Funny, i had over 12 p-mail about that  subject, most of you want to
stay private and that is fine with me, still, i don't understand why???
The vanagon list is against conversion??? are people scared about
those???  like we see here with Flo it's not that expensive for the do
it yourself one... I will not move to the Subi Yahoo list, i'm having to
much fun here. I just hope no one will bash me for talking about Subi or
other conversion.

For all those who did the conversion themselves, BRAVO, that is all i
have to say, i'm impress, especially by Maggie who want to stay
anonymous (ha ha).

Flo, your story is great, and i think it's average, by that i mean that
some chose to go another way instead of keeping the old boxer engine,
you took a risk also, but a calculated one if i may say.

Me, i have to that swap in 2.5 to 3 days.... no way out, more than that
i loose money, fixing old wasser is way more lucrative than doing a
conversion.

Some, not to say most... people are scared about convesion: It's NOT
supose to go there, it was not design to fit in there, different
company, beuarkkk.... some people live with a heart transplant, they
have a good life! Worse, the wasser was NOT design to be in a Vanagon!
It's just metal parts, nothing else, fit them together the RIGHT way and
they will last forever!!!

I just came back from a dinner with Hans from Vanaru, it was my
girlfriend birthday.... we didn't talk about engine, we talk about life
and roadtrip, wen i came home, just a few minutes ago, i realise that
that van made me a better men, it made me saw stuff, understand life,
meet new friends.... but sadly, the engine /power plant made me weak, it
made me forget about the real meaning of the trip... even if with all my
engine problems i have met great people, i would now like to enjoy the
trip instead of worring all the time.

Like some of you may know, next December i'm going south, deep south
into Mexico, i have built a van for that reason, i did what ever a could
to make it perfect, i have choosen another power plant for security...
will it be better, i don't know for sure, at all, but i'm willing to
give it a try because i don't feel the original engine would do so,
maybe i'm wrong, we will see. Life is a risk.

We just did a conversion last week, the customer call me tonight telling
me that something was wrong... on the trany (rebuilt) side, very wrong,
i called him back and told him to come to the shop first thing in the
morning, we will see and we will find a solution, life is NOT perfect.
It's human being that works on those old van, we make mistake, we try
our best.

Ben

Florian Speier wrote:

> Ben and others,
>
>
> I have to chime in here. My subie conversion was around $1800 after i
> sold my waterboxer, or about $2500 not factoring that in. That figure
> is for a soobie 2.2 that had 128kmiles on it, kep kit with complete
> new exhaust, tom shiels manifold and t housing, new clutch, exchanged
> coolant and heater lines all the way to the front........ yes i did
> the harness myself.
> In terms of experience, I had done an oil change and changed my shocks
> before. That was it. Did it take me a while? Sure, maybe 100 hours
> plus another 20 looking for parts on the internet. Would I be
> considerably faster next time? Probably. was it fun? you bet. did i
> make mistakes? yes, including not tightening the wheels properly when
> i was done. yes, i had to take the harness out again because i did
> some ground wires not carefully enough. but all in all, not too bad.
> flo