Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 14:13:43 +0000
Reply-To: Jeff Stewart <fonman4277@COMCAST.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jeff Stewart <fonman4277@COMCAST.NET>
Subject: Re: Thoughts on conversions (kinda LONG)
<The average time for a newbie to do a Subaru conversion is 4 months to a
year. A turn key kit can be installed in 1 - 3 days. Buying a few proven
parts/systems can take the 6 month project down to a few weeks, and yield a
much better result.>
WOW, a sobering thought. I'm hoping to do mine in 4 weeks, that meaning weekends and some evening time. I would have liked nothing more than to bring my Westy to East Coast Vanagons, drop it off, and say "Call me when it's done". But, unfortunately my VW's are "hobby" vehicles, and I don't have it in my budget to do that. That's not to say the price of the conversion is out of line, I'm sure it's fair. I'm only along as far as I am now (have the donor car, '91 Legacy/rear ended & SmallCar kit) because I sold my '75 Westy for WAY more than I thought it would bring. I expected to get around $3,500.00 for it and it sold for nearly twice that (had to kick in part of the proceeds toward home repairs, though, dammit). There is a wealth of info out there on the conversion, almost too much. A lot of the personal web sites I've found from folks who have done the conversion are are years old and the issues they encountered and had to solve themselves have been solved by vendors who have brou
ght solutions to market. I am not a mechanic, but I have put a 2.1 in my '84 (had a seized motor when I bought it) myself, but I couldn't have done it without Jim Thompson's write up on his site. Now, I've even seen it stated that to R&R a Vanagon engine takes 20 hours! I must be fairly good, because I had the seized motor out in less than 3, and took about the same time getting the 2.1 back in after swapping things over. I mentioned my VW's are "hobby" vehicles, my everyday driver is a Honda Element. I'm looking to get Honda reliability out of the Westy. I love my Westy, and I'd have loved to keep it all VW, but I just don't think that kind of reliability is possible from the VW wasserboxer today, even less so in the future. FWIW, I asked the Tiico group a few weeks ago, Tiico or Subaru? The majority of responses told me to go Subaru-I think I got two responses from folks happy with their Tiico conversions. I'm not even really looking for power, when my 2.1 is running well I feel
it has plenty of power-but that's WHEN it's running well. Anyway, I'm really hoping that I am successful with my Subie conversion and I get the reliability I'm looking for. Then I can give my Element to my daughter when she gets her license in a year or so. IF not, I may be looking at another conversion: the Westy interior into a Chevy van! Jeff
| 
