Hi chris. 
I think the VR6 is one of the 'good things' vw did in the last decade.
Haven't heard of many problems with them. A few have put them in Vanagons,
and there is also a VW V-6 I've seen in a vanagon.  
Tdi is a different animal and not very comparable to gasoline opposed or V
engines I don't think. 
Let's see....1937 to 2007 - 70 years of constantly manufacturing  and
upgrading the same basic design - oh, excuse me.....having them in use.
The last waterboxer is 1991, in the US .....but if you count Brazil and
their air-cooled vw's ............well, still doin' it I think. 
That's got to be a record, and also perhaps even a 'bad thing.' Like they
should get a fresh sheet of paper more often ! 

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Chris S.
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 6:19 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Head Gasket sealant sorry 1 more time

>but the basic idea dates directly from the first air cooled
 vw
>engines in the late 40's even.
>  One guy told me how they came up with this waterboxer engine - they
 told
>the engineers at the factory -  " You have 30 days to convert our air
 cooled
>design to liquid cooling." !!

Yep.. that explains it.  And the Subarugon folks keep smacking their lips
about 'superior' engineering.  BAH!  They haven't tried a VW TDI on for
size... or a VR6.

By the way, the first VW (KdF) air cooled engine was produced in 1937!  The
WBX shares many design features with that very first flat-4 engine, as you
already know.

Chris S.

 
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