GMC Savana, Plus a Chevy Express Now Too

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bucket

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Man, I forgot all about these things:
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I don't remember what that trim level was, but I remember seeing them on the lot in '01 or '02. I need to find one of those in the junkyard. Body colored grille, fancy bumper facia and fogs... yes please.
 

78C10BigTen

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Man, I forgot all about these things:
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I don't remember what that trim level was, but I remember seeing them on the lot in '01 or '02. I need to find one of those in the junkyard. Body colored grille, fancy bumper facia and fogs... yes please.
So a richer mans rape van?? Lol
 

78C10BigTen

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Nah, nah, nah. Everyone knows that rape vans don't have windows like a passenger van does :rofl:
A vans a van unless its a "VAN" man!!!
 

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bucket

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Well alrighty, 2 years later and I'm finally doing intake gaskets and a tune-up on the white van. Now in my defense, we did move and I had been occupied by that, lol. Mostly I've just been using the white van as a mobile unit for keeping my camping stuff in, along with an occasional drive down the road. It also drove itself to the new house 1.5 years ago and drove fantastic. But anyway, on to pictures.

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They were still original GM gaskets, and they were toast too.
 

bucket

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The original spider injector was in place too. I've had a nice fresh donor vortec intake sitting around for a while, complete with a fresh updated style injector spider. So that's what I'm using since the updated injectors really aren't removable once they are installed.

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^the updated style only has about 1k on it, but mice had nested in the intake and that's what a bunch of the mess is.
 

bucket

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Intake assembled as a unit, with new seals, updated spider injector and gasket surfaces cleaned.

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Ready to clean.
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New gaskets in place. They are the steel Felpro gaskets, not the crappy plastic garbage.
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Intake installed, ready to plug everything in and hook up all the hoses.
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bucket

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And as far as the yellow van goes, it's doing well. Getting close to 200k already.

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bucket

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Well it runs again. I was concerned that I never found a definite cause of why it was so hard to start before. It had a tendency to buck and kick back at the starter when cranking and there was a dead miss too, usually. As if it was sucking coolant directly into one cylinder, or had a bent pushrod or something. The plugs were worn and fouled, but none were washed with coolant. There were traces of coolant in the intake manifold ports, but it appeared to be from crankcase vapors pulled in through the PCV. Valve train was fine.

So with all that, I halfway expected it to still have major troubles starting. But it fired right up, albeit only running on 7 cylinders. One cylinder didn't want to party until around 3k or so, which was a bit concerning. After it started getting some temperature in it, I gave her the 'ol hillbilly tune-up and it actually smoothed out after a few good revs and it runs great now.

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SirRobyn0

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I've always enjoyed those terms, the ones I use the most:
Mexican tune up: Revving a carbureted engine up to around 3K or so and closing the choke off fully until the engine RPM is close to stalling, let the choke open until it revs up repeat a few times, in a effort to clear a little crap out of the carb.
Italian tune up: (and you have to pronounce it Eye-talin tune up) trickling drips of water down the carburetor while revving the engine to 1,500RPM or so, in an effort to decarbonize the engine. Following that a hard run on the road at high RPM
Collectively sometimes called poor mans tune up.
 

bucket

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The white van is all buttoned back up and perfectly roadworthy again. I took it on a 10 mile test drive, at speeds up to 70+ and it did fantastic. I also tossed an amber beacon on it, mostly to get the wife's attention when I drove it over to the house.

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bucket

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I finally remembered to get a picture in the daylight. Too bad it's white, lol. I'm kind of wanting to paint it, maybe yellow to match the other van. Besides my time, I could do it for around 150 bucks including sand paper. That's using "tractor" paint.

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SirRobyn0

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I finally remembered to get a picture in the daylight. Too bad it's white, lol. I'm kind of wanting to paint it, maybe yellow to match the other van. Besides my time, I could do it for around 150 bucks including sand paper. That's using "tractor" paint.

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My wife has had a white minivan since 2005. I had a black Buick in the 90's and swore I'd never own another black vehicle, so we choose white for her minivan not realizing that it's just as bad if not worse than black where it comes to showing dirt, but at least it doesn't radiate heat like black, but I agree white is not the best color.
 

bucket

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My wife has had a white minivan since 2005. I had a black Buick in the 90's and swore I'd never own another black vehicle, so we choose white for her minivan not realizing that it's just as bad if not worse than black where it comes to showing dirt, but at least it doesn't radiate heat like black, but I agree white is not the best color.

I don't hate white paint, unless it's on a modern truck or van. Nobody anymore can think for themselves, they are just like "durr.. it's a work truck and work trucks are white, dee dee dee". Drives me nuts... pick a color and be distinctive for crying out loud. And the "better for signage" excuse doesn't fly either. Signs and decals show up on any color, not just white.

/rant
 

HotWheelsBurban

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I finally remembered to get a picture in the daylight. Too bad it's white, lol. I'm kind of wanting to paint it, maybe yellow to match the other van. Besides my time, I could do it for around 150 bucks including sand paper. That's using "tractor" paint.

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My wife has had a white minivan since 2005. I had a black Buick in the 90's and swore I'd never own another black vehicle, so we choose white for her minivan not realizing that it's just as bad if not worse than black where it comes to showing dirt, but at least it doesn't radiate heat like black, but I agree white is not the best color.
Having had a white Suburban and a black one, my personal preference for color on trucks that get driven a lot, is the pewter and gold colors. They don't show dirt too bad, and they are shiny when they are freshly washed (or driven in the rain).
Not gonna lie, that black Burb looked sweet and badass when it was clean...but that lasted about half an hour, and washing/scrubbing it took most of a day.
 

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