I need Professional or Amateur help

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Ranman20

Ranman20

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I was thinking of taking apart my mom 1996 Dodge Grand Caravan and creating either a go kart or some sort of non road legal vehichle. It would be cool if I could create a formula race car out of that chasis( young mind at work). But have any of you guys done something similiar like this? And yes I will ask her permission to take it apart.

And please no harm, I just think of ideas( young and fun)
 
I have a 1999, had a 1994, and a 1990. There is no way in hell that's even possible. It's a straight up, front wheel drive unibody. Theres pretty much nothing you can do with it except leave it as it.
 
Slashfan
I have a 1999, had a 1994, and a 1990. There is no way in hell that's even possible. It's a straight up, front wheel drive unibody. Theres pretty much nothing you can do with it except leave it as it.
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Aww that sucks, what about her engine. Can I do anything with it?
 
The engine is decent but if you were going to use it I'd have it rear mounted on a custom frame as the transmission is directly below it. A 1996 puts out 150hp and 250ft-lb torque. Plenty enough to get you moving on some kind of cart-like thing. You'd have to pull the axles out or theres no way the transmission is coming out too. To be honest it's not even worth the hassle unless you have money to dump. For as much as you'd need to put in for a toy you could just buy one with a V8 on it
 
Slashfan
The engine is decent but if you were going to use it I'd have it rear mounted on a custom frame as the transmission is directly below it. A 1996 puts out 150hp and 250ft-lb torque. Plenty enough to get you moving on some kind of cart-like thing. You'd have to pull the axles out or theres no way the transmission is coming out too. To be honest it's not even worth the hassle unless you have money to dump. For as much as you'd need to put in for a toy you could just buy one with a V8 on it
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Thanks for the idea might try it.
 
First off if you're going to do anything make sure you get the rigidity restoration done first. :p

Second off, leave mums minivan alone. Unless you want to throw away a lot of money you'd be better off tinkering with something that isn't a large, heavy, fwd minivan.
 
What engine is in it? If it's the 2.4L you can put it in a Neon and it makes the car pretty good. I'm sure you could cram the V6 in a Neon if you tried but it would take a ton of effort. Neon shells can be had for less than $400 too so all you'd have to do is get a $100 transmission and the motor swap kit. I built mine for less than $2,000.
 
Joey D
What engine is in it? If it's the 2.4L you can put it in a Neon and it makes the car pretty good. I'm sure you could cram the V6 in a Neon if you tried but it would take a ton of effort. Neon shells can be had for less than $400 too so all you'd have to do is get a $100 transmission and the motor swap kit. I built mine for less than $2,000.
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Its a 3.8L its pretty big. And cool I like the sound of your kit.
 
If you want a large car or sort of kit-car, you'll have to find an old body-on-frame car from the junk yard. For instance, my buggy is nothing more than an old International Scout frame, suspension and axles, steel tubing, a basic steel floor pan/tub and an old 283ci Chevy and 3 speed manual. Total out of pocket cost to me was about $3800 and it's more fun than you can shake a stick at. Or you can do what my friend did. Fab an entire frame and body from steel for the tub and aluminum and steel tubing for the body. He used suspension from a junkyard VW bug, and the power train is an I-4 and transmission from a 1996 Honda CBR900RR he found wrecked in a bike yard. His total investment was about $7000. Or if you just want to have fun, gut the minivan of everything, literally anything that doesn't make it drive or turn gets torn out. Next step is to have fun. You'd be surprised how fast that ol' minivan is when all that's left is unibody and drivetrain. Then scrap it once you run the hell out of it.
 
Ranman20
True. I could just go to the junkyard and find some old car bodies and parts and tinker with that.
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I might be wrong on power output then. My '99 3.3L puts out 180...sooooooo
 
It would be prohibitively expensive for you to try and convert a Grand Caravan chassis into some sort of sports car. If you have a ton of money to dump, then it could be kind of cool to have a sleeper minivan, but otherwise, you'll just be spending a lot to make something not very fast, not very nimble and not very fun.


Slashfan
I might be wrong on power output then. My '99 3.3L puts out 180...sooooooo
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The power output of the engines changed throughout the generation. I think there was at least a power bump in 98.

Of course, you're also looking at 4 engine choices throughout the generation's lifetime, a 2.4L, a 3.0L, a 3.3L and a 3.8L.
 
01-Saturday-Leaders-at-Vodden-the-Hell-Are-We-Doing-24-Hours-of-LeMons-626x426.jpg

If you have a few thousand to spare to buy a seat and a harness, racing pads, a new master cylinder, new brake lines, a transmission cooler, wider wheels, real tires... yes... REAL tires and some new shocks, and you're okay with being marginally slower than nearly bog-standard Civics, sure. :D

Oh, don't forget to weld in a rollcage.
 
That reminds me of the turbo Dodge Caravan that ran 12s quarter miles. :lol:

 
niky
01-Saturday-Leaders-at-Vodden-the-Hell-Are-We-Doing-24-Hours-of-LeMons-626x426.jpg

If you have a few thousand to spare to buy a seat and a harness, racing pads, a new master cylinder, new brake lines, a transmission cooler, wider wheels, real tires... yes... REAL tires and some new shocks, and you're okay with being marginally slower than nearly bog-standard Civics, sure. :D

Oh, don't forget to weld in a rollcage.
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That's the "Soccer Moms" ChumpCar/LeMons minivan.

The "real tires" in this case are likely either Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Specs (recently retired with the new Direzza ZII rolling out) or Falken Azenis RT615K. Depending on the size, they run anywhere from ~$100 to ~$200 (or more) per tire. I doubt they're running a new master cylinder, and I doubt they bothered replacing the shocks (or if they did, they used cheap OEM-replacements). New wheels would probably be either junkyard-sourced or CraigsList sourced. A transmission cooler would certainly be junkyard-sourced. They may have pulled the springs out and cut a coil out to increase stiffness and return ride height to about stock.

The roll cage is probably the single biggest race prep expense on that car.
 
Well, if you have the money to do something. Why not. However, if you do want a car that is street legal, you should save your money, unless of course you have money to spend.
 
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