>I though about this either after a few beers _or_ early one morning on my
>way to work (no-this wasn't the same time - we have an active
>fitness-for-duty program!).
>
>Any rate, I'm sure the answer is "OF course - no!", probably due to
>excellent technical reasons such as the boxer config is meant to be as light
>as possible and wouldn't hold up to the pressuers a diesel generates.
>
>But I have to naively ask, because such an engine would probably easily fit
>under the vanagon engine lid plus other advantages from the engine-swap
>standpoint.

VW did build ONE diesel Beetle prototype, which no longer survives,
apparently (read about it in one of the US VW magazines some years
ago). Someone in the US built a replica, using I think a 40-horse
engine as a base.

Try a Google search for Beetle diesel & ignore all the New Beetle garbage.
--
Andrew Grebneff
165 Evans St, Dunedin 9001, New Zealand
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut