After almost 230,00 miles my '88 Vanagon is displaying symptoms of a head leak - I have not yet confirmed this or done a recent compression test, but plan to do so.  I have concluded that one of the worst things you can do to your van is not use it. Bad things happen when they are left sitting! 
In any case I am looking at my options, and started out thinking about replacing the heads, then thought if I was going to do that, I might as well put in new piston rings too, and well, once you do that you might as well go a step farther and do an engine rebuild.  Of course, once you get there, the question becomes, stock, modified (like GoWesty) or engine swap.  In looking at these options, it looks like a cost of $5,000 or more. From what I have seen, Subaru conversions can reach over $10K.  Yikes! 
  
I was wondering if I could get opinions on the best course of action in this situation, not wanting to spend tens of thousands of dollars. Would list memebers give me their 2 cents worth and if possible, what the aproximate costs for the various solutions range from?  I'm not sure if it makes more sence to just install new heads and hope for the best, or go full bore and swap the engine. 
  
What does the voice of experience say? Anyone out there have opinions on the GoWesty performance engines vs. a Subaru transplant? 
  
Thanks, 
Todd 
'88 Westy