I have to echo Frank's comments on the 1.8 liter digifant engine.
My transplant is now over three years and 60k miles old. The only trouble
I've had with the Digifant system was a "balky" AFM last winter. The old
"bend contact so that it is rubbing a new arc" trick fixed that.

I kept the stock diesel tranny, at first out of lack of funds, now
because...it seems to work fine! I still think about changing the R&P gears,
probably will when I overhaul the transmission.

An interesting thing I just discovered...

as you may know, the diesel Vanagon came with a metal shroud that completely
enclosed the engine from below. I think the main function of this was noise
abatement. I didn't reinstall after the engine transplant, but did wonder
whether it might be a good idea (keep some of the dust out of the engine
compartment, shield the coolant reservoir from the muffler). But it took a
ripped out O2 sensor last winter to make me get off my duff and put it back
on (an errant branch on an active logging road was the O2 wire removal
tool).

For the last 5 months I've been driving with the shield installed and I've
noticed that my oil temp have increased. Normally, driving at 60mph the oil
temp hovers around 102-107 degrees C. With the shield that has increased to
110-115 C.  In city driving there is no increase. Coolant temperature
remains normal.

So I removed the shield and the oil temp returned to normal.

What I think happened was that the shield changed the way the air flowed
through the engine compartment, probably restricted flow. Also, it
eliminated
airflow over the oilpan,  an under-appreciated cooling device.

I still find it curious that elevated oil temps are not translated into
elevated coolant temps. (my oil temp sender is on the oilfilter/oilcooler
bracket. And as far as I can determine, the oil cooler is functioning).

Oh, BTW Art Ollikan, the oil filter is not really messy to change. The
diesel came with a nifty plastic thingy that fits on the filter and catches
spillage as the filter is removed. a plastic bag works equally well.

And BTW Kyle, I'm a bit amused that it took so long for Eurospec to develop
this conversion kit. Surely this is not a difficult swap. I think they ought
to contact David Marshall and have him consult on the syncro kit.

Alistair