Thread: 1985 Astro V8 "Ole Yellar" Project Van

Tweet

I own a 1985 Astro high top van that is being build exclusively for the main purpose of a tow van for my vendor trailer.

Some backround about my business to better explain the purpose of this build.I own a traveling fleamarket business that I run a circuit leaving one larger set up in the same multi date location(Winnebago motor home and 12' duel wheel trailer) and travel to single date fleamarkets with Ole Yellar and the smaller vendor trailer.The stuff I sell is from the larger set up is salvage foods and from the vendor trailer snack foods.Yeah I knew someone would ask.

The ole Yellar Astro van is a high top van that is a 1985.It came from a guy in KY that was using it to vend ice cream.



Of course the bell and the decals had to go.....



The engines in these Astro's are 4.3 V6's and to their own right some of them are pretty stout.This one in the van is the only yr built that is a carb'ed version and was the first yr Astro's where built.I bought this van for two reasons.First the feature of the high top allows me to stack up product cases in the back for back stock of snack foods where there will be a cage separating the front from the back and it has somewhat of a grandfathered emissions requirement.The other reason was it is a "shortie" version allowing me to back the trailer into tight spaces and save on rental market spaces.

I have been apart of a web site that deals exclusively in Astro/Safari vans for many,many yrs.There are guys that have done V8 conversions there and it is one of the easiest V8 swaps anyone could do.Guys there have done anywhere from 305 V8's to a friend of mine in Canada that did a 5" body lift and outfitted his 1997 Safari with a Ram-Jet 502 without cutting the body at all.

Certainly there are many advantages of a V8 conversion and yeah I have to admit the hot rodder/drag racer part of me is also a factor.

So to install a TBI V8 into this van means you need to get the engine,the wiring harness,computer,and some mods to plug and play and that is mainly because this van is a carbed version.I was looking for a low mileage engine and while I was shopping I bought the conversion engine mounts for a fellow member on that web site that was built by a company called "Jags That Run".



You can see where these mounts move the bolt locations for a V8 2" forward.

So along came a sale of a donor 1989 Astro the had a V8 conversion done already and a blown up tranny which I bought that was located in Indiana and I dolly towed it back to Roch,NY.The van had a crate 1995 5.7 TBI that came out of a rear end crashed pick-up truck.The engine has less than 30,000 confirmed miles on it.



These V8's really do fit as if GM intended them to to be put there.






I cut some patch panels out of the donor van before sending it to the junk yard and we took the engine,tranny,and sub frame out of it so I could use the sub frame for build up for Ole Yellar.Also I want to do a 3" body lift to make service on the V8 tons easier.I'll get into the body lift alittle later through.



Hang on while I submit this part of the thread and then continue.....

This was a running 5.7 in the donor van,but suffer from a high idle issue.The donor van's owner told me he had put on cop car 65lb injectors lifted.I tried to address the high idle while the engine was still in the donor van and couldn't get the computer to communicate with a snap-on scanner.We swapped out the cop car injectors and for a short while it acted normal,but then crept back to where it was before.Time running short on space in my friend's lift I decided to pull the stuff out of the donor van.I knew from the engine casting numbers it was a 1995 two or four bolt main and that given 1995 was a Gm transitional yr it could be either a roller hyro cam or a flat tappet cam.The donor van's owner told me he resealed the oil pan before putting in the engine in and told me it was a four bolt main.I really don't put much value in a street driven four bolt main in most cases,but atleast I knew that part about the engine.Because I couldn't get the ECM to communicate with a scanner,I figured it had to do with the wire harness and the swap done wasn't done correctly.Still I wanted to confirm if it was a roller cam or not because my plan is to do a cam swap for a GM roller cam that is nick named the "383" roller cam.One of the guys on the Astro web site I spoke of had used that cam in a 5.7 and just raved about how much torque it make and then sold the van to another member and he too spoke about how much low end torque the van has with a smooth idle.So I pulled the intake off to confirm if it was a roller or not.While doing that I found a number of intake bolts very loose and now think it is the reason behind the high idle.Humm,we even sprayed the heck out the intake with carb cleaner and never saw a difference.Might have been the fact the vac leak was that bad at it wouldn't have.





So now I know it isn't a roller,but as you can see it does have the bosses drilled and taped for it.Should be a easy conversion to a roller because of that.

The donor van had a tilt steering and Ole Yellar didn't.So I swapped it into Ole Yellar.The donor steer also has cruise control on the steering column and delay wipers which I will swap the delay relays and cruise conrols into Yellar while I do the V8 swap.







You can see where the column bolts into the firewall and the dumb GM design of just using self tapping bolts.When I go back to do the the V8 swap I will elf aleast 1/4 20's nuts to the firewall engine side and run 1/4 20's bolts threw there for a more secure mount.The cruise control I feel is more to get better gas mileage than a convenience item.

Still more to add...............LOL hang in there guys.

So about the 3" body lift.Here is the sub frame without the engine and tranny:





As I said earlier in this thread a friend of mine put in a Ram-Jet 502 into his 1997 Safari by a 5" body lift.The way that was done is by welding in schedule 40 4" diameter pipe over the body mounts on the sub frame exactly centered to the bolt holes of the body mounts and hogging out the frame mounts so as to pass the body mounts into the pipe so they are the same length bolts as before and welding a plate with the centered bolt holes in them.A number of guys have used this method in the past and has complete success as long as they did what description centering I posted.There are kits available too from a company called Overland Vans,but some of the involves suspension mods that effect steering geometry needing to be corrected.The reason for only a 3" lift is I met my friend from Canada and we went for a ride in his van.Well honestly being as old as I am.Peter pretty much had to grab me by my shirt collar to get into his van because these old legs ant what they use to be. The advantage is through you can run a bigger tire and to get to the spark plug on a V8 is a simple task of going threw the wheel wells.Here is a example of that done by another member of the Astro site.



So i have the sub frame from the donor van stripped of all the steering,suspension parts to clean,(maybe power coat),and weld the 3" spacer lift tubes.



While I need to say this not to most here,I have to say this old mechanic knows the amount of stored energy that is involved in front coil springs.So i bought a ball joint pickle fork to take the sub frame apart and a front spring compressor too which as it worked out the the wrong one for this kind of spring.When I took apart the suspension I was standing in the center of the sub frame and I cabled off the spring to the frame so if it was going to take off,it wasn't going very far.





And I did have a answer to those stubborn sway bar links of which one was broken already:



The intend also is to replace all the steering parts with either new Moog parts or rid my self of the poor designed steering where idler arms are a content wear part and install a rack and pinion steering.


Now onto the body mods..............

While it is a high top van that appears to be a cargo,really it is a conversion van that the owner before me ruffed up the windows and painted them.It would be very unusual to see a high top cargo van and that is what I wanted.So I cut out over sized panels from junk yard cargo vans to use as fillers.









I have a later yr no window side door slider that I am in the process of converting it to this early van and will get no window back doors for it as well.

There is some rust work to be done as well,but I will go out of my way to clean that up given all the things I have said are advantages of this van.

The inside I cabin I want lush,A/C'ed,power windowed stereo'ed system.There is a overhead counsel where I will move the radio tuner and in the regular radio location I am going to build as diamond plate a three gauge set for oil pressure,temp,tranny temp gauge.The cage I have for the separation between the front and back will be plywood-ed in covered and covered with some sort of carpet.

Well That is the basic outline of this project.I will add more about the engine mods,a Ford 9" rear end/gear ratio,and alike.Oh yeah about the internal struggle I am having with a hot rod side of me not to stroke the engine into a 383 roller engine and which heads I am going to swap into this V8 given the C.I. of it. .Also about the V8 1991 truck tranny 700 that came in the donor van and the repair of the same and mod build up using TCI parts.

Thanks for reading about my project guys,

Gary

Oh come on Gary do it...lol
Nothing wrong w/a little bit of a hopped up mtr. A buddy of mine has a hopped up 400SBC in his, fast little booger & some where in my file or favorites I have a site w/a guy w/a 502(I believe) mtr in his doing a massive burn out PLUS it's a handicapped guys van .

Really it is more a question of gas mileage.

Ok, this is different but very cool. I always wanted to do one of these; keep us updated so we can see the finished product.

Originally Posted by falconvan

Ok, this is different but very cool. I always wanted to do one of these; keep us updated so we can see the finished product.

Yes Sir.I know in many ways this project is not the main stream here.But in many respects the topics are very much alike.I do value you guys input given the type of work you guys do and hope to get help in many,many areas of this van's restro and paint and interior.Questions about power trains too.

So here is the first one.For a daily driver like this one and wanting to have the same color yellow as the color of the van,would you guys suggest power coating is a good idea for the sub frame??.Some have told me it is tons harder to repair if scratched and once scratched will rust quicker.

Originally Posted by 1gary

Yes Sir.I know in many ways this project is not the main stream here.But in many respects the topics are very much alike.I do value you guys input given the type of work you guys do and hope to get help in many,many areas of this van's restro and paint and interior.Questions about power trains too.

So here is the first one.For a daily driver like this one and wanting to have the same color yellow as the color of the van,would you guys suggest power coating is a good idea for the sub frame??.Some have told me it is tons harder to repair if scratched and once scratched will rust quicker.

non main stream? perhaps you are not familiar with falcon's current project . check out his 'I scream' thread.

Originally Posted by 35fordcoupe

non main stream? perhaps you are not familiar with falcon's current project . check out his 'I scream' thread.

Thanks for the plug, buddy!

A friend did that swap a few years ago to his early 90s astro,hooked up the EFI and looked like a factory installation and I think it got better gas mileage then it did with the 4.3

Yes it is true.The V8's in these vans do get the same or better gas mileage as the 4.3's.The thing is when we built 383's in the past,we never even considered gas mileage.On the other hand I know a guy in Calli with a 355 in his van and it uses a early Edelbrock injection system.This is going on three yrs since built.He tows his sand rail on a open trailer and soft peddling threw the mountains out there gets 22 mpg.When he beats on the van gets still 18 mpg.Now it goes beyond just what I have said about the build.The van has a really well developed tune on it too with port and polish etc.It is owned and built by a master Mercedes tech who really knows what he is doing.

I need to decide if the difference in gas mileage between a 350 vs a 383 is worth it to me.Really what would the difference be??.

It was not his intention for better gas mileage as he wanted more power to pull a boat but he ended up with slightly better gas mileage,he used all junkyard parts except for a rebuilt longblock and had someone make two plates with two sets of holes to mount the 350 to the 4.3 mounts. A/C was retained along with all the original options and looked like it came out of the factory with the 350.

Although this post isn't really about Ole Yellar,it is related to starting it.I also own a 1994 LT Astro and it's intent is/was for it to be the daily driver.I owned this van long before I bought Ole Yellar and due to my own neglect I left it to become un- roadworthy.Still runs well and is on I think the 3th yr on a rebuilt tranny/tranny cooler.I have always considered it to be my comfort ride.It needs brakes,tires,rear shocks,and it think u-joints.For me to park Ole Yellar and get started on that and the vendor trailer,I need to make the LT my D.D. again.Once Ole yellar is done,I will be selling off the LT.So here is a pic of the LT:



So the front brakes are the worse and I started to get the parts to repair that.It is a RWD version van.I have since I bought this van complained the hydro-boost brakes where not as good as the vacuum brakes on Ole Yellar.

Here is the part you guys might find interesting.We found that the calipers from 1979 to 86 2500 series trucks have the same bolt pattern as the Astro's and have a much larger piston.So I got these Cardone's part numbers 184122 & 184123.







This allows for the use of the larger pads that a 2500 series truck use.I got Wagners part number SX153.They are aleast 20% larger and are atleast 1/3 longer than the stock Astro's as well.





I am still looking for a local aftermarket parts source for the rusted off dust shields.It is a open question as to which rotors I am going to use because of the increased heat possibilities and the fact I am going to sell off the LT once Ole Yellar is done.

This upgrade has been done on a Astro web site for over 8yrs and everyone has been very happy with the results.If I find I want more,there is also a upgrade for the rear brakes where Chevy Cop car/taxi Caprice-Buick roadmaster station rear brakes backing plate bolts onto the Astro rear end and they are 11x2 size.

Here is a nagging question.Has anyone ever heard of a performance exhaust resonator?I want this van to be super quiet without hurting the output of the planned 383 for it and I am planning to use the truck cast iron headers because I don't want to have to deal with some of the problems headers can cause and because headers to a V8 swap in Astro's are somewhat limited.