The Chrysler K-Car Club

This weekend was talking to a friend of a friend and he has 2 Chrysler (or 1 is a Dodge) mini vans sitting in his back yard. In looking at them they both seem have the 2.6 as it looks like the same engine as my '82 Lebaron. Both supposedly ran when he parked them about 10 years ago as he bought them to combine them to make 1 good van as the tranny is out on one and the body is rusted on the other and never got around to it. They are for sale but he wanted me to throw out a price.

Question 1-- Are these engines the same as what is in my '82? i.e. direct replacement?

Question 2-- Would it make more sense to take just the heads, it would take up a lot less space in my garage then a whole engine.

Question 3-- If I take just the heads, what else should I grab?

Question 4-- What should I offer? The radiators still had anti-freeze in them but they haven't been started in almost 10 years.

I had a scare with ruining the head changing spark plugs and I hear 2.6 have issues with heads so I thought having some spares would be a good idea.

I'd say jump on 'em if they are available.

i'm partial to the 2.2/2.5 myself, but if i had a mitsu equipped k car i'd look for a more modern alternative. there were some single cam 2.4's available in 90's fwd products. the fwd cars have the same narrow bell housing pattern used in our K cars (vs. the wide bell housing on the 2.4 and 2.6 in the mighty max pickup, montero, etc). the 2.4 has a slightly longer stroke and much smaller pistons than the 2.6. about the same performance with much better gas mileage. and there are other advantages with a more modern engine like a roller camshaft, etc. not a perfect plug and play, but worth the effort.

heck, if you have a newer K (dynasty, spirit, shadow, daytona) with the 3.0 v6, you can replace it with a hot 3.5 out of a 3000gt or even a 3.8 mivec out of late model eclipse. only tricky part would be the wiring!

Any thoughts on how much the heads are worth?

He still won't name a price if he removes them, asked how much if I removed them--cheaper.