Ray Alexander’s 900,000 Mile 1972 B200 Dodge Van
At the end of the model year I purchased the van from Stanley Dodge in National City. I wanted a 1972 because the 1973 trucks would have a lot more smog equipment on them and I was a non-believer in the stuff that was bolted on in those years. The primary purpose that the van would serve was transportation and hauling my motorcycles to the desert for race events. The van was orange in color with a 318 engine, power steering and brakes, a 727 automatic transmission and a 3.21:1 differential.
I had a 1966 El Camino that I traded in and as I drove home from making the deal I wondered had I made a mistake. The van is somewhat akin to a large trash can and the noise inside the van when driving was unpleasant. Since I would also be sleeping in the van I set out to panel the inside and carpet the floor. Behind the paneling I put R-19 insulation and under the carpet I put ¾” plywood, the good stuff. This dampened a lot of the noise.
I had the dealer put in an after market air-conditioner, it is the ARA brand fitting because that is my initials. Very soon I had to change the radiator to keep the engine cool. The first race that I went to I knew that I had made a mistake; the van would not maintain 70 MPH going up Tejon Pass. However, coming back from that race I smiled as I passed through the smog in Riverside in perfect comfort. Had I been in the El Camino my eyes would have been burning to the point of tears.
The van came with a very small single exhaust system and at 60,000 miles it burned a valve. I did the valve job and put on a 2 ½” dual exhaust system.
At about 90,000 miles I purchased and installed a 360 CID engine with 30,000 miles on it. Still not enough power even with the 4 barrel carburetor. I ran this engine to near the 200,000 mile mark before rebuilding it.
I did this engine exchange from the bottom and that is not the way to go. Neither is the recommended procedure of taking the engine out the front. In my opinion the easiest way is to remove the passenger’s seat and take the engine through the passenger door. The engine needs to be chained tightly to the hoist boom in order to get enough height to clear the floor pan.
The engine was definitely ready for a refresh. I put in an Isky cam with the biggest grind that would idle smoothly. Now that the valves actually open I have some power. I decided to refresh the engine and transmission every 100,000 miles. I always have at least one bearing worn through to the bronze.
Too many broken bones and broken marriages caused me to give up desert racing. Then I took up fishing and just to be sure it is a challenge I do all of my fishing in Baja on the Sea of Cortez. So now the van is usually loaded and pulling either a boat or a very large ATV, a Polaris 700cc twin.
Some years ago there was an ad campaign for those pesky Toyotas where the owner told how many miles he or she had accumulated. The top mileage that I remember was about 360,000 miles. I took a picture of the van where it turned 500,000 miles and that was on the Alaskan Highway just a couple of miles from the turnoff to the Cassair Highway. I plan on taking a photo for 1 million miles and I hope that turns out to be in Baja.
I bent the differential housing while pulling stumps. They are not as strong as they look. I eventually changed to a 3.55:1 Sure Grip differential.
I converted to front disc brakes from a 1973 van.
Some where near 600,000 miles the dipstick tube developed a hole. That bathed the entire right side of the van in oil.
The frame breaks where the steering box attaches. This goes slowly but there will come a point when you feel like you are herding the vehicle down the road.
I have had tail light bulbs last so long that the solder wears off the contact and the spring in the socket can’t make the electrical connection.
On one occasion the diaphragm in the fuel pump broke and this filled the crankcase with gasoline.
The electrical contacts for bringing power through the firewall from the fuseable link and the ground return have failed. I am sure that the return side failed first.
Baja roads wore the threads out in the upper control arm letting the ball joint move about freely. That was exciting!
I have put in an untold number of stereo systems with condensation from the A/C eventually getting to them. I now have one mounted on the ceiling. I hope the water never gets that deep.
The weirdest problem that I had was with the original ballast resistor. It had a tang on each end to position the wire wound resistor. The bottom tang broke and this allowed the wire to contact the frame when braking. Eventually this wore through the paint and after heavy braking the engine would go into a death shudder. The resistor shorting essentially turned the ignition off momentarily, then it would swing away and the motor would fire again. Once it started the resistor always won by completely killing the engine. The engine would immediately restart and be fine until the next quicker than normal stop was necessary. It took a while to run that one down.
I had an in-service cast iron head develop a porous hole into the combustion chamber. This puts a lot of whitish junk in your radiator and where ever escaping steam touches. This also took time but not as long as the resistor.
The turn signal mechanism gives more that its fair share of problems. You can no longer buy the part from a dealer.
I now have just over 990,000 miles and have just worked through a problem that is new to me and that being an in service cast iron head developing a porous hole between the water jacket and the compression chamber. I just installed a 1968 Charger gas cap on the van.
In June of 2006 I bought a new SRT Dodge Charger. This is an awesome vehicle.
Editor’s note: we first heard from Ray in 2002 at the 200,000 Mile Club.
Related links: A-Vans | B-Vans | Campers | Dodge - Commer SpaceVan | Ambulances | Sprinter | Van Forums
