Alan Pickersgill wrote:

>  More important case is how the Waterboxer continues to be built with a maximum life before coolant leaks of 100,000 km when Subaru has a conceptually similar design putting out more power with no leakage problems and very long engine life.

Alan, from what I have heard, read, and my observation of a friends Subaru and the life of its engine, the long trouble-free life of the Subie engine is a fairly recent phenomenon.

As I understand it, Subie engines back in the '80's were pretty much throw-away engines. They went for a while, then were toast. And they really were not economically rebuildable. For VW, newer design,  technology, and production methods,  brought an end to the WBX production. The use of the design in the Vans was sort of a last gasp for the flat four concept anyway. In most of the other VW vehicles different engine design concepts had already been in the market place for quite some time, and were developing significant histories of good performance. These were the newer inline 4's, 5's and V-6 engines.

The producers of the Subaru engine design did not abandon it for other designs and production methods, but continued refinement through the '90's to the point that it is now apparently a very good, solid performer with a very long life. Natural attrition through wrecks and accidents is making available these newer, better Subaru engines for conversion in the Vanagons.

Just my view.

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver.