Completely off topic, I know.

We have a 1998 Dodge Grand Caravan that's losing coolant through the engine. That means either a cracked head or damaged seals. It has 178K on the engine.If we take it to a shop, it'll take $1000+ to diagnose and repair. That's not really worth it, given the age of the van. Of course, my dad and I are shade tree mechanics, so we'd like to do it ourselves and at least try to do something before wehave it hauled off for salvage.We'd like togetmore out of it to finance other ventures.

I was wondering if anyone had any knowledge of this kind of stuff. Can you remove the head without dropping the engine out of a Caravan? Does anyone have any manuals that describe the teardown process on those engines? Any other thoughts are welcome.

 

Hopefully just a headgasket or something of the like. Not sure on pulling the head though, maybe it would be worth it to pick up a $25 Haynes manual to get some general info.

 

What year caravan? It's the V6, right? The rear head is a PITA, you most likely won't be able to get it out without dropping the engine, however the problem might be in the front head. Are you still on the original transmission? If you are I wouldn't bother with the van since murphy's law applies to these even more at high milage.

 

It's a 1998, and the transmission has already been rebuilt. That's one of the reasons why we want to try to fix it. It's the 3.0L V6. So, there are front and rear heads on it? It looks like it only has one valve cover, though.

I didn't know if a Haynes manual would cover an engine teardown. I wish someone had the Helms in pdf format like someone did with all the Civic ones.

 

the haynes I had for my caravan did somewhat cover the engine teardown. The 3.0 SUCKS, the 3.3 was the good engine. The reason you don't see the second valve cover is because it's under the firewall It's a V6,there are two heads

 

I agree, the 3.0 is trash. It used to be a fleet van, so it has this custom two shelf storage thing in the back half. When that thing was fully loaded with parts, it almost didn't make it up the hill.

 

seriously I wouldn't bother with it...when the 3.0 dies it dies...

 

Sell it and buy an Odyssey, those things haul ***. lol

 

I'm looking for a 1992-1995 grand caravan ES for a project car....too bad the ES is so damn rare

 

i've done a few caravan head jobs, you dont have to pull the engine , but doing the rear head is a pain in the ***, you will need to get under the van to get a lot of stuff off , which makes doing it without a lift even harder , good luck , you'll need it