>I guess it comes down to what is 'state of the art'?
>
>I think the best bang for the buck is TDI or the 1.8T

The TDi is OK, but how is it reliabilitywise? I have heard zero
testimonials. The conversion is popular in England, but as we all
should know, popularity has nothing to do with reliability or quality.

The 1.8T lacks power, according to "Wheels" March 2004: "Audi: graet
tranny, crap engine. The 120kW 1.8-litre four-cylinder unit is
gutless and laggy around town.." (referring to the Audi Cabriolet
1.8T).

>J/K IMHO the Tiico engine is the best. You can tweak it, you can put nice
>factory VW brackets on it, you can supercharge it, you can turbo charge it;
>and the best part is that you can do ALL of that using OEM VW factory parts
>AND still not have to build a little house over the engine when you are done
>wiht the conversion (except for the supercharging part, that requires a
>little house).

The old 1.3/1.5/1.6 VW straight-4 is a crude engine. It's old, coarse
and noisy. It was an excellent if raucous performer in the 70s, but
enlarged later versions were underpowered and retained all of the old
drawbacks.

Porsche sixes are a good conversion and very popular in (of course)
Germany, but engine prices are ridiculous. Engines are available,
generally reliable, reasonably powerful (the larger ones, anyway) and
bolt straight to the VW bellhousing (though an adaptor flywheel would
be needed). Most are aircooled, so you would have either no heater at
all or a poor one. They sound good. They are available with
supercharger (turbo).

The Subaru (and the Japanese-haters, try to reatrain your pointless
bias) is smooth, powerful, modern and extremely reliable. It is
available stock as singlew or twin-turbo, up to over 300hp. It can be
hotted-up way beyond this. Nonturbo examples can easily be
supercharged (either exhaust-or-belt-driven). It doesn't need a
raised lid either. AND it has that sound...

The 3.3 EG33 Subaru flat-6 from an Alcyone (SVX) is the best bet
between Subaru & Porsche. It has the power, reliability,
watercooling, affordability and relatively low price of a Subaru
engine, with the charisma and sound of a Porsche. And of course it
can be supercharged.

Or why not be different and fit a VW Bora V5 or a so-called "W"8?
--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin
New Zealand
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut