Date:         Tue, 6 Nov 2012 15:17:05 -0800
Reply-To:     David Vickery <david_vickery@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Vickery <david_vickery@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Re: 1.8t conversion
In-Reply-To:  <0MD300IKO7Y2XJ10@vms173003.mailsrvcs.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

No offense Pat, but I think you may be out of touch with the current prices.  Prices have gone up over the years as the conversions have gotten more sophisticated.  An equivalently complete 2.5 subaru package without the engine will be about the same amount.  Check out Vanaru, smallcar or RMW.  And the 1.8T probably took more R&D.  Even piecing together a low budget conversion yourself and doing all the fabbing and spending hundreds of hours you will probably come close to 6K these days.  Lots of people like to brag how cheap they did their conversion, using scraps they had laying around, but that is not comparable.  It cost almost $6K for a quality 2.1 rebuilt engine with various other new parts these days.

As to the other post about clearance and need for stronger transaxle, I am not sure that is quite right.  The spacer for the engine lid looks like it is made out of 1" square steel, so it doesn't stick up that much.  And I am not sure you lower the motor.  As I understand it you don't loose clearance on a syncro, and on a 2wd you lose 1" which probably doesn't matter for 2wd vans

And from what I have seen and read, the power of the 1.8 is not a danger to the transaxle partly because it isn't a torque monster like an SVX.  So unless you rev it up and dump the clutch, you probably only put as much torque on the drive train as a 2.5.  Again, I could be wrong, but that is what I gather.  You could probably look at the torque curve and see if that is true.  My 1.8T is the lower HP version, so my experience is different than a chipped 200+ hp one but the torque in 1st gear pulling away from a stop at say 1500-1800 doesn't seem excessive. And torque with the chipped version build a little later in the curve.

No personal stake here, just a fan of the engine, and appreciate the level of detail in this package.
Dave


--- On Tue, 11/6/12, Pat <psdooley@VERIZON.NET> wrote:

> $6500 and no motor included.
> I'm either poor or out of touch with current pricing
> trends.
>
>