On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 5:19 PM, Pat Sloan <pmsloan@shaw.ca> wrote:
> 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?

If the person who did the swap used *all* the needed diesel vanagon
parts, then this 1.8 w/CIS "simply" replaced the inline 4 that was
there from the factory. This is good news. The layout will be similar
to factory, and is a common way to swap in a VW I4. (more common that
the way I did my swap!)

Did the owner do the swap? Regardless, if it were me I'd ask:

How many KM's on the swap itself?
Has the exhaust system had issues with cracks?
Is the Diesel Vanagon transmission currently installed?

If the swap has a fair amount of KM's on it, it's safe to say the
*swap* itself is "proven".  As for exhaust cracks, on *some* VW I4
swaps, this has been an issue. Likely NOT an issue with this 1.8 if it
was done "right". If this Westy has the original diesel Vanagon
tranny, you may find the gearing too high. (engine revs higher than
needed. Especially at highway speeds) Something to consider.

If it were me, I'd find out if there's any CIS related parts that are
no longer available (NLA) or just $$ to replace. i.e. the fuel
distributor.

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