'84 Horizon project... needs direction...

[CeeKay]

Yeah, I finally found a Horizon, and it's close to museum quality... 32k actual miles, owned by a little old lady all its life! (I LOVE little old lady cars! So pristine!)

What sucks is that it's the 65hp 1.6L SOHC, which is too gutless. :\ Though, I've heard that the 2.5L Turbo powerplant from the '89-'91 Caravans was practically a bolt-in. Anyone here ever do this swap?

My other question was...

Where do people usually start with these? Or am I looking at mostly uncharted territory?


Thanks,
- CK

[turbomini]

i'm gonna say you need to find a 87 or 88 TBI dash/car harness out of a omni and swap that in your car then get the minivan harness and swap the motor trans and find some differnt front suspention off a omni/charger or even a 85 reliant. it'll take some work but its worth the work..

[TheCanadian007]

An easier swap might be to a 2.2 carb'd engine, less wiring and fuel hassles. Get a ported intake, headers and jetted carb?

[detobias]

welcome to TD and the world of ChryCo parts swappin '

required reading:
Donovan's Dodge Garage especially Turbo Database and EFI Database
Shelby CSX History - The Chrysler 2.2L Engine
MiniMopar Resources
gus's espec Tech Tips, Slugmobile, and Mini links

you are not in uncharted territory ; swaps like this ahev been done MANY times and are well documented on teh web ; you can swap pretty much any 82-95 2.2 or 2.5, NA or turbo, into you 'rizon

the EASIEST way would be to find a donor car with the desired engine/ trans/ induction/ electronics , and merely swapp all that good stuff over

BUT first you have to decide what you want when your done ! R U going to build a 250+ Hp turbo motor ? do you want a combo with the best fuel economy ? do you want to keep the underhood to appear "stock" ? etc ...

from wiki: The Volkswagen 1.7 was replaced by a Simca/Peugeot-produced 1.6 L I4 unit in 1983. This engine produced 62 hp (46 kW) and 86 lb·ft (117 N·m), and was only available with a manual transmission.

[CeeKay]

Oh my...

Options, options, options!!!

It looks like the best place to start would be the 2.2 TIII, as it's a DOHC 16v turbo, spewing out the most base power of the bunch...

But, finding one would be tough, and rebuilding one would be equally as tough... Hell, it took me half a decade to find another Omni... :\

Anyway, the Spirit R/T shouldn't be too terribly difficult to find... I've seen tons of them around. The trick, however, is finding someone willing to let go of their Spirit R/T. Though I think the local scrap yard has one that was wrecked in the back...

But, I think I'm just going to settle for a 2.5 TI or TII van engine for now and build the monster funny car killing TIII engine later...

Right now, I'm mostly just looking for something I can tinker around on here and there... Thinking of maybe throwing a set of air struts on down the road, so I can be all cocky at red lights. This would also give me good and usable ballast weight, which I could put damn near anywhere on the car! (can get a small air tank to go behind the rear seat, down next to the fuel tank, small pancake one for under the front seat(s), etc.)... Plus, a 2.5 turbo Omni whooping the piss out of your little Honda, while playing with SWITCHES the whole time!? Now THAT is pimpin, my friend, THAT is pimpin...

Also, I'm an uber electronics nerd, and absolutely LOURVE robotics... I was thinking I'd cut the headlight bucket out and motorize it on either a pulley system or a gear-drive system (both of which can be had from an old CD-ROM), and set it up on a switch, so I can flip a switch and drop the headlight behind the front bumper, exposing a mushroom filter. >: D Would be 100% street legal during daylight hours, 100% legal at night once you pop the headlight back up, and 142% totally badass!

Was also thinking of getting two pair of Geo Storm/Isuzu Impulse door handles and putting them in... If you have no idea what I'm talking about, here's a picture: Clicky here for picture... <-- You actuate it by sticking your hand behind the door, and lifting up on the handle. Shaved and aerodynamic, but not poppers.

Wheels: Don't care enough about exterior modification to worry about pimpy wheels just yet. Maybe some day I'll look for a decent looking set. Maybe...

Paint: This is where I've got a personal hang-up... The car is red, and the paint is PERFECT, aside from needing a buff. I'm not a fan of red, and that's not reason enough to start scraping clear coat off... :\ Though, I was thinking that with time, I'd do a red/black two-tone at the body line, black on top and red on bottom, possibly with black again on the bottom line, just south of the doors... Would be neat, but just can't justify scraping yet... There are too few body flaws to start scraping away paint. :\ (two dings in the driver door, a teeny rust pinhole on the corner of one fender, and a ding or two in the passenger side)

As for drivetrain: I must swap from auto to 5-speed!!! I HATE autos!

That's about it for what I want in this project... Just a toy for now, and a tricky little badass machine later...


Thanks for the info!
- CK

[1983Rampage]

First off, good find, but doing a turbo swap into a carbed car is easy. Just find an 89 Turbo mini harness, and I am thinking that the interior harness from the 88-89 Omni would have the right interior harness that you would need. 87 is too old and 90 is too new for the 88-89 SMEC setup, plus finding computers for those years is VERY easy (the production number for the T2 cars was it's highest during those years). Plus people really don't have any use for the 2.5l T1 computers from that era.

But for engine terms, the 2.2 T2 would be plenty to push that little car down the road (worked great in my 83 Rampage), but a 2.5l would give you more torque. But if you are wanting the bolt in Radiator/IC setup for that car, that will be a little bit more difficult due to the fact that only 1500 (or 1600, don't remember how many 86 GLHS's there were) were produced. But the best bet would be to get a 2.5l engine and go from there.

But for the suspension point, I would definitely do the 5-lug upgrade for the brake upgrade, or at least get the rear 4-lug drums from a Turbo Daytona from 84 (220 mm) They are the largest rear drum setup that was produced. Then you would want to get the front rotors from a 4-lug Mini and get the larger 60 mm calipers from a pre-90 mini. You would really need to worry about your stopping potential with that car, because if you would go turbo, the stock solid front rotors with small calipers and small rear drum, you will have LOTS of issues with coming to a stop when you really open the car up.

[CeeKay]

haha never really thought about the stopping aspect... Guess that's a good thing to think about.

The intercooler doesn't bother me much. Was thinking of running just a small one (home-built if need be) along the bottom front, or trying to do something integrating the front bumper... But, I think for simplicity sake, I'd go with a fenderwell IC or something...


- CK

[CeeKay]

Nevermind.

False alarm, guys! The chick sold the car this morning, instead of waiting until this afternoon as we had agreed on. >:\

Anyway, it's back to another 5 years of waiting for an Omni/Horizon to come up for sale in this god-forsaken shit hole state.


- CK

[turbomini]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1983Rampage First off, good find, but doing a turbo swap into a carbed car is easy. Just find an 89 Turbo mini harness, and I am thinking that the interior harness from the 88-89 Omni would have the right interior harness that you would need. 87 is too old and 90 is too new for the 88-89 SMEC setup, plus finding computers for those years is VERY easy (the production number for the T2 cars was it's highest during those years). Plus people really don't have any use for the 2.5l T1 computers from that era. But for engine terms, the 2.2 T2 would be plenty to push that little car down the road (worked great in my 83 Rampage), but a 2.5l would give you more torque. But if you are wanting the bolt in Radiator/IC setup for that car, that will be a little bit more difficult due to the fact that only 1500 (or 1600, don't remember how many 86 GLHS's there were) were produced. But the best bet would be to get a 2.5l engine and go from there. But for the suspension point, I would definitely do the 5-lug upgrade for the brake upgrade, or at least get the rear 4-lug drums from a Turbo Daytona from 84 (220 mm) They are the largest rear drum setup that was produced. Then you would want to get the front rotors from a 4-lug Mini and get the larger 60 mm calipers from a pre-90 mini. You would really need to worry about your stopping potential with that car, because if you would go turbo, the stock solid front rotors with small calipers and small rear drum, you will have LOTS of issues with coming to a stop when you really open the car up.

my omni was a lste 90 and a 89 harness pluged right in the only thing that didnt work was the wipers...... but everything else is right.