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First post for me here. So I thought a quick intro would be in order. Im a recent convert to anything other than the VW's I've been working on since I was a kid in the garage with Dad. He was a VW tech in the 60's and 70's and then a Automotive shop instructor till retirement and got me started into a 28 year journey of Auto repair. For the past 19 years I have owned and operated South Central Imports/SCI Performance in Minneapolis, Mn. It a Watercooled only VW/Audi shop that was originally opened in 1976.
My journey to the dark side as I have called it started with the purchase of my First V8 anything. a 23' 1967 Chris Craft Lancer that had been swapped to a 330hp 454 Mercruiser. This was seriously the first V8 anything I'd ever owned. When I purchased it I didn't even have a Truck that could pull it. Shortly after purchasing the boat I found a 1996 Tahoe that worked well but was not what I was looking for style wise. IMG_0876 by Chadsci, on Flickr
This is where the Dodge Ram 1500 enter the picture. Back in 2010 I found a thread online of guys talking about a group of guys in Japan racing Dodge Ram vans on local japanese tracks. They called them Dajibans(Dodge vans) and they are awesome. My hope is to build one that could pull the boat on occasion all the while looking killer and being a hell of a lot more fun going to Soccer practice with the kids. dajiban-1 by Chadsci, on Flickr
Most are modded with Coilovers, sway bars basic bolt on engine wise and full interiors swapped out for racing seats and harnesses. The wheels they are using are Japanese Watanabe wheels that are as classic Japanese as a set a Cragars are in the states.
I found my van on Craigslist in Texas and flew out to get it the same weekend. Those of you from the Rust belt know why I went south to get a van. This thing is so rust free that when I put the rear drop shackles in the bolts literally unbolted and pushed out. No heat wrench or cutting!!! van2 by Chadsci, on Flickr
This is how arrived and within a week I had replaced the Bumpers front and rear, Replaced the grille and polished the headlights. The paint came back to life with a light buff and I finished it off with tint and brushed stainless steel wrap on the hood. Droping the van by Chadsci, on Flickr
With the van looking good I needed to get its stance set right. Not many options available for the Dodge rams so I had to make most of it work. I used the rear drop shackles from 90's Chevy truck and cut them down to only use the first set of holes. I think this was 2 inch. In the front I used Chevy 454ss truck springs and cut them an inch. For wheels I had Bassets made in 15x8 for the front and 15x10 for the back. In hindsite I would have used a 4.75 inch backspace as the rear tire brushes against the sliding door when opened.... Dajiban 2 by Chadsci, on Flickr Dajiban at night by Chadsci, on Flickr Bride seats by Chadsci, on Flickr
So this is where it sits now. The van has the look I want inside and out, just not the performance I want. The 318 magnum is tired and knocks under load. The trans is also worn and the three speed has weird flare shift at times, but with 200k on the Van I just believe its ready for the next step. This is what has brought me here. I hope I don't bother to many with questions over the next few months as I take this step towards the dark side and building my version of the ultimate Dajiban!
Forgot to mention what i'm planning. I have purchased a 2000 Chevy 2500 truck for its 6.0 LQ4 and the 4l80e. The motor has 205k on it and will be rebuilt as will the trans. I want to replace the iron heads with alloy heads and this is where you all come in. I would like to be around 400hp when done but do not want a high stall to keep the towing portion of the Van intended use viable.
My thoughts are to use all the parts from Chevy and make an Iron LS3. With the cost of the Chevy performance CNC LS3 heads(Under $1200 for the pair) and the fact that I will need heads anyway, would they be to much for a build that wouldn't have a large stall? I dont need this thing to rip off 12sec quarter mile passes. I just want to be able to recreate the burnout scene in Old school and tow a boat!
So starting last weekend I cut off the damaged section of the truck to access the motor. The plasma cutter made quick of it and in an hour or so the damaged front end was clear and motor ready to pull. Plasma time by Chadsci, on Flickr
u need to save everything u can think of. all the hardware good stuff to have. keep driveshaft to modify yours with. sell off anything u can. this be interesting to see.
I fully plan on keeping as much as I can. The drive shaft is Alloy and massive. Everything in front of the Rad fan is toast from the accident. Truck ran smooth though before I took it apart.
I like it,this old Dodge build will be cool.Save your money,just get the LQ4/4L80E up and running first,this build will suck every cent out of your wallet and take a ton of your time.
If you have the time and money a set of used 317 heads,valve springs and decent cam couldn't hurt,save the LS3 CNC stuff for your first rebuild,that tired old 6.0 will already fry the rear tires untouched.
Finally got some time to pull the motor from the donor truck. It has taken far to long to get the time needed to pull the motor but the impending snow fall kicked me into high gear. SO I stayed late Tuesday night and pulled the beast. I took some doing to get the auto trans to separate from the block. A little heat and a quick wrap with a air hammer got it to break loose.
Finally an update! I think its a big one too! After about a year of crazy I can get back into the motor swap.
In the past month... I have gone from trying to figure out how to make the almost new 317 heads I picked up work with the LQ4 short block I have, to just finding a set of 243's or 799's! Well I found a mint set of 799's with some machine work already done and the heads already have BTR 660 springs installed! These will work great with the Straub trunnion kit I have.
by https://www.flickr.com/photos/29666478@N04/, on Flickr
Well I finally found a set of 799's and they are mint. Previous owner had them rebuilt and the deck surface milled .003 to just clean up the sealing surface.
So I dropped the wiring harness and ECU off with Tom at Bauer Performance and already have it back! The harness was left unwrapped so I can wrap it once I figure out how I want to route it. The ECU was given a base flash to allow it to start and run. It will get a full tune once its up and running
Power wires and relay panel.
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Sensor and output side.
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Its amazing how fast a project can move along once you decide to actually work on it!
06-28-2015, 08:49 AM
2000 Dodge Ram van with LQ4 and 4L80e swap 
IMG_0876 by Chadsci, on Flickr
dajiban-1 by Chadsci, on Flickr
van2 by Chadsci, on Flickr
Droping the van by Chadsci, on Flickr
Dajiban 2 by Chadsci, on Flickr 
Dajiban at night by Chadsci, on Flickr 
Bride seats by Chadsci, on Flickr
Plasma time by Chadsci, on Flickr
6.0ltr LQ4 by Chadsci, on Flickr
Freshly pulled LQ4 from my 2500 parts car. by Chadsci, on Flickr
Pulling the accessories and intake from the Lq4. by Chadsci, on Flickr
Mr Goodwrench rebuilt! by Chadsci, on Flickr
Intake off and it doesn't look pretty. by Chadsci, on Flickr
Iron heads will be tossed for a set of ls3 heads. by Chadsci, on Flickr
Motor is out and this thing is ready to hit the scrap yard. by Chadsci, on Flickr
Off to the scrapper. by Chadsci, on Flickr
