worth another $25 in fresh TTY head bolts to try installing them again but use some sealant. Which is what I did on this past Saturday. I noticed that the pre-loaded thread goo on the bolts from the parts store was very inconsistent in how much was on the threads. What I do know is that when I augmented what was already on the threads with some Permatex thread sealant and let it cure overnight and then did a leak check again... my dripping leaks were gone.
So then I decided to do a compression test on all the cylinders. I had 2 at 115, 2 at 125 and 2 at 130-35. Not great but OK. I also pulled the plugs on the Burner V8 and did a compression test on 2 random cylinders. They were both at 165. And the Burner V8 plugs looked fantastic.
Then I sat down and thought about things while I ate lunch and had a nice IPA. Do I proceed with the V8 swap or do I stuff the subframe back up into the van and leave it stockish awhile longer? I made a list of what things I had to do if I kept the V6 and compared to what I had to do with the V8 swap. And I thought about how long the van would be down and what do I really need to happen this year. And decided to keep running the V6 for now but still harvest the V8 out of the Burner Tahoe before I sell it to the wrecking yard.
So the subframe and stock V6 are back up inside the van body. I'm hoping to have it driving in 2-3 more weeks. Stay tuned.
As I went to reinstall the V6 exhaust manifolds I ran into what the internet says is a somewhat common thing The manifolds "shrink" enough that you can't get all the bolts back on. And the internet says I can buy a "stretcher" that looks like a heavy duty turnbuckle. I thought that was asking for trouble. So I knew that worst case I would buy a pair of new manifolds. But what the hell - why not try cutting them in half and re-welding at the correct length? I've got the welder and nothing to lose. If they hold I'm a hero and if they crack and fail at some point then I will know that welding doesn't work and buy the new set at that point. So here you go - notice how far I had to move the leg of the manifold in order to get it to center back up on the tapped holes in the heads!! That's about .060-.090" which is freaking huge!
By the way I am really proud of those welds. MIG on cast steel is a little tricky. :banana:
I have a MAPP gas torch so I used that to preheat - but also to keep it from cooling as best I could after the weld. Tack welds and shorter beads tended to crack at the end but a long bead and a bead that ended at solid metal did just fine.
Here are some more pictures of my e-fan installation.
The yellow things are my weird mounting brackets. I am proud of how they turned out. They had to dodge a lot of hoses and stuff and were a real challenge to mock up and create the threaded mounting points.
Here's the humble origins of those brackets.
Also a shot of the small gap between the fan and the radiator. I'm going shroudless for now and will wait and see how I do for cooling power.
And here's the Volvo fan speed relay assembly along with a master relay to the right that doesn't energize the fan relays unless there is ignition power. I didn't want the fans running with the key off. You can also see the ends of some extra wires that I pulled up from the engine bay to the overhead console.
I've added some rocker switches to my overhead console and one of them allows me to turn the e-fan at high speed if I need it.
With the e-fan mounted and the radiator being about 1.5" higher after my 3" lift but 1.5" motor mount lift, I needed to scallop the bottom of the air intake /filter housing a bit.
A shot after I cut open the bottom of the housing and then added a layer of thick cardboard to create a space between the fiberglass patch and the top of the e-fan.
The aluminum foil allows me to more easily peel the tape and cardboard form off the housing after the resin has cured.
I will add a couple more layers of mat and then sand and paint everything. But for now... "It will suck air!"
I also shaved off the little mounting horns/hooks that used to slip onto studs on the factory fan shroud. I've also plugged these holes with fiberglass. I saved the little horns and may graft them back on at a later point in the build.
For now the modded intake housing just hangs there.
Here are some more pictures of my e-fan installation.
The yellow things are my weird mounting brackets. I am proud of how they turned out. They had to dodge a lot of hoses and stuff and were a real challenge to mock up and create the threaded mounting points.
Like many of you before me, I removed the 3 side molding pieces (that are easy to take off). Then I made my initial cuts into the rockers. These were not intended to change anything but just so I could verify what was inside the rockers before I made more serious cuts.
After mounting the tires again and checking, I decided to cut as shown in the sketches.
This was good enough for me for now, but I just slapped a quick cover patch onto the end of the rocker and want to drive the van for awhile before doing a proper job of sealing up the end of the rocker. I wanted something to stabilize the end of the rocker in case my tire tries to grab the metal and rip it out. The temp "end cap" should do the trick for now.
The front of the left rear tire is rubbing on the side molding. I know that I need to shave most of those corner flares off the wheel openings.
I have a rough idea of how I want to accomplish that while still retaining a little bit of the factory look. But that will have to wait for a couple of weeks. The last step before I can resume driving the van is to get air bled out of the ABS. Then I can drive the van for the first time since last Labor Day. :dance:
Oh yeah I forgot about this other mod to the exhaust pipe. I broke off 2 of the three studs on the muffler half of the connecting flange so I decided to just chop off the factory flange, weld a little bit of pipe back in and use one of these aftermarket couplings. The exhaust hangers were also extended 1.5" to match my motor mount/trans lift of the same amount.
Thanks for the info and quick reply! Trying to get stuff ordered to get my project underway. I think I might skip the blocks and just leave it on the ground. I do have a hoist, but that's about it besides a floor jack, so I'll have to get some jack posts and jack stands. I just found this thing though (link below) so this might be the way the go I think. It will be interesting figuring out where exactly to connect the hoist to the van though.
Time to cut up the rear wheel wells.
The stuff to make a cardboard template:
Deciding on the shape of the curve and marking out on the template.
Transferring the cut line onto both fenders. The right side will cut through more complex metal as it's tight in this area due to the sliding door opening.
Thanks sixsix!
This past week I started driving the van to work. I'm wanting to regain my trust in it before I make my next trip to Oregon near the end of the month. It was unusually cold for SoCal so the e-fan hasn't had to do much - yet. I was immediately bothered by a noise coming from the front of the van that sounded like a failed wheel bearing, or a stuck brake caliper, or something bad from the front diff. But a guy I work with went for a ride with me and he says it's just the noise from the bigger, more aggressive tread on the tires off the Burner Tahoe. For now I am hoping he's right and will continue to just drive the van.
In fact today I'm using the van in semi-cargo mode. The 2nd row seats are still in the van but the giant cargo shelf/bed is out of the van so I could stick my engine hoist into the back and load an automatic transmission I'm selling to a guy. I also am hauling off some scrap metal.
Over the weekend I sealed up the areas in the front wheel wells with more metal, seam sealer and paint.
I also installed the wheel jack kit from the Burner Tahoe. The jack is bigger than the stock van and more importantly for me, it has the long rods so you can run the jack without having to be near or under the van. :snooty:
I started the mod by cutting out the stock mounting bracket.
Then shaved off some of the Burner Tahoe bracket in order to get the base portion to tuck into the fender area better.
Came up with a scheme to build a small wing on the base and allow me to weld it into the van side.
Just for S&G's I grabbed the tow hooks off the front of the Burner Tahoe and dove under the Safari to see how I might attach them. Much to my surprise, they sort of fit up into the subframe holes without any special work. I'm going to embellish things a bit so that the hooks sit square-er but for now it's darn near a direct fit!
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