I breifly had what I thought was a great idea: VW Vanogan and Subaru engines are interchangable, right? And since Vanogans were availible as a diesel then you could just use the engine from one of those in your old Suby right? Well that idea was shot down when I saw a complete Vanogan diesel engine on eBay and it was an inline-4. I thought they were all flat. Oh well.

yeah it's just a Rabbit 4 banger on its side. BUT you MIGHT be able to get one to fit in a subie, since they lay the engine over darn near 60 degrees in those Vanagons!

There are entire sites devoted to putting subaru power plants, including turbos, into vanagons, synchros, westfelias ...

The VW powerplants are horrible motors, and very very touchy. You think we have headgasket issues, you should hear all the complaints about the VW powerplants.

Also keep in mind the VW deisel vanagon had the award for being the slowest thing accelerating 0-60, and was deemed dangerous for that reason.

 

 

Makes the car down right fun to drive from what I hear.

http://www.smallcar.com/convert.htm

 

just one site

 

 

nipper

I dunno about slowest, I've heard that Unimogs are pretty slow, at least the old ones. 5,000 lbs + merc 6 cylinder, I think top speed is like 59 MPH in 6th gear :-P (Read on one Unimog page "You will be the slowest thing on the road. Diesel rabbits and Geo Metros will pass you going up hills"

If I have my way, I will be running a newer VW TDI in my wagon in a year or so. then it's nothing but veggie oil for me..

I dunno about slowest, I've heard that Unimogs are pretty slow, at least the old ones. 5,000 lbs + merc 6 cylinder, I think top speed is like 59 MPH in 6th gear :-P (Read on one Unimog page "You will be the slowest thing on the road. Diesel rabbits and Geo Metros will pass you going up hills"

 

 

Perhaps,but if I was going to be rearended I would rather be driving a Unimog!

I dunno about slowest, I've heard that Unimogs are pretty slow, at least the old ones. 5,000 lbs + merc 6 cylinder, I think top speed is like 59 MPH in 6th gear :-P (Read on one Unimog page "You will be the slowest thing on the road. Diesel rabbits and Geo Metros will pass you going up hills"

 

That's about right. A friend of mine recently bought one, and it'll do the speed limit on flat ground, but that's about it.

yeah it's just a Rabbit 4 banger on its side. BUT you MIGHT be able to get one to fit in a subie, since they lay the engine over darn near 60 degrees in those Vanagons!

 

Exactly what I'm planning on doing. I can't really drive my suby much any more even though I really like it, since I've vowed to give up imported fuel. I was going to put a 1.6 liter VW diesel into a GL wagon, and figured that I'd have to move the radiator an inch or two foward, and tilt the diesel over to the passenger side as far as it would go. Possibly a little hood scoop for the final clearance. Fabricating the transmission adaptor plate was where I got stuck, as I didn't have the required machine tools. So it's on the back burner for a while. I figure a 1.6 turbo diesel should be at least as quick as the stock EA82 -- rated just about the same torque I think. My truck has a 2.3 liter turbo diesel, rated at 84 horsepower and 136 ft-lbs, and it can take most hills faster than the GL wagon, for a vehical that's 1000+ lbs heavier.

 

Zeke