I guess you know that your 1980 vanagon is air cooled and a diesel will have to be water cooled so
they will have to plumb in an entire radiator and lets hope that your 1980 has the brakcets up
front for a rad or else they will just welt\d the rad to the front????????

If I were you, I'd go on all of the van forsale places and see what I could find for $6 or $7,000
and get back on the road.

I just looked on ep.com and there is a nice 89 westy for $7,000 (not mine).

http://ep.com/js/mi/n0/1706375.html;jsessionid=1D379845FE8B78B395244D9702E6B0E3

I question your idea re conversion and loosing 6 weeks of your trip.  Malcolm

--- Skip Emmert <skip@SKIPEMMERT.COM> wrote:

> Well, we've left on the grand voyage.  The plan is to travel in the '80
> Vanagon for a year or so.  Made it 150 miles before the engine gave up.  I
> knew we were in trouble when the golf cart passed us going up the hill.
> So, we've holed up in Pine Valley, UT and started talking about engine
> conversions.  The turbodiesel has pretty much won our hearts and minds and
> initial estimates to install a used 1.6 TDI in our '80 van are running
> about $5000.  A brand spanking new 1.9 TDI could be added for around
> $6000.  Needless to say ... ouch.  The real rub is even worse though for a
> traveling couple, three weeks before they can even start and then another
> couple of weeks for the conversion.
>
> This conversion is way out of my league, so we're going to have a
> professional do it.  Has anyone had a gas to diesel conversion done in the
> southwest?  How'd it work out and how much did it cost.  Any suggestions
> would be helpful.
>
> I'd also love to know what owners of the 1.6 turbodiesel think of the
> engine.  Does anyone have an intercooler?  Does it make a large
> difference?
>
> Thanks again.
> Skip Emmert
>

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