You syncronauts out there might remember my post of a couple of weeks 
ago about a white Syncro Crewcab sighted here in Santa Cruz.

The owner turns out to be this fellow Tim Silva, who I have been in 
contact regarding his V8anagon, listed for sale in my last post. Not 
only was I surprised to be talking to the owner of this rare '86 Syncro, 
but I was flabbergasted to hear that he had single-handedly 
translplanted a Ford V6 into it! ("I've always worked on my own cars" - 
yeah, right!)  It's a 2.9 liter fuel-injected engine from an '88 Ford 
Capri; not quite as beefy as the V8anagon, but with the Syncro 
drivetrain it definitely is able to take him wherever he wants to go! 

He's in the restaurant business, but is clearly one of these "car guys" 
(you know who you are); he's owned a couple of 911's and says he never 
even considered putting such a finicky engine in a Vanagon. The story is 
that he bought the Crewcab used in Canada, where they were regularly 
imported, and then paid the 25% duty (!) to get it into the US.  He had 
it inspected and it passed all the DOT (ie, safety) requirements with no 
problem. But he says that the EPA (ie, smog) requirements and 
inspections were particularly heinous, and would have taken months to 
perform - all while the car is sitting, impounded, with a 150% bond on 
it!

So, somehow (he used the word "creatively", but declined to elaborate) 
he got the car into the states and did the transplant over the course of 
a couple of months, and *then* got it EPA certified (hey, that engine's 
made in Detroit, isn't it? No problem!)  He says there was enough room 
under the existing deck and behind the transmission for the V6 without 
having to expand out, so it's impossible from outside to tell there's a 
V6 in there.(Sorry, I forgot to ask him about wear and tear on the 
Syncro tranny; I know that's been the subject of a recent thread here.)  

I'll probably be in contact with him again about the V8anagon; I don't 
think the Crewcab is for sale, but if anybody out there has *really* got 
the itch, I could ask him about it :-)  He mentioned another couple of 
Syncro owners here in Santa Cruz that I wasn't previously aware of - 
this area is turing out to be quite a hotbed of syncroholism. Gotta get 
these folks on the net!

Steve Hoge
'77 Auto Loaf (FS!)
'89 Syncro GL