I'm not a big fan of VW Waterboxers, crappy power, crappy water pump and cooling system plumbing, crappy head gasket design, hard to diagnose FI problems etc.

In the past I've installed Subaru engines, great engines but you spend a lot of time dealing with "the little s***" when doing a conversion.  You can easily spend 50-100 hours installing one yourself.

If I didn't live in California, I would seriously consider the Bostig Zetec kit, reasonably affordable and they give you all the little bits (plus clear instructions/videos) to do a "plug and play" installation over a weekend.

And low mileage Zetecs are super cheap....$300-$500 everyday at recyclers all over the country....much harder to find a good used Subaru or VW waterboxer these days for that kind of price.

Just my 2 cents...

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From:         Jaime Forero <jforero@SBCGLOBAL.NET>
Reply-To:     Jaime Forero <jforero@SBCGLOBAL.NET>
Date:          Sat, 8 Aug 2009 14:49:24 -0500

>I am in the middle of deciding what rebuilt engine to buy.  My van just
>turned 200K on the mile counter and I feel it will need replacing soon.  Any
>tips on what to get?? Westy?? Boston Bob, any others.  I know there have