The 1.8 liter gas motor complete fits at 50deg.  I understand you can also
use a 2liter gas motor at 50 degrees if you put a 1.8liter head on the 2
liter block.  The intake plumbing on the 1.8 motor clears the deck lid while
the 2.0 head has it on the 'wrong' side.  Changing a head on the inline gas
VW motor is easy..I did my 1.8 liter headgasket and cam swap in about 5hrs,
start to finish, with the motor right in the Vanagon..I have about 25k miles
on it since then, no problemo s,  I think the Rabbit/Jetta/Golf motors are
iron, not alloy, so they aren't too fussy to work on.
  Don Hanson

On Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 11:39 AM, neil N <musomuso@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 1:06 PM, neil N<musomuso@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 12:47 AM, B.J.R.<beer_eighty@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Ps: I'd love something different in my westy, does the rabbit motor
> match to the tranny or are there adapters?
> ....
>
> > IMO, engine should be mounted at 50* DV mount angle. 15* mount does
> > work, and in some ways in an advantage in terms of the conversion
> > process itself (keep head and engine management.... hopefully that c/w
> > donor engine/harness) but there are other potential stumbling blocks
> > and it is MORE work that way.
>
>
> To be clear, since you asked about a Rabbit engine, I had inferred
> that a head swap would be needed at 50*. Not nessecarily true.
>
> Check out this page.
>
> http://volksweb.relitech.com/vanagon.htm
>
> AFAIK, head swapping doesn't need to be done if using a stock 1.8 8V
>
>
> Neil.
>
> --
> Neil Nicholson '81 VanaJetta 2.0 "Jaco"
>
> http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/
>
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engines
>