Jason gave you this piece of good advice, and I agree:

> Keep saving your cash until you can
> afford what you really want.  Fix it once, the way you want, and you will
> never say "but I really wish I would have ...

On the specific question: Yes your mechanic is right in that the
1.9l TD swap is the more straightforward one, but of course at
this point he has a self interest in getting the Golf, so beware...

Both swap options are good and proven so it's up to you. You're
in CA and I think you could probably get to see and maybe even
test drive the two. I'd let any volonteer listmembers step forward
by themselves.

Think long term, not short term. Add up long term costs (initial swap costs,
typical maintenance and fuel usage over the expected motor life) divide to
get a cents per mile figure. Post your calulations to the list
and get some peer commentary on if your assumptions were reasonable.
(I think I already posted a more detailed thoughts on this as an
answer to one of your earlier posts, right?)

First then do you have some real numbers to decide from!

(If you just ask the question like you did you won't get a useful
answer for your specific needs. Everyone will just answer in favor
of the swap they did, so the best you can do is to calulate statistics
on listmembers pet projects)

Good luck,
Martin
--
Westy 1.9l Turbo Diesel
Quantum 1.6l Turbo Diesel

Martin Jagersand                 email: jag@cs.yale.edu
Computer Science Department             jag@cs.rochester.edu
Yale University

        Slow down and visit the VW diesel Westy page:
          WWW: http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/jag/vw
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