Hi all.

Thanks to Vanagon knowledge gained here and elsewhere, it seems I
figured out why my Honda alarm sounded off early AM. With alarm
sounding, and a pounding heart, raced outside to see what was up.
Nothing was up 'cept me. No signs of forced entry, no issues except
interior light stayed on and door locks via key didn't work. Tried
spare key. Same. Disconnected battery, went back to sleep. Next day
all seemed ok, then noticed Rear Pass. door indicator light and
interior light stayed on while driving. Removed rear door switch. It
looked a little moist. Using VOM, compared it to front door switch.
When open, rear door switch showed a little resistance. Front door
switch did not. I suspect moisture was the issue. Sprayed rear switch
with WD, swapped switches, problem solved for now. (any moisture
issues not withstanding. Don't get me started on that!)

In doing the work, (disconnecting battery), perused the engine. With
crazy notions of intake solutions for the ABA 15� constantly brewing
in the back of my mind, the Honda intake caught my eye. This brought
out the tape measure.

ROUGH measurements of Honda engine length show it might fit the
Vanagon engine bay (though what looks like the cam(s) position sensor
juts into Vanagon firewall) and height from crank OC shows engine may
fit under lid. (though did NOT measure down to oil pan bottom). The
coolant hose in/out looks similar to my ABA so that's not an issue.

The Vanagon archives and Google show that most older Honda older
engines spin CCW (facing engine pulley). Mine spins CW as does some
other later MY Honda engines. The VTEC aspect might make the torque
band useable in a Vanagon. CURB weight is not that different. But of
course GVRW is a different matter.

Is the engine management used on VTEC or I-VTEC K series engine
something akin to CANBUS in complexity? Electrical challenges aside,
would a K series Honda engine be ruled out a swap candidate simply b/c
bell housing/clutch requirements are too large or too different to
adapt to the Vanagon transaxle?

Musing,

Neil.

-- 
Neil n

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