Personally I find it useful to "hear" from yet another Vanagon owner,
that a 1.8 can haul a Vanagon. And in Don's case, a Vanagon with a
partial Westy interior. (correct me if I'm wrong Don)

Of course I'm going totally cheap a@@ with a 15 degree mount, by
trying my hand at making the load bar (carrier) and making use of the
parts I have already. (I've completely rebuilt my current clutch
housing, and I have a spare Bosch reman starter)

Of course I see the "sport" in doing it the hard way. I hope to get a
MIG welder soon and work on fusing metal. That should be interesting.
Regardless of the outcome, I will learn lots. For me, knowledge is
part of my goal.

"My price? Knowledge"

(as said to me by a good friend when I questioned why, IMHO, he was
not adequately remunerated for a job he did)

Neil.

On 10/28/07, Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:
> And still, Don's report is valid in that if you get a diesel vanagon, and a
> basic 1.8 inline 4 , it very much is  bolt-in using the diesel vanagon
> parts.
> No adapter needed or anything.  That's all blocks up until early 99 I think.
>
> Some work to come up with a air filter system, and any fuel system work of
> course...
> Heck, DV exhaust is not that great, but the entire diesel vanagon exhaust
> system is a pure bolt on, if you don't mind that tiny pipe etc.,   for an 8
> valve 1.8 that is.
>   Overall, it's about the cheapest near slam dunk conversion there is.  Not
> saying it's perfect, far from it, but cheap and quite easy, and half-ok -
> it's very much that.  Some people pull those off for like 1,000 dollars
> total, counting getting the engine and everything, even less than that.
> Scott
> turbovans
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Karl Mullendore
> Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2007 9:45 AM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: [vanagon] Vanagon re-power cheap & reliable
>
> In the US market the gas 1.6 was only used until 1980 or thereabouts.
> Not a good choice, not enough power. The later 1.8 and 2.0 8- or
> 16-valve engines, yes. BUT!---you'll need different mounts, bell housing
> or adaptor plates, and much MUCH more. Not an 'easy' or bolt-in
> conversion, ya gotta know what you're doing! And, FWIW, the Subie can be
> done just as easily and inexpensively if not more so. Unless you have
> all the necessary parts for free, you're still possibly looking at a
> couple thousand bucks in parts. Then the headaches and labor time.
> That's why a lot have gone with the Tiico. Everything is there (well,
> almost) and it's an easy bolt-in swap.
>
> Karl
>
> Christopher Gronski wrote:
> > This got posted on the yahoo groups spare list, but I thought it was worth
> > reposting on Gerry. I'm considering a diesel converssioin and that may be
> in
> > the not so distant future. If my current engine is fried, and it was sort
> of
> > nice to see one guys summar and opinion on the various options available.
> >> 9. BEST - drop a cheap 4cyl. VW 1.6, 1.8 out of a junked FOX,
> >> GOLF,JETTA ,Passatt into your VANAGON- I have driven/owned several
> >> VW Fox's with the 1.6 over the last 15 years , great power &
> >> reliability ! still have a '93 FOX with 200k - best car I have ever
> >> owned ! and I have owned many-Toyota-BMW- Chevy , you name it !
> >>
> >> if you don't have $5k + to blow the last option is the best !
> >> someone prove me wrong ! I plan on keeping my '87 Vangon Westy
> >> forever , but part of the VW thing is economy, spending $5,000-
> >> $9,000 to re-power is nuts, even if I had the money , but then '87
> >> Vanagon West Syncho's apprently sell for $50k + in California !
> >> I have 20 + website links on my work computer if anyone is
> >> interested - I will try & post next week - that cover the above info-
> >> personally I would NEVER waste money on another stock engine.
> >> Now all I need is a reliable, honest, competent VW mechanic in the
> >> central Alabama area- Good Luck to me , huh !
>

--
Neil Nicholson. 1981 Air Cooled Westfalia -
"Jaco"  (Bustorius)

http://web.mac.com/tubaneil