I got the van a month or so ago now. The first area im looking to improve is the overall performance of the engine. MPG isn't the best and with higher petrol cost here would like this to go up in anyway.

Going to give the van a service, and as i know nothing about its service history other than it was owned but the US army up until 07 then privately and has 145,000 on it, so hoping it had a goods service record but assuming the worst. so planning on the following

1) Oil change
2) Performance air filter
3) Fuel filter (don't know if its ever been changed)
4) Oxygen sensor (for the money i may as well change it it too)

5) in the next couple of months ill be getting a cat back duel performance exhaust, i may get custom headers while the shop is doing this depending on the price.

i would really appreciate any feedback from you guys on the above and any additions or improvements.

thanks

phil

If the US Army had it they keep all records on maintenance..finding the place that has the paper work will be the hard thing to do....mine was a govt veh and it came with a stack of paper work showing the 4x conversion they did , the time in Texas for the glass and annual stickers for the oil changes and such....

do a search on your vin # it may yield some information...

ye im plugging away with that, but as of yet nothing (i thought that decoder link you sent my prove fruitfull but NADA) so have to assume the worst, but im sure it has been well looked after just cant prove it.

so starting from scratch

Instead of searching to find out what maintenance was done and when, just start with a clean slate.

It seems obvious you plan on keeping this vehicle.

Since I am spending your money:

Tranny fluid. get some quality synthetic in there and possible a deeper pan with a drain plug. Change the filter, and possibly add an magnetic inline filter on the cooler line.

Add an additional tranny cooler.


Diff fluid. Quality synthetic again.

Do you only have one O2 sensor? Some newer vehicles have 4

Cap wires and plugs.

Turkey baster the power steering fluid to refresh.

Turkey baster brake fluid from resevoir, refill then rebleed all brakes

Once you got all these bases covered and know your tranny and diff are healthy, only then would I'd consider power upgrades.

Yes ill be keeping this like my defender.

tans and diff will be done at the same time, is there a filter for the tran?

o2 sensors ill check, i thought it was just one in front of the cat? but still finding my feet.

cap and wires could do..

brakes were done before i got it so will prob leave that until i have to, steering is fine.

Trans does have a filter. Usually the filter comes with a pan gasket too. I think you just have the single oxygen sensor. Warning!!--Custom headers are expensive!! Very labor intensive.

ok ill thrown in a trans filter & gasket too. Just getting a quote for the headers, while getting a quote for the exhaust work, ill be keeping the van so in the long run may be better doing it all in the one as shipping headers over from US costs as much as the headers themselves.

and got an e-mail back from headdmen saying they have no products that fit myvan???

I brought my cat ($105)& Flowmaster ($125)to the shop & it was $300 & $350 for the '93...