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[Joseph Davis]

Vans are going for $0.59, they have been for almost two years now.  You're going to be hard pressed not to get a 90's van for your budget.

[snm95ls]

Shut up Johnny, I haven't had the misfortune of working on a chebby van but I have had to do injector seals on a suburban, shit's weak.

If there is anything that's a better alternative let me know. If I get a chevy I'm going to fix all the common 350 shit anyway, valve cover gaskets, leakdown for valve seals, plugs, and listening for that high stall whine the transmissions make before they eat it.

SBCs have not had chronic valve cover leaks since the inception of center bolt valve covers in 1987.  I have no idea what injector seals you have had to do on a Suburban since it is rare that TBI injector seals fail, and there aren't really injector seals to speak of on the CPI setups with the poppet valves.

The L05 is a dog at best that gets horrible mileage in stock form.  Dunno how much of that can be remedied with the suggestions above.

I am looking at mostly early-mid 80's vans, if I can find a G van that is OBD1.  The suburban had that 6.5 diesel with the hard lines to the injector around the back of the manifold, I think it was still TBI.

What would you suggest swapping into the van, I figured it would be a good idea to look for a new motor and rebuild it.

Also what should I do about old tired automatic transmissions, what are the common problems with them when neglected (duh). Or what needs to be replaced first.

The 6.5 like most modern diesel engines uses direct injection.  So no, it is not TBI by any stretch of the imagination.  Diesels do not employ the usage of throttle plates.

87 was the first year that you could have any sort of fuel injection in a truck/van from GM.  Anything earlier than that either had the bastard C3 Computer Controlled Carburetor setup or a regular old Q-Jet with tons of vacuum lines.

I would swap in a 5.3 or 6.0 from one of the newer trucks, but that would likely kill your budget.

[Hotrodlincoln]

Why not get a mu fuken RV? Mid 80's low miles very cheap they are all over the place and going for dirty cheap. Take all the extra shit out and install a rear door/hatch. Ba da boom!

[patsmx5]

Find an old chevy 305 from the early 70s. Put a new 2 barrel on it and run it.

[Joseph Davis]

Why not get a mu fuken RV? Mid 80's low miles very cheap they are all over the place and going for dirty cheap. Take all the extra shit out and install a rear door/hatch. Ba da boom!

Not a bad idea.  Those things have low miles and go for nothing since they are luxury/maintainence items.

[Zarcorp]

I've been looking for an RV as well, they're on average still a bit more expensive than $500.

Might be worth it though in the long run.

I thought that it was just regular DI, I am no GM mechanic I couldn't remember. Definitely had to fight with the firewall though.