Jim makes some very fine points, but some beg the question.  If the Waser
head leaking is a design defect, it then makes the engine inherently
unreliable!

 VW says the coolant doesn't need to be changed any more than once in 100K
miles because of the type of metal used in the cooling system...aluminum.
Which is not supposed to cause acidity.

Jim, have you actually compared the ph of new and used coolant?  Old
coolant MAY in fact cause a build up of acidity, but it should be tested
and not merely postulated.

But the other problem with the Wasserboxer is it's absurdly small size.  85
or 91 hp is rediculously low for a vehicle the size and aerodynamics of the
Vanagon. So, increasing power alone might be reason enough to do a
conversion.  (And that's what I'll be doing next summer!  150 hp for me!)

As for using other engines, I don't think anyone who isn't going to be
doing the work himself should be doing this for all the reasons Jim
outlines.  Too many things can go wrong, and if you're in the middle of
nowhere, it's going to be tough to find anyone to touch it.  OTOH, anyone
who can work on a say, Subaru, can fix a Subaru engine.

Besides, Subaru spelled backwards is: U r a BUS !  Is this Kismet or what?

And finally, Subaru fixed the head problem?  I've heard this before. WILL
SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME HOW?  WHAT DID THEY DO? I have YET to get an answer
on this.

James

PS, when the heads start to leak, is the fix simply to replace the head gasket?