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A rare find indeed...
14 years ago
General
I just had a great stroke of luck happen, from a chance meeting 6 months ago.
I was putting home heating oil into a customer's home in February when I noticed the neighbor had a rather worn 1989 Turbo Plymouth Voyager 5 speed minivan.
I seen the owner and complimented him on it, and gave him a note with the local Mopar websites, and that I was a fan of the turbo Mini's.
(These vans were only built for 2 years and a VERY Few were assembled with the 5 speed manual transmissions.)
Now last week I get an email, and behold, the minivan owner asks if i know anyone that could help him with his van, as the rear axle split and broke in half from all the Pa winters and road salt. His van was currently stranded off the highway at a parking lot, but could only stay there a day or 2 maximum. I told him I'd do my best and look. He replied and said if I couldn't, it wouldn't be a big deal, as he would just craiglist the van for parts and end up taking it to the crusher.
I practically leaped up from my chair and yelled "I will take it from your hands, and will pay for the towing and the axle repair, if you let me save the van."
Only thing he asked was if I had room to park the van at my home, as he lived down a long tight narrow one way road, which would be very hard for the flatbed truck to unload his van.
I MADE the room available.
And the following day, I became the owner of a 1989 Plymouth Voyager Turbo 5 speed minivan.
A fun fact: They did come factory turbo and 5spd, but it was a rare thing, as factory turbo vans were only made in 89 and 90, only the short wheelbase ones, and the 5spds were a fraction of that. Autos are far more common. And considering Plymouth built fewer mini's than Dodge built Caravans, I would think the plymouth 5 speed turbo would be most rare.
The motor that comes in them has some good things going for it. It comes with strong pistons and rods and with careful tuning can hold 400whp on the stock bottom end. Careful tuning, though, is a rare thing in the turbo-dodge/turbo-mopar world so you wont find many people running that power that haven't upgraded to forged pistons. However, i THINK the current fastest 1st gen turbo 4 cylinder caravan that runs 11.7s ~115 is on a stock piston stock bottom end. That guy knows how to tune.
All I have to do now is replace the rear axle, and enjoy.
Kimmyskunk
I was putting home heating oil into a customer's home in February when I noticed the neighbor had a rather worn 1989 Turbo Plymouth Voyager 5 speed minivan.
I seen the owner and complimented him on it, and gave him a note with the local Mopar websites, and that I was a fan of the turbo Mini's.
(These vans were only built for 2 years and a VERY Few were assembled with the 5 speed manual transmissions.)
Now last week I get an email, and behold, the minivan owner asks if i know anyone that could help him with his van, as the rear axle split and broke in half from all the Pa winters and road salt. His van was currently stranded off the highway at a parking lot, but could only stay there a day or 2 maximum. I told him I'd do my best and look. He replied and said if I couldn't, it wouldn't be a big deal, as he would just craiglist the van for parts and end up taking it to the crusher.
I practically leaped up from my chair and yelled "I will take it from your hands, and will pay for the towing and the axle repair, if you let me save the van."
Only thing he asked was if I had room to park the van at my home, as he lived down a long tight narrow one way road, which would be very hard for the flatbed truck to unload his van.
I MADE the room available.
And the following day, I became the owner of a 1989 Plymouth Voyager Turbo 5 speed minivan.
A fun fact: They did come factory turbo and 5spd, but it was a rare thing, as factory turbo vans were only made in 89 and 90, only the short wheelbase ones, and the 5spds were a fraction of that. Autos are far more common. And considering Plymouth built fewer mini's than Dodge built Caravans, I would think the plymouth 5 speed turbo would be most rare.
The motor that comes in them has some good things going for it. It comes with strong pistons and rods and with careful tuning can hold 400whp on the stock bottom end. Careful tuning, though, is a rare thing in the turbo-dodge/turbo-mopar world so you wont find many people running that power that haven't upgraded to forged pistons. However, i THINK the current fastest 1st gen turbo 4 cylinder caravan that runs 11.7s ~115 is on a stock piston stock bottom end. That guy knows how to tune.
All I have to do now is replace the rear axle, and enjoy.
Kimmyskunk
