Date:         Mon, 7 Feb 2000 14:37:36 EST
Reply-To:     Calwolfie@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Kevin Dawson <Calwolfie@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Converting to Subaru: Chapter 1
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Hi All,
     After lurking about for these past few months I think I owe it to you
all to share my Vanagon Project.  Kinda longish but here goes.
     First, the history.  My first car, which I still own, is a 74 Triumph
TR-6.  It is a great car but being the British hunk o' iron it is, I was
forced to learn advanced automotive mechanics.  My second car was a green 76'
Westy.  It had been my parents and between us all, had given us over a 180K
miles of adventures and memories.  I don't want to go into why I sold it,
that was a sad day, but I've always wanted to replace it with a
Vanagon/Westy.  After some research and thinking about it, I decided further
that it was the 1/2 camper/Muti-van setup that would suit my family's need
best for everyday use.  That narrowed the search  down to four possible
years, 86,' 87' 90' and 91.'  Further more, I decided to find one with a
blown engine as the prices being asked for Westys is, as we on the list know,
is unusually high.  This past summer, after looking for a year, I purchased a
white 87' Westy/Wofie 1/2 camper from a second owner for $3k.  It had no
rust, couple of scrapes, steel rims, needing a good cleaning in side and
making a clacking sound from the engine (not lifters).  Five days later,
while looking for alloy rims, I was able to buy a running 88' Wolfie for $1K.
 From this car I've been transferring deluxe upgrades to the 87,' i.e.
alloys, etc..  I'll put the 88' back together and sell it for at least what I
have in it or more. I subscribed to the Vanagon list :)  Ordered a bunch of
brake, shock, and weather stripping stuff from Bus Depot (want to start off
with freach stuff where its' important). Mounted some new Michelin MXT's on
the alloy rims.  But what about the engine?
   I went back through the Vanagon achieves and read everything I could find
concerning rebuilding the stock engine or swapping it out.  My cheapest
option would have been to take the engine out of the 88' but its history is
unknown and I do want to sell the car as a runner.  I could have rebuilt it
myself, I have done several Triumph and VW engines, but the more I looked at
how the engine was designed the less faith I had in it.  There are too many
factors that could lead to down time and failure.  There was the Audi 5-cyl.
at $5-6k that everyone raved about for a while but it seemed that hardly
anyone did this conversion and is now a moot idea.  There was the Eurospec
program but again is a dead program (plus they didn't sell it to home
mechanics).  There is FastForward VW's conversion kits.  I like David, he's
my kind of guy, I think he's honest and a true Vanagon enthusiast. His prices
are reasonable and he seems to helpful.  But I live in California and what
ever I do has to pass our Smog program.  It is quite possible that I could
work through the smog issues with the CIS/ K jetronic and be legal.  I even
have my own Bar 90 4 gas tailpipe anaylsier at home to do pretesting before
going off to have the state test run.  But there are two other options to
consider.
     Tii trading in Sacramento is selling a kit from South Africa for $4k
that includes a 2.0l motronically controlled "golf" engine.  It looks and
sounds like the answer to a Vanagon owners problems.  But guess what....  It
won't pass California smog inspection.  I really tried to research this kit
hard to see if the smog issues could be resolved.  I contacted Tii, the State
Air Resource Board, Robert Bosch, VW of South Africa, and even attempted to
contact the maker of the kit in SA (it is not made by VW).  For many
different reasons this is a dead end for me.  But for those of you who don't
have to comply with Calif. style smog program this kit may be for you.
     That brings us to the Kennedy/Subaru converstion.  I was not real warm
to this program the first few times I looked at it.  It was not a VW.  It
looked like it was a real grut to bring it all together.  But I did go to the
Library and checked out a manual on the Subaru.  The specs. and design of the
engine looked impressive.  Kennedy says a whole engine should cost $1300 from
a wreaking yard.  I don't like dealing with wreaking yards. Could a low
mileage engine really be found complete at that price?  I came up with
another solution.  There is a nation company that auctions off salvaged cars
for insurance companies and one of their auction yards is only 5 miles from
my house.  They have a web site where you can search by make, model, and year
and they will list what they have, where it is, the mileage and when it is to
be auctioned.  This past week I bought a 94' Subaru Legacy w/ 38k miles for
$930 (my winning bid was $700 but tax, towing, and auction fees pushed it
up).  The car had been rolled but the engine/drivetrain is perfect!  It has
taken me one long day to pull the engine and the wiring harness.  After I
sell off the rest of the car (one of the other bidders has expressed an
interest in buying the remains) and buy the stuff I need from Kennedy, I
think the total cost of the convertion will be $1500-1600.  Selling off the
old Vanagon engine should bring down the cost even further.  That is the
story thus far and if there is an interest I will post a chapter 2 later down
the road.  I've already started look into solving the issue of the low oil
pan.
    There are many ways up the mountain but it is up to each of us to pick
the one that is right for ourselves.

Cheers,
Kevin Dawson
A man with a full driveway, and thankfully, tolerant neighbors and family.
74' TR-6
69' TR-6
87' Wofie Camper
88' Wofie
89' Honda Accord
89' Trooper II
94' Subaru legacy