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How about something different? V8 Astro Build.

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Pvt. Maggot

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Well, since i'm going with a different motor for the K5, my fresh 67k mile 305 needs a new home. So it'll be making its way into a 2wd gmc safari, or Astro van if you will. As of now the motor will be ready to pull tomarrow, But I don't have an engine hoist, so I need to get ahold of one. More updates to come. Heres some pics.

Rolling some gold daytons hah...not on the van anymore, I need to find some 15x10 cragers for the back.
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In tear down.
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Me unhooking all the electrical, were gonna use the blazer wiring for most of everything. Also going to try and make a plexiglass doghouse so you can see the motor :pimp:
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The ripped down 4.3 that was 50 bucks, water pump went, motor made some insane grinding. locked up from the heat, put in more water, let it cool down, and it fired right back up and got us home and that was some time ago. Drove it into the garage actually hah :doah:
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And my pride and joy, the new heartbeat. :bow:
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More to come, stay tuned!
 
There is a guy localy that has a V8 astro AWD he has it fixed up fairly nice for a mini van has nice wheels sits a little lower than stock and a Phantom grill with nice paint job. DAMN! that thing moves though. I dont know what his V8 is as all he told me was its a V8. Theres a pretty steep hill on highway 40 with a passing lane. One day I was cookin along and came to the hill hit the bottom at about 75 and came up next to that van. That was all she wrote he hammered down and left me in his dust. I would guess he had to be doing around 120 by the top of the hill. (About 1/4 mile long up hill)

That should be a fun little unit when your done good luck. Oh and watch for 5-O.

Balzer
 
Yeah it should be pretty quick, my brother has a awd with the vortec 4.3 and that thing will go ANYWHERE! but this is gonna be a muscle van hah.
 
theres a company called jtr(jags that run) that has a book specifically written on putting sbc's into astro vans, they've got it down to a science. maybe be you already have it all figured out, but if not, thats the book to have.
 
BUDDYRAMMIT said:
theres a company called jtr(jags that run) that has a book specifically written on putting sbc's into astro vans, they've got it down to a science. maybe be you already have it all figured out, but if not, thats the book to have.
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:doah:I hated my jag even though it ran with a chevy heartbeat.

Balzer
 
The swaps really simple, only motor mounts, are needed, and headers from a nova if you want to run them, other then the wiring, I don't see any major problems.
 
I herd something about needing a torque converter lockup kit or something, because it won't lock in od or something, anyone know why this would be? are the tc on 4.3's different then on a v8? If so then if I just put a v8 tc in, that should solve the problem correct?
 
Let me know how "fun" it is getting the 4.3 out. When I swapped 4.3's in my Astro it took three days of pretty steady work, and lots of beer. Most of the time was actually getting it all set back up, but I couldn't pull mine without removing the intake, there wasn't enough room to raise the engine.
 
Lots of beer will be needed for this swap, and has already been used in most of the removal, liquid motivation! hah. My thoughts were to seperate the "core support" thats tacked to the uni-inner fenders, and remove the whole subframe, my brother thinks it will be easier just pulling the motor as is and trying to stuff the 305 in, but I don't want to scratch up my beautiful engine, more pics coming with the progress, thanks to the people who showed interest so far!
 
Pvt. Maggot said:
Lots of beer will be needed for this swap, and has already been used in most of the removal, liquid motivation! hah. My thoughts were to seperate the "core support" thats tacked to the uni-inner fenders, and remove the whole subframe, my brother thinks it will be easier just pulling the motor as is and trying to stuff the 305 in, but I don't want to scratch up my beautiful engine, more pics coming with the progress, thanks to the people who showed interest so far!
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When I did mine, I chose to pull it through the radiator support. Just had to remove the two cross braces (mine were just bolted in) and the center brace and the engine pulled straight out. Granted I was doing this by myself, and dropping the subframe would have taken too much time. With a cherry picker, and the intake removed, and the front braces, it comes out pretty easy, and should be pretty easy to put the 305 in with no intake. The two engines are pretty much the same size physically, just two more cylinders on the 305. I have seen guys do it with the sub-frame, but it is a lot more work to do it this way. Just my 2 cents.
 
Pvt. Maggot said:
I'm a carb kinda guy, so it'll stay with a carb. Got most of the wiring figured out. updates soon!
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Then no, swapping converters won't solve your problem. Lockup is controlled via the ECM, so you've got to either get some sort of "external" lockup setup, or live with it not locking up, which means a nice big cooler.
 
I was reading something about doing some wiring that will make it lockup in OD without the aftermarket lockup. Gotta do some more research I guess hah
 
Trucks used a standalone lockup setup from 1982-1986, vacuum switch, brake switch, that's it for the most part.
 
Very easy to save yourself a couple bucks and just wire it up using the factory lockup wiring on the 83 - 86 trucks like Dorian mentioned. It all comes out super easy, and should be pretty easy to integrate into the Van's wiring.

Put power on one side, run it through a dual brake switch (one set of posts for the brake lights, one set of posts for the lockup, lockup side needs to cut the power when the pedal is pushed, opposite of the lights), then through a vaccum switch (cuts the power in low vaccum conditions), then down to the transmission itself.

You may want to drop the pan and re-wire the valvebody stuff / confirm it is wired properly. You want the 4th gear pressure switch to be the last stop between the solenoid and power so the transmission will only lock up in O/D. It is my personal belief that having the transmission lock up in 3rd gear only contributes to the durability concern of 700r4s. The pressure switch should cut power when it has no pressure to it, and allow power to pass through it when there is power.

There are two different types of pressure switches, two post units, and single post units. The single post units ground into the valvebody, so you should have power running from the connector directly into the solenoid, then the ground of the solenoid going into the pressure switch. Dual post units you want power coming from the connector to one post, then a wire running from the other post into the positive side of the solenoid, then ground the other side.
 
Pvt. Maggot said:
Rolling some gold daytons hah...not on the van anymore, I need to find some 15x10 cragers for the back.
e89b3c4c.jpg
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Don't underestimate the awesomeness of those wheels..... Here's a rare shot of me with a set of well-used plastic eBay spinnaz installed. The ladies went WILD!!! :D

DSC03442.jpg
 
Greg72 said:
Don't underestimate the awesomeness of those wheels..... Here's a rare shot of me with a set of well-used plastic eBay spinnaz installed. The ladies went WILD!!! :D

DSC03442.jpg
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WOW! It is just totally amazing what some wheel covers, a wing and a ground effects package will do for a Civic:D
 
I built one couldn't keep A/C working in it right so I parted it. I would keep the TBI it works great, well did for mine. The 4.3 radiator should work fine I put a four core from a El Camino in mine. Astro/Safari .net is where I learned most of the info that I needed there are alot of the conversions out there cuz its so easy and pretty much bolt in. I have the conversion book even, headman makes a set of shorty headers that work great in the swap, 68600 I think is the part number. Too bad your not closer I have a nice exhaust for one high flow cat and a flowmaster.

Plan on a new trans cuz the V6 700r4 will not last, a TH350 works well in them I had both in mine.
 
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