I think the problem is fear and ignorance.  I think alot of people don't know
about the swap option in the first place.  In the second place I think that
they are afraid to try the conversion.  Why?  Alot of these guys are not
changing the motors themselves they are going to the dealer or a mechanic and
getting the work done.  The dealer wants you to pay him $3000 to change out
your waterboxer (one of the easiest motor pulls you will ever do -my time is
under 2 hours) so he will not suggest that you do a conversion.  Most owners
don't know how to do a engine swap like this and are afraid of trying thinking
it will be difficult or that they could not find a mechanic do to such a swap
for them.  Well any good mechanic that is worth his salt could do one of these
conversions and so could most shade tree mechanics if they were determined
enough.  I just found a Diesel Vanagon in my local Junkyard today and I am
definately considering doing the Waterboxer to Jetta motor swap.
So the problem as to why people don't do the swap is not that it is hard or
expensive or not as good, but it is more of a fear and ignorance thing and
that is what we should be fighting here on this list.  If we spread the word
enough maybe enough owners will do the conversions to make others comfortable
with it and we can get these vans on the road and be enjoying them instead of
them being stuck at the dealer or giving us problems.
PS Your mechanic is blowing smoke about the digijet swap being harder.  I
can't see how it would be since you don't use any of that stuff when you swap
out the motor anyway.
Ken Wilford
John 3:16