There are plenty of folks with older 2.0 L VW gas motor in Vanagons.   I
don't think VW has done any major changing with the inline four over the
years.  Heck, for many years the diesel and the gas motor even shared the
same block!
   They are quite simple and robust.  If you stick it in a Vanagon at a
slant, like VW did on the diesel vans, you will have to fab a pan or dry
sump the motor.  If you put it upright you loose some space inside.

  Should be pretty straight forward.   It really does simplify a conversion
to be using motors from the same maker that also share lots of parts
   My Gas inline 92/93 Jetta hybrid shares almost every single part with
Vanagons interchangeably...Hoses and stuff excluded..I went with the old
ones because the diesel pan bolts right on and they are dirt cheap.

On Sun, Aug 25, 2013 at 3:18 PM, Jim Felder <jim.felder@gmail.com> wrote:

> I recently picked up a 2001 beetle  with a cooked head but in otherwise
> nice condition. I removed the head today, no manual or help. It was kind of
> a joy to work on, a little bit fussy but you can do the job with a handful
> of tools and only getting under the car maybe twice.
>
> What I saw of the engine I liked a lot. I have not driven this one,
> obviously, but I have driven others and they seem strong and  quiet. They
> also seem perfectly dimensioned to fit into a vanagon engine bay.
>
> I'm sure someone has done this conversion, but I don't recall hearing about
> it recently. If any has done it, I'd like to hear about it.
>
> Also, if you know a thing or two about the engine, please write to me
> privately. I have a couple of general questions about the engine that will
> be helpful to me putting it back together.
>
> Jim
>