Two comments ..
1.  my official recomendation about when to replace waterboxer head
gaskets, and do a general top end freshenging up is every 80,000 miles
or every 8 to 10 years max.

2.  Subaur engine conversions, **plus what every single van always seems
to 'also need' **  costs...........they run well over $ 10,000 done by a
shop.
or a really creative hard working person can buy a dead subaru car for $
300 ..and pull the whole thing off for about $ 1,500 not counting their
labor.

On the waterboxer a person can freshen up their heads and head gaskets,
doing the work themselves and restoring top end parts as needed for
under $ 500 total out of pocket expense, easily.

that's 'too many' miles on a 2.1 bottom end.  The extreme minimum repair
would be top end including rings plus new rod bearings, after checking
oil clearance with plasti-gauge.  You really should split the cases and
go through the whole thing then.
   Sometimes the crank only needs to be polished.
On one recent 2.1 rebuild I would have put in a New camshaft as the cam
lobes were visibly worn, even if it was a 375 dollar part, but I
couldn't find  New one, so had to put in a reground one.  Miles on the
engine were not that high either...around 157K I believe.

Scott      aka Jim Lahey

On 12/23/2013 5:57 PM, Larry Alofs wrote:
> Todd,
>    Could you be more specific about the "symptoms"? If by "head leak" you
> mean coolant from the waterjacket seal, you can fix it for about $100, not
> counting your time.
>     Exhaust gases in the coolant is another matter...
>
> Larry A.
>
>
>
> On Mon, Dec 23, 2013 at 4:09 PM, Todd Last <rubatoguy@comcast.net> wrote:
>
>> 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
>>
>>