>HOW DO I EXERT CONTROL OVER THE QUALITY OF WHAT I AM GETTING MOUNTED INTO
>MY >CAMPER ?

        Take it. Rebuild the engine yourself. With the help of John Muir's
Idiot Guide, the Bentely VW repair manual, the Vanagon list, and Bob
Hoover's help (Bob is on the Vanagon list) you can do a better rebuild than
the shop will, for a lot less money, and you'll know it was done right. And
next time when it breaks, you'll likely know how to fix it.
        Look at it this way, the real brainy people get jobs as physics
professors, the less endowed work as car mechanics. There's a reason for
this. A car is really nothing more than a lot of simple systems, it's only
the # of systems that makes it confusing. And that number is really quite
small on a '69 VW engine. You *can* do this, as can anyone with the
patience to sit down and learn how.
        Assuming you have no tools, and your engine case is still good, you
can do your rebuild for around $1k, less if money is a major factor. More
like $500 or less for a rebuild of the quality you will find elsewhere.
Take a weekend or two (or three if that's what it takes), get your hands
dirty, and enjoy your new engine for the next 10 years (depending on how
much you drive, of course).

Peace,
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Edmund A. "Eddie"  Hintz     **|**     "You may say I'm a dreamer,
Voice Major, UT Austin      *  |  *      But I'm not the only one...
<ehintz@mail.utexas.edu>   *  /|\  *     I hope someday you'll join us,
'70 Primered Transporter    */ | \*      And the world will live as one.
'73 Orange Super Beetle      *****      Imagine."
               Web page: http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ehintz
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