For long-distance travels, reliability and durability are
the main concern for me, not performance.
The stock 2.1 has enough power for me,
if it's in top operating condition.
Also availability of spare parts and dealer service
across the country is of importance.
That's my reason for sticking with the wasserboxer.
Imo one important part of a good top-end rebuilt is
replacing all the cylinder head studs as a routine,
at least after 120,000 miles. That's a lot of heat cycles.
One can test-torque the studs, but I still think they're
weakened after so many years and miles.
Of course, the problem is replacing the studs doesn't
come cheap. About $250 for all new improved oem studs,
and $150 labor to have the old ones removed and new ones installed
for the bolt extractor professional (there's one here where I live.)
It's basically those 16 studs that hold the whole contraption
together.
Anyways, I did my heads after about 110,000 miles, because
I saw a little bit of green corrosion around one cylinder head
gasket.
I already put 10,000 miles so far on the top-end rebuilt in less
than 3 months, and it runs like a swiss-clock. No heads pulling
away here. (knock on wood, of course).
Also don't forget to have the new heads ceramic-coated.
Harald
'90 westy

Sean wrote:
> Thirdly, I saw the Vanagon article in Hot VWs on the saga of the author's
> '91 Carat. Considering the mileage between failures, this guy must have
had
> some questionable mechanics. He claims the heads worked off after a full
> top-end rebuild, and in less than a thousand miles?