1999 Venture Motor Replacement

hey guys,i see everyone loves their ventures,well i have a friend that loves his,and he wants me to install a motor into his,my question is,Im gonna just drop the whole frontend out of it to do the motor,is that the easiest way to do it,or am i creating more work for myself by doing it this way,thats the easiest way i see fit doing it,any sugestions would be great,im gonna start on this by the weekend,so fast replys would be great,i will also take pics of the whole process to post back on here for the people that havent done this job yet,as this will be my first venture motor replacement,did i mention i have a lift i will be using,any hints and tricks would be great,thanks everyone in advance,steve :banghead:

Nope, never done one of those yet. I've done a lot of work on mine, rotating the engine block and such, but never replacement. I'm betting you have the right idea in dropping the front clip. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread so I can learn from you.

BTW, where are you getting the new/rebuilt engine from?

Thanks.

Hi,
What I'd REALLY be interested in is if it is possible to do an eng/trans replacement w/ a manual!
I absolutely need 7 passengers, can't afford keeping two cars for myself, but would LOVE to have a 5-speed.
So, if this works out well for you, I might look for a GM 3.4 or so eng/man-trans combo, and see if I can do the swap on my 99.

Thanks,

well to answer the question about putting a manual trans in there,not sure if they ever came with one,im not really to familiar with these vans,would the main concern would be the computer?but anyways,he picked the motor up from a wrecking yard,it only has 23k miles on it,the motor came out of a rollover.he said he has had his intake replaced already,and now they are telling him his head gasket is shot,so he asked me to install his new motor instead of going through the head gasket process,,cheaper doing it this way he says,im up for the challenge.like i said before,i will take pics of the whole process,im gonna start on it this saturday,and have it finished hopefully by sunday evening,we will see what happens,wish me luck,steve:grinyes:

since you have a lift, definately drop the suspension cradle with motor and trans on it. is by far the easiest way i know of...only did 1 motor job on a montana, but close enough to same thing...lol. as for the manual trans in a venture, not sure if they ever did that either....but would be kinda cool....if you can get the clutch plumbing and pedal setup working....and the shifter....might wanna think about getting a handle from an S-10 or even a full size pickup. best of luck to both of you on these projects.

Venture NEVER came with a manual trans.

Are you sure- I was in Tarrytown (NY) assembly plant back in about '94 (before it closed) and remember the "Export" vehicles had a 5 speed trnsmission-- European cars are more than half manual trannys- they need to "feel" the road...

Yes i am sure my friend. The first Venture came out in 97. Before that the Chevy mini-van was the Lumina MPV. Maybe that is what your thinking about.