jacob simpson wrote:
> what are the pros and cons of deisel vs gas....

I'd say the pros of a diesel are:

- Better fuel economy
- Better availability of some engine parts (many are common to all
   4-cyl diesel VWs.)
- No electronics on the engine (so no difficult to diagnose EFI
   problems)
- Cheaper fuel in some areas
- Some maintenance tasks are easier.  (A head gasket replacement is
   quite a bit simpler on a diesel than on a wasserboxer, for example.)
- Less likely to catch fire if you have a fuel leak.

Cons:
- Slow!
- Noisy
- Special, Vanagon-specific cooling hoses are hard to find.

The slowness can be mitigated by swapping in turbodiesel and using a
gasoline Vanagon transmission.

> also, what are common problems of say, a diesel 81 vanagon

There were no diesels in '81, at least in the U.S.  Diesel years for the
U.S. are '82 and '83.

Common problems would be cracked cylinder heads or blown head gaskets
(cause combustion gas leaks to the cooling system), leaky front or rear
main seals, excessive blowby due to worn rings (which can force oil out
through the dipstick hole on '82s), and worn injectors (which cause
knocking and excessive smoke).  Sometimes high-resistance grounds are an
issue, too, since the battery is in the engine compartment on diesels
(causes dim headlights, headlight dimming when the heater blower is on,
etc.)

The Audi-VW-Diesels and Diesel-Vanagon yahoo groups are good resources.

--

David Brodbeck, N8SRE
'82 VW Diesel Westfalia
'86 Volvo 240DL wagon