In a message dated 11/23/01 11:20:52 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
developtrust@HOME.COM writes:

<< I've been searching the archives to find the messages abut the 6 cylinder 
engine some of you put in your Vanagons and I cannot seem to find it. Was it 
called the SR6? >>

William,

It sounds to me like you are referring to the VW VR6 engine. Some people have 
successfully fitted them to the Vanagon (T3 in Europe). You can view one such 
example by going to the links page of my webpage at:

http://hometown.aol.com/bentbtstr8/vanagoncafelinkspage.html

There's a section with links to various examples of engine swaps for the 
Vanagons.

The VR6 may not be the best choice for Vanagons as they are relatively rev 
happy. IIRC their best torque numbers are in the higher RPMs. The Vanagon 
needs more low end torque. Of course it is an improvement over anything 
installed by VW in the US spec Vanagons. BTW, it is called VR6 because the 
cylinders are arranged in a very tight V so that it resembles and inline-4 
and can fit in the same space occupied by the 4-cylinder engines in Golfs, 
Jettas, Passats and Corrados (G/J/P/C).

These engines are readily available as replacement engines new and used from 
both VW and importers such as Overland. Overland is a wholesaler so you would 
need to get your engine from one of their dealers. I believe several on the 
listvendors are dealers for them. You can find URLs for some of these 
listvendors on the links page I listed above.

I have seen these engines go for as much as $5000 in used condition and as 
low as $2800 (that's what it cost me to get one new). The problem with doing 
the engine swap is you will need more than just the engine. That's when it 
makes more senses to buy the whole donor vehicle. Just acquiring the wiring 
harness and engine management controls will bankrupt most people. Not to 
mentioned you will need to purchase or manufacture a mount for it.

At least one listvendor I can think of offers a kit to install this engine. 
Go to my links page and locate David Marshall's Fast Forward Tuning (under 
the Engine Swap Category).

The other consideration for this engine is it will need to be installed in 
the same angle that it was designed to be in the G/J/P/C. That is because the 
upper portion of the engine is where the head and intake parts are located is 
too wide. Too wide to tilt at the preferred 54� in the inline-4 Vanagon 
conversions. BTW the inline-4 is canted this way to clear the rear decklid. 
That means you will need to make provisions to increase your deck lid height 
by about 3 inches to accommodate this powerplant. Now that does not seem like 
a big deal. However, if you have a rear folding bed/bench, you will find that 
you all of a sudden do not have a flat sleeping surface unless you want half 
your bed to be a hard surface. Fortunately there is a kit available to raise 
the bed in it's deployed position. The bad thing is they are expensive and as 
far as I know, only available for the Westy beds and not the Weekender 
bed/bench. Before someone jumps all over me on this, let me clarify that the 
so called Weekenders and/or Base Campers have Westy beds. The Weekender 
package in busses and Carats are a different design and requires a different 
hinge. I think David Marshall sells these things for about $230 plus 
shipping. I got mine for $100 plus shipping from someone who decided that he 
didn't want to go through this type of conversion.

BenT

ps:
Those 4-wheel disc brake starts to become a necessity when your talking about 
these types of engines. My philosophy in hot-rodding is to learn to stop 
before you go. There's a link there for my 4-wheel disc project as well.