The head gasket "problem" was the early 2.5's and it's easy to fix
with the new gaskets. It's a good thing to change them when you are
prepping your engine.
FWIW I have had more than one '91 Subaru now for that kind of deal. I
think the next time I'm going to spend the $600 for a low mileage JDM motor.

At  3/10/2008 05:41 PM,Ken Wilford wrote:
>  It is awesome that you got all of your donor parts for $185 but I
> don't think it is reasonable to expect other folks to be able to
> get this good of a deal, especially if they are looking at a newer
> engine (hey a 91 engine is the same age as my waterboxer, it has
> known head gasket issues, why am I doing this conversion again?)

The vw drives like a real car afterwards and what is "reasonable" to
me may not be reasonable to you. From my '59's to my '63 to my '71 to
my '79 to my '86 Syncro.... the '87 WITH the Subaru 2.2 was the best
vw bus I ever drove.

Anything can cost you more than it cost me. On other lists I have
seen people spend big bucks to keep chickens and chickens are the
easiest and cheapest critters to keep. The same of vanagons.

"Reasonable" is a personal thing, I don't know what you shop rate is
but I'd guess I would not find that at all "reasonable".

I'm not here to argue the conversion vs stock engines with you, I'm
not interested in all the "maybes" that happen in any auto repair.
Yes it could very well have cost me more, if the compression was not
good on the quoted conversion I was going to buy a JDM for $600, but
I didn't have to.
I just wanted to show you and anyone else who cares that a conversion
does NOT have to cost more than new 2.1. It can but it doesn't have to.

<shrug>
That's enough conversion typing for one night if you ask me.
Later folks.

Rob
becida@comcast.net