Hi Jon,
actually I am from Germany, and guess why all people want to sell their
Ford-V6 vans? Because of the Ford engine.

Yes, it is cheap, the first conversions appeared about 10 years ago. But
many people don�t like the thought of having "third party" engines
installed. They want to have VWs, Audis or Porsches.

A Ford-V6 driver I know has ruined 4 auto trannies and has now swapped to
4-speed. Know he wants to sell the van, blue/silver Caravelle Carat �90 (the
german Carat, not the U.S. version), fully equipped. Perhaps you also saw
this ad in the "VW Scene".

However, many german vanagon drivers believe that the ford engines are not
as reliable as VW engines. Also, VWs are better to install because of the
similar engine/tranny mounts, the wiring is easier to adapt (dynamic oil
pressure etc.) and so on...

Raimund (with Audi engine, and no Ford EVER!)

----- Original Message -----
From: Jon Stanton <JDStanton5@AOL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2000 4:43 AM
Subject: Engine conversion ?

> Hi all.  I'm relatively new to the Vanagon list, though I've been into
VW's
> for about 19 years and have been a past president of the Arizona Bus Club
> (the old "splitties").  I also have an '89 Vanagon and have been going
> through what is apparently a very common 'head case'.  I think I am about
> ready to get the Vanagon back on the road soon with a rebuilt head from
Mark
> Steven's Machining (comments ?) and a few new hoses.
>
> Anyway, back to the subject....I recently spent a week in Germany and
while
> there picked up a copy of "VW Scene", a magazine that puts the American
rags
> to shame.  In this magazine are a lot of want-ads and quite a few are for
> Vanagons that have been 'fixed up' or customized or what ever you want to
> call it.  Of these ads for Vanagons, a rather large part of them refer to
> having a "Ford V-6" in them.  It seemed that this was the conversion of
> choice over there.  Can anyone offer any comments or explanation on this.
If
> it's that common over there, why not here?  It would seem to me that parts
> should be relatively inexpensive and available.  I should look myself, but
> does KEP offer an adaption kit for this?
>
> Well, there's my first querry of the Vanagon list.  Hope it is not an
"tired"
> subject.
>
> Jon Stanton
> ABC
> '61 Double Cab
> '66 Bug
> '89 Vanagon
>