en, Ouch what a bummer. I feel for you because that
same kind of thing has happened to me sooo many times.
I figure I must relish the idea of being in trouble on
the side of the road, at least that was the case
before I bough my '89 3 years ago which knock on wood,
is performing well.

Any way, you are right, we discussed all that
recently. Un fortunately, most of my personal archive
of that conversation is on my hard drive and I'm
housesitting using someone elses computer. I can
reiterate some resources here, and others will as well
I am sure.

See Tiico.com, or search tiico.

THats my personal favorite based on what I have been
heaing on the list serve etc. Its like a Jetta engine,
retrofitted for vanagon.

THey also have used waterboxer engines on the site,
from folks doing conversions.

THen there are waterboxer used and rebuilt. I'm sure
you could find the range from just pulled no
modifiations, to rebuilt heads, rebuilt cyl, all the
way down to new aftermarket case like GEX. I
personally would stay away from high end aftermarket
Waterboxer, because the damn engine is doomed from the
start, and the best value would be in a either a low
cost waterboxer, or go with a conversion. Conversion
would cost  you more, but you got a 90 so there are
years of value left in the chassis.

Ive done lots of engine work on air cooled but this is
new territory for me so dont think I'm Mr expert. THe
reason I know anything is from asking the same
question you did a month ago for myself out of
curiousity, and then pretending it was 18-36 months
down the road....when I expect to be facing the next
$2000+ bill for head repair (again). Make sure you
mechanic quotes you for a conversion , if you choose
to do that. It may add to the cost because it is not
as straight forward, but not like crazy weird either
from what I ahve heard. Some guy in Renton WA
converted a syncro. I dont know where you live on I-5,
but he likely has resources in seattle, although it
sounds like he did the work himself.

Michael SChiesser
> Hi, folks.
>
> I was driving down I-5 yesterday when some very loud
sounds started
coming out of
> my engine (1990 Vanagon MV Westy, 115,000 miles).  I
was able to get
it to the
> shoulder right away, and we towed it to a VW repair
biz.  The
mechanic said that
> the motor needs to be replaced.
>
> What are my options for replacing the engine? He
said that he'd put a
rebuilt
> engine in for $3,300, or I could find an engine and
he'd install it
for $720 (12
> hours).
>
> I realize that this has probably been discussed
extensively in the
past, but ya
> never pay close attention until the crisis hits
home.
>
> -- Ken Taylor
> ktaylor@premier1.net

=====
Michael Schiesser MD
1418 24th Ave
Seattle WA 98122

"Fruitlands" is name given to the region around Harvard Mass by early settlers. We dont live there any more, but I did when I chose the fruitlands user name.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail - Free email you can access from anywhere!
http://mail.yahoo.com/