Engines compatible with a 97 Dodge Grand Caravan Sport

Well, Dodge stuck a four-banger in the vans they sold to taxi fleets. I drove several when I was a cab driver. They were dog slow, blew out head gaskets almost as often as transmissions, and still really didn't get good gas mileage.

If you want something more economical, my advice would be to sell the van and get something more economical.

Good luck, Harry

The van's size and frontal area is what limits the mileage, not the engine. You can't get much better than the 3.3. Chrysler did sell

4-cylinders in the vans (the original '84 minivan was a 2.5L four) and up until fairly recently (maybe still?) the newer 2.4L 4-cylinder was available in Chrysler vans for fleet sales. But it only got marginally better mileage than the 3.3 and didn't last nearly as long.

I hate to tell you this, but that vehicle is slow enough with the 3.3L in there. I think if you put anything smaller in there, you're going to be running it so hard that it won't help your mileage.

I think that the things were available with a four-cylinder, which was mostly famous for blowing head gaskets a lot since you need to run the thing throttle-open to keep constant speed on the highway.

If you want better mileage, get a lighter vehicle with better aerodynamics, don't try to drop the input power on a heavier vehicle with massive drag.

--scott

There was a four-cylinder offered in these vans until recently.. We got much better milage with our old 4-cyl. van than our new V-6 van. It was a stick shift, which helped, of course, but I still think the four would get better milage even with a slushbox.