engine conversion

[honez72]

I have a 91 vanagon that runs fine in the city, but really lags on hills. Since I am on the brink of putting in a new engine, I queried my VW Specialist about upping the performance in the van. He told me that there are "no after market performance" pkgs for it. Now, I read on vanagon.com that there have been those who have put in subaru engines and converted to diesel and 6 cylinder engines. So, am I misunderstanding my mechanic, or is he possibly harboring a predjudice? Opinions , please.

[Callook72]

copy and paste this question in the Vanagon Forum, you'll get more help there.

[Pete S]

I saw a Vanagon at a show recently with a VW 2liter upright motor in it. I guess it was from a late model Jetta or something. Looked very clean and used a conversion kit. So, they must be out there. I would contact VW Trends. I seem to remember an article about a popular conversion for the Vanagon. Seems like it was out towards your area of the country. I'm thinking California.

Good luck
Pete S

[hiker_avid@hotmail.com]

I'm the guy with a Subaru 2.2 Liter engine in a Squareback. The kit is from Kennedy Engineered Products. There are other kit suppliers. K.E.P. has good information on what will fit, what other things are needed for the conversion, and the extremely important radiator issues. This is expensive, but cheaper than getting much performance out of the little bug mill.

Since a lot of information was unavailable when Brian put the kit in his Vanagon, and I put one in my Squareback, I put up a website to address the missing info:
http://www.cnr.colostate.edu/~kevinlh/t ... subaru.htm

[steve stromberg]

SWISS MOTORS in SANTA MONICA The owner has a 3.2 911 motor in his Vanagon. It looks stock but it took me months to chase him down to find out about his vanagon this is one FAST vanagon!!!!!!!

[74 Super]

check out:
http://www.tiico.com/prod04.htm