I think all you purests are over reacting... Most Vanagons will go to
the junkyard way before their time. Including my 81 Westy... Why? Too
much trouble to rebuild it correctly. I applaud the people who take the
time to make these puppies run however they see fit.
OTOH, I think my 84 has enough gump to keep me happy. I do a consistant
72 with short bursts to 75+ on the highways of CA. Fast enough for me in
a Vanagon. But.. I know the motors are prone to degradation. They are
not as well engineered as the Subaru.
Someday I will take a jaunt north and go look at RoadCow and Vanarue.
Just to see how they were done.

tim o'brien

Chris Stann wrote:
>
> Well, that is nice.  I have put well over 200K on my VW 16-valve engine.  My
> friend clocked 227K on his '85 8-valver.  Both engines were abused during
> our career as pizza-delivery speed demons.  Both motors saw more or less
> regular engine oil changes and that's it!  Not to mention, both cars are
> still running a few years after we sold them.  Don't ask a Subaru to beat
> that.
>
> Dear VW fanatics.  You have to think in future terms.  There are not many
> Vanagons left.  Many will succumb to rust.  Few others to accidents.  A few
> will get converted to God-knows-what motor.  Others will suffer for whatever
> 'modifications.'  That will leave precious few original Vanagons on the road
> for someone to admire.
>
> It's your money.  The more you convert, the more my Vanagon will be worth.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Larry Hamm <ldhamm@xmission.com>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Friday, July 21, 2000 12:07 AM
> Subject: Re: IMO: engine Converting = Ignorance of what is out there...
>
> > Robert Lilley wrote:
> > >
> > > I think that those who want convert to another engine generally are
> looking for a "quick fix" to their engine problems and are just IGNORANT of
> what is out there for the VW Vanagon in T4 and WBX engine performance
> enhancements that work and LAST.
> > >
> >
> > Bob,
> > When you've got 200k on your engine, you can come back and tell us how
> > it LASTS. Until then, you're just hoping. We Subaru devotees KNOW our
> > engines will last, and we didn't spend anywhere near what you did. Mine,
> > with 30k, cost $800, and the pieces from KEP I needed to install it
> > brought the total to $2000. I can buy about three more of these engines
> > before I wind up spending what your engine cost; lessee, that's about,
> > umm, a million miles worth!
> > Larry