things have been moving slowly. Recovering from knee surgery. The owner has agreed to drop the price to $600. For some silly reason I'm debating if it's worth buying and doing the motor or just getting I different van. Things have been pretty tight with the bottom of this lousy recession not ending.

that's a lot of miles. Do you drive in your sleep?

$400 not including head bolts for a motor rebuild kit, rings bearings etc at summit racing. I've never done a car motor myself, watched mechanics do 350's for me a couple times, looks pretty easy. I've built a lot of 2 stroke honda MX motors but they are easy other than the tranny stuff. I'm more co...

"Once i first noticed the problem i drove it about 10 miles. but i only drove it about two miles cautiously once it starting affecting how the vehicle drove."

Statement from the PO.

So The lower end may be OK if a go on his word. We know how that goes........

thanks for the input, I didn't know about bearings being affected by the antifreeze.

yeah gravel just makes finding lost parts more fun. you guys are a bad influence. I have several 350's kicking around from my 3/4 ton trucks as well as running gear. They are all running old school carbs so I doubt I will be doing anything other than fixing the 4.3 I'm pretty tired of the bad mileag...

I'm in New Hampshire. I'm hoping to get this done before the state bird (mossiquito) shows up for spring :yikes: I saw the 2" lift idea in another thread. I guess I better brush up on that as well. Of course I could tear the inside apart and do an evaluation as well......... I was wondering if ...

I'm in franklin, about 1/2 hour north of concord. thanks for the link. Now I'm more concerned about milage than ever, the PO says he's getting 15 mpg. I thought from what I read here that the 99 and newer AWD get better milage........ I'll have to get on the search function and see about the tricks....

I spoke with the owner last night, oil is a milkshake.

Doing the work in a gravel driveway, some day things will be better but at least I will be able to feel my fingers as it is warming up.

If I pull the cowling from the inside of the van would I have access to the motor?

Well I was hoping for more details.....more will be revealed I'm sure.

Does installing a 2" body lift before hand make the job easier?

I'm going to buy my first astro as soon as I can get going from my knee surgery I had friday. The current owner claims it has a bad head gasket. It's been a few weeks since we talked about the symptoms. He said his mechanic checked it out and came to head gasket conclusion. I do remember him saying ...

Hi folks. Quick intro. As you have prolly figured allready I'm a MX nut. I'm hoping to make a good van for hauling MX bike or 2. I have a line on a 2000 awd. Supposedly it has a blown head gasket. I'm going to start a thread in the general motor section about it so I can get some guidance. Been lurk...