Date:         Fri, 11 Jan 2008 23:47:32 -0500
Reply-To:     David Milo <dellaone@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Milo <dellaone@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Fwd: You guys with Subies
In-Reply-To:  <73bad2170801112039r94b6507h72f5baf43828cfe@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Good question Mike,

No. I would not go back.

Background: Grew up with quirky parents in the '50's. My dad had a '51
beetle (non-synchro gearbox), '57 bus, '63 bus. I had a '64 beetle in high
school, and a '67 in A&P school. They were all fun, and I loved them. Not
much runs as sweetly as a well tuned VW aircooled engine.

Move forward a few years to the 1990's. After a hiatus, we (wife and I)
bought a 1984 Vanagon. It was great for a while, but then the heads leaked
in cold weather. We had it repaired and then it got rear ended. Totaled.
Bought a '87 Syncro that the dealer said the engine harness was bad (they
were wrong, bad grounds). Owned it for 7 years. We went though all of the
troubles described in the archives associated with 2.1L engines poor
running, leaky heads, and finally oil pressure alarms. Not all at the same
time, and spaced out over 7 years. It was great for long periods of time,
but was fiercely troublesome in others. As someone once wrote, "When she was
good, she was very very good, but when she was bad, she was horrid". Imagine
Mrs. Squirrel driving your van (unaccompanied)  and having a very rude
buzzer go off in her ear as she eases of the throttle on the interstate
offramp. Oh yes 20W50 and a Mann filter are installed already (I admit that
this may be hard to imagine, but welcome to my world).

It gets down to: we have two Vanagons, the '87 Syncro Franken Westy (of my
own making) and a simple '91 Carat. Both now have Subie 2.2L engines. My
wife drives the Carat every day, summer and winter, to work and back, and it
must be reliable. We live in western PA, and we have rain, snow and salt.
She loves the Vanagon planform. She has told me, " you must keep this
running forever". She does not want a Toureg, or an Element, or a whatever.
She wants to keep what she has, and expects me to keep it going.

The Subie engine is what we needed. I did both conversions, and I am happy
with them. Mileage is better (no panacea, but at least 1 mpg better), and I
have my weekends back. I converted the Carat in 2004, and the Syncro in
2005. Other than designing a license plate style filler for the oil system
(that works quite nicely, thank you), all I have done is change oil.
Somewhat anticlimactic.

Downsides: Making a decision from the seemingly endless options.

Thats my experience.

Dave Milo


On Jan 11, 2008 8:12 PM, Michael Elliott < camping.elliott@gmail.com> wrote:

> Would you ever go back? Any regrets, downsides?
>
> --
> Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
> 71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
> 84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
> 74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
> KG6RCR
>