Flo is spot on.

Many Vanagon owners are already DIY "mechanics" and like a challenge.
Assuming you have:

Another vehicle to drive
Plenty of free time (50-100+ hours)
a gracious & understanding family **_this one is important_**
ability to read/write and use the Internet
the desire to learn how things go together and do problem solving
the desire to save some $$$

Then go ahead and do the Subie conversion yourself.  If you get stuck
the follks on the SubaruVanagon group and this list will help.

However, if you don't have a lot of spare time, but have the money,
pay a professional to have the engine installed or buy a turn-key
package from Vanaru or similar.

-Paul

>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