Hello - Long time lurker, new member

Astro95 · Post by **Astro95** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 1:34 pm

Hi,

My name is Scott. I have read most of both boards and have found it very helpful. I acquired my van in partial trade for some work I did on a customer's 84 Corvette. He was an administrater of a rehab place where they trained mentally challanged people for different vocations to enable them to support themselves. My van was one of many they had to transport their clients from the rehab out to their jobs. Mine went out to the nearest I5 rest area and back several times a day seven days a week.

I got it a year ago with 367,000 miles on it and a death rattle in the engine. I got my smog check with the engine knocking so badly I thought it was going to throw a rod. It survived the dyno test and passed smog. I drove it over to a friend's shop and up onto a drive-on lift. I pulled the driveline, transmission, exhaust system and the oil pan so I could make repairs to the engine.

Number 6 rod journal on the crank was wiped out, so I put in a reground crank and new bearings. While I had the engine opened up, I replaced the timing set and all the seals and gaskets on the lower end. I'm here to tell you that it was quite a challange to position all 6 rods just right to get that new crank in. With help, I managed. After reassembly, the van ran pretty good. I had to do a complete tuneup and pull the upper and lower intake and clean it up thorougly inside. Before I pulled the intake, I had trouble with chunks of carbon hanging my EGR valve open, so I installed a screened EGR gasket. I changed all the vacuum hoses (most were split or collapsed.) The next thing I had to take care of was the rear axle. With that many miles on it, it was completely trashed inside. I got the axle and rear springs from a wrecked low miles 2000 Astro cargo van. I flushed out all fluids which made a noticable difference in the way the van drove and sounded.

The only modification I've made to my van is to take the back seats out and install plywood and carpet in the back. I've been to Michigan with it this last July and it ran flawlessly all the way there and back. I would like to do a V8 swap eventually for more passing power on the freeway.

midnighthunder89 · Post by **midnighthunder89** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 1:41 pm

welcome let the fun begin
$\:D/$

skippy · Post by **skippy** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 3:29 pm

welcome aboard scott, sounds like you can help people out here with engine work questions , thats a good thing . if you have any questions you need answered , speak up anything you can think of has been done by somebody here & thier all willing to help a hand .

astrogurl · Post by **astrogurl** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:45 pm

WELCOME! Glad to see that you have "unlurked" as a friend of mine says.

Feel free to chime in anytime. We are always glad to have another friend around the boards.

Astro95 · Post by **Astro95** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:51 pm

Thank you very much for making feel welcome. I registered over at the main board, but for some reason I can't post or reply even though it says I'm logged in. Is there still something wrong with the main board?

My other van is a 65 Chevy van. I have been fairly active over at the Vintage Chevy Van Group boards (VCVC and VCVC2). I like to try to answer technical posts and help out with other questions as much as I can.

astrogurl · Post by **astrogurl** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 7:09 pm

You know, the main board has been having problems for a while and things change in spurts and we're never sure what exactly is happening. I know that you aren't the only member who cannot log in.

Really recently, the original AS board has been undergoing some much needed repairs too according to another thread here in General Discussion called "Wow AS.com".

Sounds like you have a lot of fun with the vans already. I can't wait to see what you post here.

trybe13 · Post by **trybe13** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 7:23 pm

Greetings Scott. Glad to have you aboard. It's always a blessing to have another technician around. There's always some kind of maintenance or repair to be done. I like the way Astrogurl put it: "glad you decided to unlurk!" See ya around the boards.
Adios!

Rileysowner · Post by **Rileysowner** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 6:44 am

Welcome Scott. As has been said, it is always great to have people around who know what they are doing. As someone who is just learning, and now finding out that a lot of what I thought was so hard is actually rather easy, it is good to know there are people here to go to for answers.

ds99 · Post by **ds99** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 9:30 am

Welcome Scott, glad to have you aboard.
The Main Board is the other one, WE Are the "Inner Circle"

haha!

LiftedAWDAstro · Post by **LiftedAWDAstro** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 7:09 pm

Welcome Scott, now let the mods begin!

Chevy & GMC Vans

Chevy & GMC Vans

Hello - Long time lurker, new member

Hello - Long time lurker, new member