Hi Gerry,

That would be an interesting idea... I think the secret of that Buick's
gas milage was in the transmission, not the powerplant.

But... The buick doesn't way anything close to an unloaded westy. I
doubt that the transmission would hold up for long, even if you did find
a way to make it fit.

Also, in the buick the engine is in front of the transmission. If you
spin it around to install it in a vanagon you are going to end up with
one fairly slow forward speed and three choices for reverse. So I guess
you will have to plan to have the transmission modified to spin the
other way.

BTW, the corvair engine/tranny swap for aircooled buses puts adapter
rings on the transmission that the original bus CV's bolt up to. No
special axle fabrication is required.

Gerry Lepage wrote:
> There was talk on the list of converting to a buick 3.8. Kep makes the adapter. Someone had mentioned the possibility of swapping out both engine and transmission and getting custom axles built with buick at one end?and VW at the other. Has anyone actually done this? How about any other conversion using both the engine and transmission? I know that VW makes a good transaxle but geared too low to keep a bigger engine at proper RPMs. I also know that a taller 3rd & 4th could be installed to fix problem but a lot could be said in keeping both engine and transmission mated. I've searched quite a while on the Internet and haven't found anyone who's done it. Can anyone point me in the right direction if this is possible.
>

--
Happy Trails,

Greg Potts
1973/74/79 Westfakia "Bob the Tomato"
1987 Wolfsburg Weekender Hardtop
www.busesofthecorn.com
www.pottsfamily.ca