Mini van body frame swap

As in first or second gen Caravan/Voyager, mated onto a solid rwd frame powered by a v8. I thought someone here did this a few years ago? No luck on the search feature. I have read that "it's been done several times", yet googling etc also no results.

Why do I ask? I know of a very very cheap solid bodied '90 swb Voyager (no it's not the factory 2.5 turbo) that I have a sick vision of becoming what I described above. Think a poor mans version of the momkhana LS powered drift van for example.

I'm not asking if it can be done, but rather looking for something close to this recipe as an example with some pics, description, or full on build thread.

There was the mid mounted...eurovan? With a chrysler 6. If it were me, id want one of the awd ones for the tunnel, though admittedly i do not know if the pans are different.

I don't think the pans are different.

There should be plenty of room under a Caravan for a drivetrain, and it is already a leaf spring rearend (AWDs had a leaf sprung de Dion rear suspension) just need to redo the front suspension so the transmission isn't trying to go through the middle of the rack.

If you just want a rear wheel drive minivan, I'd rather start with an Astro or Aerostar van. But if you want to melt some faces with your RWD Caravan, that's even cooler!

You can find factory parts to get a Dodge turbo 4 cylinder mounted to a rear wheel drive transmission.

It wasn't a Caravan, but the Batvan was a VW van on a (I think) Monte Carlo chassis.

How civilized does the result have to be?

Where do you want to drive from? Second row or stock ergonomics?

You still want cargo/passenger functionality?

What kind of budget?

If I had to go down this road, (ie challenge car) I would find a donor with an LS4 drivetrain and graft the whole front of the car including the hood into the back of the Caravan. The beauty of LS engines is that tuning them stand alone is no longer an issue when you do crazy swaps.

How much fabrication can you put up with?

NOHOME wrote: How civilized does the result have to be? Where do you want to drive from? Second row or stock ergonomics? You still want cargo/passenger functionality? What kind of budget? If I had to go down this road, (ie challenge car) I would find a donor with an LS4 drivetrain and graft the whole front of the car including the hood into the back of the Caravan. The beauty of LS engines is that tuning them stand alone is no longer an issue when you do crazy swaps. How much fabrication can you put up with?

I like your thought process. Civilized it need not be. A wtf screamer is the idea. Theme and budget are at or maybe a bit above challenge level. Not sure an LS and chassis could be had for this price range? Fab skills are entry level but I have hands on teachers available for back-up.

My bench racing plan for this was to hack out the rear floor area and mid mount a 4x4 V8 truck drivetrain, with the front output of the T case feeding the rear axle(flipped around). Unfortunately there's not enough overhang to just roll the front half of the truck frame under there and have independent suspension, but you could move everything forward. edit:Might be better that way though, you'd have a short driveshaft with pretty sharp angles running a stick axle.

Or find a cheap running Eldorado or Toronado fwd big block and mount it between the rear wheel wells. Similar to what was done with a Yugo a few years back. Actually the Roadkill Mazda Rotary era pickup with the same set-up comes to mind also.

With as many minivans of this era that were made, I'm somewhat surprised there aren't a few examples of this ilk documented out there.

Shawnee creek is building a transport in a g6 chassis right?