Terry Kay wrote:

> Phil,
> I feel this way about the conversion thing.
> The VW Waterboxer, even rebuilt should last at least for 100,000 miles
> plus with the proper maintenance.
> The Subaru engine should do the same

Subi engine should last at least 200,000 miles, never needs rebuilds as
there is
plentiful supply of good used engines

> , except the timing belt has to be
> changed  at least every 50,000 miles, and I am not sure what sort of
> laborious task this may be with this engine buried in a Vanagon.

This is non-interference engine, even if timing belt breaks it won't do any
damage.
You can go 100,000 miles between changes, maybe even more. Changing belt
is 2 hour job and there is plenty of room to do it.
Leon
Subwagen Westy

>
> The engine that makes the most sense, if a guy was going to endeavor, an
> engine swap, I think it would be the inline 4 banger, from VW.
> Lots of room, to work on it, looks pretty straight forward simple to
> convert, and from what I've seen and heard it causes the Vanagon 4x8
> plywood air dam to fly.
> I saw a 4 cyl conversion at an all VW show last summer, and the guy who
> owned it claimed he shut it off at 115 mph. for fear of becoming
> airborne.
> And the engine compartment was a clean, open hole of engine---lots more
> room in there than you would think.
> Very impressive.
>
> Later,
>
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> Terry 85 GL