>| You make it seem as if there were an abundance of syncro diesels. They were only
>| offered in Europe, not in the US. 

	Road and Track did an article on the 16" diesel syncro - it's in the
archives. Though, now that you mention it, they didn't say where they were,
only that VW supplied them with a 16" diesel syncro with front and rear locks.
If I remember correctly, it was a turbo diesel engine which seems to have
gotten poor marks for a number of reasons.
	The only gripe in the article that I thought could be a real problem
(as opposed to an inconvience or something a hacksaw or a trip to the junk
yard could fix) made a case against taking a gas syncro and doing a
conversion to a turbo diesel. It seems the turbo unit on any turbo diesel
engine VW makes, would be on the lower side of the 45 degree tilt. The
article warned that this greatly reduced the water clearance of the syncro
because the turbo unit would most likely explode from stress on the metal if
it was to be submerged. I know little about turbo units, but I know they
are supposed to run hot. Therefore, I will not pull my gas engine and try
swapping it for something like a TDI (yet)... 

dave