Peter;

I have a 99 Subaru Forester I bought 6 months ago with 175k one owner fully
dealer maintained miles and it appears to be getting ready for it's third
set of head gaskets.  Plus it has what Subaru calls "normal" piston slap and
rattle on cold weather cold starts (I bought it in the summer), it doesn't
sound normal to me.  This will be my first and last Subaru, I always wanted
one and I really like the car from an AWD perspective but I'm not excited
about the issues noted above.  If you want to put in a Subie engine, I would
recommend doing a lot of research on the years with the HG issues (I *think*
they got better post 2002 but there are still reports of problems on the
Forester web site).  With you being in Naples, it may be hard to get a true
cold start and gauge the rattles but I would try regardless.

HTH

Best regards;

Joe

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf Of A
PETER MARSH
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2011 12:54 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Spare 2.1 engine - how big can I make it?

Just a passing thought but - - -

I am in the process of flipping my 2.1 with a shattered lifter with another
2.1 (without a shattered lifter - I hope).  If I get really bored, I can
"re-do" my old 2.1 and bore it out and turn it into a power Beastie right?
Or is this just a bad dream and in reality it would be cheaper to put in a
little Subbie engine, or a big Subbie engine?

Your comments and thoughts are encouraged and appreciated.

Regards to all

Peter Marsh
Naples.
1991 GL