Unfortunately, when you drive any 20 year old vehicle, you have to put
some money into it.  When you do something on the front end, do EVERYTHING
on the front end.  Or you can pay 200 dollars labor 6 times to replace 1
20 dollar part at a time.
   You can't think of it as repair anymore, you have to think
of "mechanical restoration".  If you do, in a year or two and not a whole
lot of money you will have a wonderful, great driving, reliable van. If
not, in 5 years, you will have spent 10-15k, mostly in labor, to replace a
small percentage of your vans' parts.
   Trying to keep a WBXer alive is a great example. Everything on it is 15-
20 years old. Replacing one part at a time, plus the labor, is painfully
expensive.  Buying a rebuild, and putting 15-20 year old sensors, wiring ,
cooing, exhaust back on is horrifically expensive long term.
   Want a WBXer bargain?  We currently have a 91 Syncro Westy engine with
23K original miles.  Southwest van, zero rust.  The engine looks like
new.  Every fastener, cooling line, etc.  It belongs in a museum.  We are
putting a Subie in the van (9k miles, also like new).  The engine, not a
longblock but a complete engine, bellhousing to tailpipe, is for sale. All
accessories, sensors etc.  The exhaust looks like it has 1K miles on it.
   We won't install it, but we will palletize and ship it. 2900 or highest
bidder by the end of the week.

John
Vanaru.com