I was talking to Rolf the owner and mechanic at Lorne Park Car Centre (its
in the west end of Toronto) yesterday and he is now offering a complete
engine replacement for manual shift vanagons (diesel or gas) for $4,000
Canadian. He will for that price replace your 1.9 or 2.1 waterboxer with a
rebuilt 1.8 litre golf engine. Its exactly the configuration he has
installed in his own  85 Westfalia daily driver. He does (in my opinion)
excellent work and is a german mechanic who has specialised in VW  work for
many years. The golf engine rebuild would be done by Rolf and he promises a
one year 20,000 kilometer warranty. The replacement engine will (I am told)
have about 100 Hp which is roughly the same as the 2.1 litre waterboxer (OK
its a bit more but nothing exciting) . Rolf claims he gets about 10 litres
per kilometer with easy driving and about 12 litres per kilometer with hard
driving. Hard driving for Rolf is up to 150 kilometers  per hour. Its
something to think about. I encourage other Toronto members who have had
work done by Rolf to comment on his capabilities. You should contact Rolf
directly at 905-823-8787 to discuss any more details. The advantage of this
engine switch Rolf claims is a more robust engine with a much simpler
cooling system. I think Rolf has five of these replacements ahead of him
right now most of them diesel replacements.  I have NOT had this work
performed on my own Westfalia and provide this information for your own
consideration and decision. Only time will tell if this is a good or bad
thing to do. I have not driven Rolfs Westfalia and if anyone in the Toronto
area is considering replacement this I suggest you drive it and then report
back to the list so that we have an independant  second opinion.

Ron Mighton  Toronto, Canada