My previous rig ran great but I noticed in the paperwork that the guy I bought it from had to replace the intake plenum which if you're not lucky( he was ) can jack up the engine pretty good. That occurred at 82,000 miles and no way to prevent it. That being said I sold that van with 124,000 miles bought my third Dodge van.A 1996 with the 5.9 ltr. and it runs great. On the Sportsmobile forums that I still haunt the guys there are really anti Dodge and are very Fordcentric but you can read post after post about Ford problems. But heading down to South America I would try to find what is the most popular van south of the border and get that so parts will be available. Maybe buy the really cheap 92 and put money into making it perfect.