>| still being made in Europe).  So it should not be hard to put a inline gas
>| engine into a newer Vanagon with the wasser setup using a donor diesel van.

        One does not need to strip down a good diesel to do this conversion.
One could order from either the dealer or another part source the bellhousing,
the oil pan, the oil pickup tube, the dipstick, oil filler tube, the
motor mounts, and possibly some of the air tubing to do the conversion.

>| The hard one to do is to put a diesel in a wasserboxer Vgon.  Something to do
>| with the fuel tank setup being different?

        It shouldn't be a problem in a nonsyncro wasserboxer. It is the
fuel tank on the syncro (the only vanagon in the US that has the fuel tank
up over the tranny) that interfers with the starter when using the diesel
bellhousing (as the starter ends up on top of the bellhousing and stretches
back into area occupied by the fuel tank). Also, the diesel bellhousing
supposedly lowers the engine by a little bit which might interfer with the
subframe - this I have not checked...

dave