William,
        Have you, uh, priced a rebuild on a Porsche 6cyl lately?  The
dentist up the road from my clinic had one of the late-'80s
funky-looking 911s and the engine was going sour.  He tells me after the
rebuild "crept" up to the $12,000.00 mark he finally gave in to old
wisdom and bailed out, cutting his losses!

        The only engine swap that would make sense to me would be a
300ci Ford fi 6cylinder, a C-6 AT and a corvette rear suspension.
That's only for "reliability's" sake, though.  Actually, I view VW vans
much like Harleys - nothing beats the original sounds.

BOB - WA4RRN