I've always loved the look and room in my Aunt and Uncle's vanagon that they've had forver and have lately been looking into them. Does anyone have an experience or advice on looking/owning one? Any good engine swap advice? From what I can tell almost any inline VW four will fit inplace of the flat four.
I don't know much about them...but I think I remember you can purchase tents designed to attach to the side and/or back of a vanagon. That could be pretty cool.
My neighbors have one and from my point of view...I'd say the experience must be like driving a twinkie.
Clem
My neighbor has a Synchro with a 1.8 TDi in it. He didn't do it himself but it looks pretty straightforward; he likes the torque and the mileage (runs it on biodiesel, too). The neighbor of a friend has a Synchro with a Subaru swap. I believe there's a company out of CA that sells wiring harnesses for it. An old housemate owned a RWD Westy for a couple of years; it was pretty unreliable, but he wasn't a car guy, so who knows. One thing about these cars that I've heard and have no reason to doubt is that they are very unsafe: if you get hit in the front, there's just not much there to keep you from injury. Finally, a friend has a Eurovan (FWD w/5-cyl. Audi engine) that is comfortable, safer, newer, roomier, so if you're basically into the marque, want a van, and aren't married to the Vanagon idea, the Eurovan might be worth checking out. The top on his is by Winnebago but I believe the later ones are by Westfalia.
http://www.relitech.com/convert.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYisaJXgk4k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H59Mna_VZZI
European Cars once featured a Vanagon that had had the engine from an air-cooled 911 transplanted into it. I think there are also threads on here where folks have swapped Subaru engines into Vanagons. And, if it's a water-cooled Vanagon, they did come factory built with the TDI engine, so I would think a regular "Rabbit-type" engine could work.
BTW, most Vanagons (if you are looking to buy one other than from your relatives) have problems with the valves in the number 4 cylinder.
My parents had an 83 Vanagon Westfalia conversion. Watercooled with Bosch Injection. Stayaway from that year. A I understand, any after are ok, and any before are okay. Although our 78 air-cooled did catch fire and burn to the ground in Rochester, NY.
I heard the exhausts systems were expensive to replace.
Subaru, please. Vanaru.com or some such site. I'm sure an STI engine would make those things run.
I have a 86. It has a tiico (now out of business) i-4 golf swap.
The water cooled boxers are basically air cooled motors with water jackets tacked on. These fail all the time if the engine ever sees corrosion.
The factory digifant engine management has a mind of its own at times.
With the swap mine is solid, however it really on cruises at 65 maybe 70 due to the shorter gearing the 4 speed manual has.
The synchros need 4 tires exactly the same size or the drivetrain chews itself up.
The autos are tragically slow.
The factory diesels are NA and dangerously slow.
Awesome vehicle, ultra space efficient, I get 20mpg no matter what, and really cool looking.
The downside is you either need to spend big bucks to get yours swapped, live with a slower not powerful vehicle, or be really handy and ready to repair it often.
If you want reliability, you could always do this engine conversion. I understand the kit is available from some company in Canada.
suby swap is a no brainer.. and I really like the idea of the TDi swap
Yea the subie swap seems like the best bet, 1500 bucks for the kit from Kennedy plus an EJ22.
Just found this, http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.vanagon.com/info/safety/volvo-crash/img/crash.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.vanagon.com/info/safety/volvo-crash/index.html&usg=__lVoSX__ZL_lo3sYBV2m7ZQx_Cbk=&h=442&w=583&sz=55&hl=en&start=88&sig2=QyvJtS58HeIg-4p3kQZSug&um=1&tbnid=ZVOl3IwqckE_5M:&tbnh=102&tbnw=134&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dvanagon%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rlz%3D1C1CHNB_enCA320CA320%26sa%3DN%26start%3D84%26um%3D1&ei=yNohS7_aGaiWtgOdj9n8Cw
In terms of safety it seems like you could do a lot worse.
They don't accelerate so much as collect momemtum. 
the Ford Focus/zetec kit, is available from a company called Bostig they are located in Mass. near boston. The zetec is essentially the evolution of a miata motor (keith can you shed lights on this?) I have spoken to the team up @ bostig they seem like real gearheads basically they are doing it cause they love doing it not to be come rich (i mean really its for a vanagon how could you get rich on it)
As for the Safety aspect of a vanagon I beg to differ in a BIG way they are insanely over built and very stout look up front end crash test vs volvo and you might change your mind the Vanagon DESTROYS the "all mighty safe a bank vault Volvo" like its a matchbox toy car. gimme a vanagon any day for killing things! just cause the design looks like it makes you the intended target doesn't mean it acts that way.
try www.thesamba.com www.bostig.com
not affiliated blah blah blah blah buyer beware blah
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