I apologize if this email is a double post for you from various
vanagon lists, but alas...

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I picked up my first camper, a '84 westy, about a year ago and over
the year I've been trying to get her up to speed. The past year was
spent trying to find and squash an electrical gremlin and get my fuel
pump to work correctly. Well a few weeks ago, I got it all to work.
Some people on this email list (and many others) helped me with that.
Thank you.

But then�

Last weekend, on a short drive, I noticed a loud noise from my engine
and also a significant loss in power. After pulling over to inspect, I
realized something was wrong and had her towed to a indie VW shop here
in town.

I just got the call from a mechanic that the sound is that of a rod
knock and that I'll need some drastic engine work. I'm at a crossroad
here. I can possibly have someone dig in and rebuild my engine or I
could go all out and invest in a refurbished engine. The two sources I
have looked into are:

http://www.gowesty.com/ec_view_details.php?id=4036&category_id=82&category_parent_id=

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=514460/

Could any of you provide some advice or could share some experience in
regards to me rebuilding or swapping out my engine? Either with the
engines mentioned above or others. I'd love to gather the pros and
cons. I spent a good portion of my morning reading the many posts on
Samba regarding engines here, especially that one sad story from a guy
in Vancouver. You tend to get more detail on the bad cases, but there
has to be some happy owners of replaced engines here. My post is not
to incite but in the hopes to hear some experiences from vanagon
owners whom have been put in a similar situation. I wish I was
mechanically inclined and had garage space to do a project like this,
but this is not the case.

This is my second vanagon. I had a reliable blue '87 GL which I sold
to a good friend in Sausalito, CA:
http://www.agencia72.com/van.jpg

Here is a picture of Ebony:
http://imgur.com/a/DMu0O#.TujsY55-ga0.gmail

All the best and happy motoring,
Nirav V. Patel
1984 Ivory Westy
Austin, Tx - USA