Because they weren't that great (or reliable) of an engine. The timing chain/sprockets/guides often went bad, which put metal shavings into the oil and killed the engine. Head gaskets would fail, camshafts would snap, heads would crack. Hard to fix, and would always burn oil. They were STILL underpowered for a minivan - why do you think Chrysler got rid of them before the 2nd gen van came out?

I think the engine would have done better if someone would have designed a timing belt conversion kit for it. Do that, and convert to fuel injection, and it might've been okay. We had 3 vans with that engine, and only one did alright (although it had running rich issues). The 3.0 V6 is actually a better engine.

 

Thanks. It's really in good condition. but we didn't think even in great shape it would be worth much, so we thought maybe it would make a good back up vehicle ?

 

I had great results with a 2.6l Mits. in my new Aries K 1981. Drove it 225k miles without any trouble over 11 years. I did the routine maintenance as required religiously and it was great. The weak points were the fuel pumps, one every 40k miles (buy a lifetime one, free after the first). I adjusted the three valves every 15k as directed. Also the camshaft seal leaks at the drivers end after about 50k/seal. You can drive it in with a socket. The Mikuni carb I had lost the choke (hot wax type) after about 70k. I just cut a piece of a tin can, drilled a hole in it to fit on a screw nearby and bent it so the choke plate was permanently 1/8" or so open. You had to pump once in summer, twice in winter and it would crank right up without the expensive choke unit. That is it. The cable on the transmission to the stick is a little light, broke 2, but Started putting it in N, placing brake on, then letting weight of car rest on brake, then shift into P and never any more problems. Hope he enjoys his. Any time you have a question, feel free to ask. There is a little canister on the firewall of that carb, the CAV, coasting air valve. If it sticks open, it will start fine and run fine over 1200 rpm, but when it warms up, you will hear a weird sucking noise and it will stall when you come to a stop. disassemble the canister, put some silicone on the tip of the needle, and you are good to go. Took me a year to find it since it was sporadic.

 

Head gaskets were known to go, usually after lots of miles were put on though.

Gasket for counter balance chain set up was changed about the same time as the minivan was introduced. The new gasket would warp with time, cover up an oil passage, and starve the gear and chain of oil. This was a common and major problem known as engine self destruction, and likely the reason for the bad reputation.

 

Hi! I know is an old tread, but I now have "only" 442.000 miles on the2.6L Caravan, and had to change in all those miles the water pump twice, changed the timing chains for prevention, the valve stem seals twice and replaced the Mikuni with a Weber after the gasoline was diluted and made worse with the ethanol (it kept swelling the float needle every 7 months, I also took away the choke, we don't need it here in Fl.), now, I do keep the cooling system serviced, and do have the Canadian cylinder head (without the jet valves), I was terrified when we bought it because all the bad rap, 17 years later it is still running great with good oil pressure compression above 160 PSI in all cylinders and 24 "real" MPG after tuning the Weber properly.
Jorge.

 

Only really bad rep I knew of was that Mikuni carb, my dad had to rebuild it 3 times (I think thats what he said) in the about 10 years we owned that 87 Caravan. other than that I'm not sure it gave us that many issues, which is good considering just about every year it was towing a trailer full of camping gear up north (not no little sissy trailer either, thing stood probably 4 feet tall, 10 feet long had full size tires on it, from my memory which is when I was pretty young, it was a huge trailer), with 4 kids and my mom and dad in it.

My uncle ended up owning it a number of years after we had it, thats where it started down hill, but I don't think even then it gave him issues. I do still wonder what exactly happened to that van now a days, oddly enough I did find the vin number for it lol.