Hi,
a diesel vanagon with a 1.8 inline 4 gas engine in it, is not 'by itself' a
weird or difficult thing for a competent person to work on .....
with two caveats.
In my opinion, even if it's a bone stock 82 diesel Venango, or a bone stock
say, 1984 waterboxer gasoline vanagon, or a bone stock CIS fuel injected 87
Jetta........
getting competent work done on it in any case, can be a small challenge
let's say.

the other one is .........It's probably fair to say, generally, VW
technicians are less familiar or comfortable with CIS fuel injection.
I own one myself now -
I have a CIS-E 16 valve 87 jetta 1.8 engine..........
plan is to run it in a vanagon for sure.
I have the books on it, the fuel pressure gauge etc........but it is likely
to be a learning curve somewhat.

CIS is often quite reliable too.  I would possibly say it's both 'pretty
reliable' and 'trickier to fix' sometimes.

the preferred system .............used on one year newer jetta's , in my
opinion is the electronic fuel injection .........ECU-triggered injectors
for each cylinder, a system very similar to what waterboxer vanagons have
.......and pretty easy to deal with, generally.

but I wouldn't let  CIS keep my from having a nice DV Westy with gas inline
four engine.
I think fundamentally, that's a great package.
 A hellava lot better or more useful in every way compared to what it was
stock, with 48 hp.

Scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Pat Sloan" <pmsloan@SHAW.CA>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 5:19 PM
Subject: Diesel to Gasoline Conversion?

> Hi everyone,
>
> I'm a newbie with minimal auto mechanical experience, and would appreciate
> some help/opinions from you. The question is:
>
>
>
> If a 1982 Westy has been converted from diesel to gasoline (1.8L engine
> taken from a 1987 VW Jetta - the water cooled, fuel injected CIS engine)
> will that set up be easy or difficult for a mechanic to work on?
>
>
>
> I'm looking to buy a Westy for myself, and this opportunity has come up.
> Good vehicle; good price. The thing is, since I'm a retired geologist, I
> will be driving the van on secondary and forestry roads (no problem) and
> I'm
> thinking that if a mechanical problem comes up, it's likely to be treated
> by
> the nearest small town mechanic. I don't know how complicated the diesel
> to
> gas conversion is, and a friend (who doesn't know a lot about VWs) tells
> me
> that the re-routed connections would be difficult and expensive for an
> unfamiliar mechanic to work with. So I am putting my faith in the people
> on
> this list. You certainly sound like you know a lot about the insides of a
> Westfalia. Could you give me your opinions, please?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Pat in Vancouver