I have a turbo on my 2.1 from an old subie...although the van has very few
miles on it with the mod, due to the original turbo being bad shortly after
I installed it. Tried an Audi S6 turbo but it didn't produce the right
boost, so back to a new  subie IHI unit.
I had Boston Bob do big valve heads and a cam with more Exh lift and ration
rockers and bobs stronger rods.
Modeled it after the Robert Lilley Mods of a few yers ago..
Love the way it runs..feels like a 2.2 subie as far as power goes with the 5
psi boost...some prototype pics on the link at the bottom of my home page.
aatransaxle.com
Daryl of AA Transaxle
(425) 788-4070
aatransaxle.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Geza Polony" <gezapolony@SBCGLOBAL.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 10:10 PM
Subject: Re: 1.9 heads on a 2.1 motor?

> Ok, now this all's got me thinking...does anyone ever "build" these
> engines?
> Ie., bore them (I think GoWesty does this), increase compression, change
> cam
> characteristics, larger valves, tweaked ECU, turbo,and all the other stuff
> that goes into a higher performance engine?
>
> If not, why not? Again, if I'm not mistaken, this happens all the time in
> the air-cooled world. It seems like the waterboxer low end, crankshaft,
> bearings, etc., is pretty sturdy, so that probably wouldn't be an issue.
> If
> people are spending mega bucks to do conversions, couldn't they put the
> same
> into the waterboxer and end up with twice the power (of the wbx, not the
> conversion engine)?
>
> Just musing, late at night.