If you already have the diesel parts that will simplify things, its
choosing a reliable vw I4. I know my swap was fairly simple due to it
already being a diesel. It sounds like you have mostly the seasoning for a
steak, but which cut? You have a hard decision to make.

Velma 82 1.9L AAZ td westy
On Sep 15, 2013 11:22 PM, "Dennis Haynes" <d23haynes57@hotmail.com> wrote:

> One of the factors to consider is why is there a need for an engine
> replacement? Yes there are some that want to turn their vehicle into
> "something else" and time or money is unlimited. Then there are those that
> need an engine now due to a failure or soon as their engine is in the
> process of failing. From experience most engine failures are due to failure
> of the support systems. So part of the engine replacement has to consider
> the cost of getting the support stuff up to snuff. Any engine can suffer
> when the radiator fan fails to run when needed or a massive coolant loss
> occurs. Consider your needs also. If far from home do you want to rely on
> junk yard parts or have an engine where you can get what you need in a few
> days? Same for support parts like water pumps and alternators. Of course
> you
> can plan to somehow tow it home.
>
> Dennis
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Jim Akiba
> Sent: Sunday, September 15, 2013 11:30 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Fwd: Engine Conversion factors/ease/cost Was: An Engine Conversion
> Begins-Mixed Emotions!
>
> Ralph wrote: "
> >
> >  If you are going to do a swap you need to think thru all the good and
> > bad things of any powerplant you are thinking of then decide which is
> > most favorable."
>
>
> And there is the main problem. While this is 100% true, the person making
> that decision is often in the worst possible position to have a chance of
> making that decision correctly. Lack of experience in doing something like
> this, incomplete or mis-information, and a plethora of human biases are all
> in play. It is something that is ultimately much more complicated than the
> above mentioned powerplant which is only a part of the whole recipe.
>
> It could be thought of in a cake analogy (sorry if you like pie more than
> cake, I like cake).
>
> You are trying to make a cake, You want it to be something you will enjoy,
> and choose generally what cake you will make. Then for example you decide
> on
> the type of eggs you will used based on whatever you like, usually buy etc.
>
> At this point would anyone say that you are ensured a good cake because you
> got eggs you like or are good?  Doubtful, we have to ensure that not only
> are the rest of the ingredients good as well, the proportion and
> combination
> is correct, and the process is followed and executed correctly at the right
> times. Anything from too much flour to a burned or just really ugly cake
> could result.
>
> It is common that you hear things like "the subaru conversion is great"
> which is equivalent to saying that XYZ brand of eggs is the best, and
> therefore the cakes are always the best if you use those eggs. That
> statement might actually be true *if* the recipe and execution of the rest
> of the cake is always the same, which is where it falls apart. What must be
> done is first, acknowledge this, and recognize how huge the impact is on
> total reliability/outcome of the cake making, and make it easy to always
> get
> the rest of the cake made consistently.
>
> So imagine that all of the conversions are exactly the same level of
> difficulty when it comes to actually doing the work and the time it takes
> to
> turn the wrenches etc.
>
> That would be like saying that the ingredients and kitchen/tools are the
> same for making the cake. The part left that could be different would be
> the
> directions/procedures in using those things. I can point to one location
> :https://bostig.zendesk.com/entries/25075132-Bostig-Factory-Manual
> that contains the directions to a recipe.  Whereas, anything else, the
> person in the worst position to make the cake (never made the cake before,
> typically isn't very experienced in making cakes anyhow) has to cobble
> together the rest of the recipe and procedures by themselves...
>
> Which cake is likely to come out consistently? Also which cake is likely to
> be what the recipe intended when done by lots of people?
> The one that has the most complete recipe and instructions.
>
> Now turning back to the actual turning of wrenches etc. The Bostig
> installed
> by experienced professionals take 11-15 hours. Professional Subaru installs
> take 40-50 hours.  While it's possible a novice could somehow invert the
> proportions because they are inexperienced exists, it is highly unlikely,
> I'd rather buy a powerball ticket.
>
> I would guess that the inline VW would take somewhere in the middle, but
> there are no complete recipes followed by professionals currently to
> compare
> to.
>
> On to cost. There are two major problems. For one, again the inconsistency
> is a big problem. If you are putting together your own recipe for large
> enough parts of things, and don't have experience, you are your own guinea
> pig. The reality of unforeseen issues may arise that you had no possible
> awareness of before you started. Unless you have a very complete recipe,
> you
> will have to rely on your gut or information that may not be correct to
> make
> judgement calls on things you don't actually, and can't actually know
> anything about. (Like if
> 15 people did the exact same recipe as yours, what would the biggest
> problems be, when would they happen, and what does it cost?) you will only
> know *after* you've tried making the cake and eaten some to know if it will
> be good.
>
> The other is the spread/pattern of the resources involved in the recipe. In
> most cases in our analogy of cakes as engine conversions, the eggs cost
> about 80-90% of the total cake recipe. That is too much.
> It puts all of your eggs in one basket :)  That itself means a couple
> things. It means the whole recipe is much more risk dependent on the eggs,
> and it means that there isn't a lot to go around for the other ingredients.
> The result of the failure of the egg part of the recipe, could cost 80-90%
> of the total cost all over again... THIS is how it can end up more
> expensive. One egg failure (which is usually the worst case scenario) and
> you could be into almost all the cost of the cake recipe all over again. In
> the case of the I-4 and the zetec, the eggs are very cheap... the subies,
> diesels, and rebuilds, the eggs are very expensive.
>
>  People only ever evaluate the cost of everything in the universe as nice,
> and the stars are aligned. You really should also evaluate your worst case
> scenario, because they happen much more frequently than anybody realizes.
> For certain everything will fall somewhere on that spectrum, so to have a
> real idea of what the risks are, you must think about it.
>
> Since people don't naturally like to brag about failures(if it's somebody
> else's failure they will talk about it, if it's their own, for example
> their
> version of the recipe, they usually stay quiet) it is hard to hear about
> the
> actual frequency of failures. For instance if I didn't already know Don
> popped a head gasket on his I-4 from threads long ago, I might mistakenly
> think he had a fast, easy, cheap, trouble free I-4 install. If I didn't
> know
> how much time/learning/perfecting Neil did to his exhaust I might also
> think
> the same thing... and this is for cases that WERE published online...
>
> There are countless more never published in all realms, but want you really
> want and what is ideal is if there is full responsibility for making sure
> the whole cake is correct from the originators of the recipe. Currently
> only
> one recipe exists that is like this. It's a piece of cake, and the cake is
> very consistent, and limited to a certain expense range in failures.
>  That's
> why I said to Don that the
> I-4 could very well be cheaper, but it might not be depending on everything
> else. The time/money thing is equally important, but again the time is a
> lot
> more consistent when the instructions are more complete. The other recipes
> are not like this. I will shut up now.
> There is more on my blog which contains more of my sort of pseudo
> philosophy
> on engine conversions/builds:
>
> http://bostigarticles.blogspot.com/
>
> Jim Akiba
>