This is the reason I went with a 1.8L VW engine. About the same HP.
I've seen trans. wrecked with V6 swaps also. If you are going to go
up in HP very much, better think about a special rebuild trans. also.
The other option I was thinking about was implanting an entire front
wheel drive, motor and tranmmision, matted at the half shafts, but this
would be even more re-enngineering.

            Eric                   86-VW4x4
            vw4x4@fyi.net          86-SS Syncro
            Pittsburgh, PA USA     1936-Chrysler
                                   92-Jetta GWC
            www.fyi.net/~vw4x4/vw4x4.htm   

On Thu, 1 Feb 2001, Derek Drew wrote:

> In an earlier email I wrote.
> 
> At 05:29 AM 1/30/01 +0000, you wrote:
> 
>       :Please note that
>       > installers in South Africa and Australia are reporting
>       widespread
>       > destruction of the syncro trans with these subaru
>       installations, so
>       those
>       > contemplating an engine swap should drive with a light foot
>       or pick
>       a mild
>       > engine to start with.
> 
> 
> On subsequent thought, and after receiving a strong email complaint about
> this, I believe the above statement is exaggerated and unnecessarily
> inflammatory. That is:
> 
> 1. I don't think the subaru installations are any more likely that other
> types of motor upgrades--Audi, TDI, etc.--to cause problems for the
> syncro trans, and in fact may be less likely to cause problems than some
> of the other approaches because the subaru motors don't always appear to
> have as much of the dangerous torque that some of the other motors have.
> Torque is the real problem for the transmissions, as has been widely
> documented in archives, particularly in overseas environments more
> accustomed to alternate engine installations than ours.
> 
> 2. I myself would not hesitate to install a subaru motor if I had the
> time to think about it, and some day I probably will upgrade my motor,
> considering the risk of earlier than normal trans failure to be
> acceptably low but present nonetheless. I think the subaru motor is a
> fine way to go about it. There is a great mailing list for those
> contemplating the upgrade or undertaking it on egroups. It is a good idea
> to get those emails in your personal email archives and I am a subscriber
> for that purpose. To subscribe go to www.egroups.com or the new yahoo
> implementation of this and search on subaruvanagon. Warren Chapman is the
> moderator of this list and also distributed to me Tim Smith's wildly
> useful gearing calculator, which may be found at
> http://users.rcn.com/derekdrew/syncrotireandgearratios.xls and elsewhere,
> and which now should probably be updated to admit the input of
> revolutions per mile information rather than what Mark Drillock has
> helped proved in the last day or so to be the greatly less accurate
> generic tire size data.
> 
> 3. When reading about transmission failures, it seems that the most
> commented on item to fail is the 3-4 slider hub (but now VW supplies an
> upgraded part for that so in a sense that problem seems to be fixed on a
> long term basis), the 4th gear and sometimes 3rd gear (which seems to be
> particularly susceptible to failure from high rpms--higher than we run
> here in the USA, by the way), and especially the big main bearing. If I
> recall correctly, Martin S. of MSDS way back in 1991 sent me a
> recommendation that this main bearing be loctited into place with red
> loctite as a fix for this last problem. He should know--he's been running
> a Porsche engine in his syncro and (of course) for awhile after he put
> that engine in he got very interested in his transmission--probably took
> it out and put it back in a bunch of times. I am not a transmission
> expert and Dennis Haynes or Weddle can comment on the common failures
> from more direct experience. I have heard no discussion ever on the lists
> of this concept of loctiting the main bearing into place and would be
> curious to hear comments on this as a method to reduce transmission
> failures. The South Africans VW factory actually reengineered upgraded
> components to strengthen the syncro transmission, and this upgrade is a
> good idea for 2WD owners looking to upgrade. Unfortunately, rumor has it
> that most of the components don't go into the syncro trans. Ken Wilfy
> should put these on www.vanagin.com soon (right Ken?).
> 
> In any case, so there is no confusion, one of the sources for the comment
> I made was this scary sounding email:
> 
> =========================================
> Date:         Tue, 17 Oct 2000 08:25:56
> Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
> From:         David Del Ben <ddelben@AIRINTER.COM.AU>
> Organization: Air International Transit
> Subject:      Re: Subject: 1990 waterboxer heads - a popular topic....
> Comments: To: Chris Mundy <cwmundy@OPTUSNET.COM.AU>
> 
> Chris,
> There is an experienced and knowledgeable VW mechanic that I know of in
> Penrith just west of Sydney - Kym at Indian Automotive.
> (Maybe the closest we have to a Ron Salmon/Bus Depot here in Oz.
> He told me he was doing the Subaru conversions for a while - but then he
> stopped as he had trouble with his customers blowing up their
> transmissions. Seems the gearboxes don't like the extra power/toque of
> the
> Subaru Engines.
> 
> I'm keeping a little private list of all Australians on the list - just
> to
> keep in touch etc.
> Email me privately if you want the address etc of the above.
> 
> David Del Ben
> 85 1.9-Carravelle
> 
> =======================================================
> 
> On the positive (negative?) side, the subaru torque seems like it isn't
> as high as the TDI, for example. Read this post from Karl, for example.
> 
> ====================================================
> From:"Karl M." <THEWESTYMAN@M...>
> Date: MonJul10,20000:33am
> Subject: Re: [Syncro] 4th gear ratio
> I have driven several Subaru conversions, and my opinion is to stay with
> stock gearing. The Subaru lacks the torque curve to pull the higher
> gearing
> and maintain a consistant road speed.
> 
> Karl M
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> 
> > I have considered changing out 4th gear, but in association with the
> > subaru engine swap, which seems to make more sense. 
> 
> ===========================================================
> 
> Over time, as we have more experience with Subaru motor installations
> here in North America, we can find out if others here experience similar
> problems to those experienced in Austrailia. (I cannot find the similar
> post from South Africa so maybe I imagined it). We did receive an email
> in the last few days about a failure of a transmission after an Audi
> installation, which provided a similar power boost to that one would get
> from a subaru motor:
> 
> ============================================================
> From: Mark Drillock <drillock@earthlink.net>
> Mailing-List: list Syncro@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 08:16:57 -0800
> Subject: Re: [Syncro] Re: Syncro vibrations, good driveshaft, bad
> driveshaft  position
> 
> Warren, this is my 5 cylinder Syncro. I can't attribute the bearing
> failure to anything in particular. It has lived a harder than normal
> life since I bought the Syncro 7(?) years ago. It has had about 40k
> miles of towing use during that period. I have had the 5 cylinder for
> almost 2 years and 24k miles, 3/4 towing. The Redline MTL was in during
> this time. I had the rebuild done at a SoCal VW tranny rebuilders. No
> special strengthening was done. I don't think there is any that would
> relate to the mainshaft bearings.
> 
> Mark
> 
> > >Mark Drillock <drillock@e...> wrote:
> > > I had just had the tranny out....<and>.... my freshly rebuilt
> > tranny
> >
> > Mark, I assume you are talking about the tranny in your van with the
> > 5 Cyl conversion.  To what do you attribute your tranny failure?
> >
> > Age??
> > Extra HP of the 5 Cyl.??
> > Towing Trailor??
> > Wrong Transmission Fluid/Oil?
> > Who rebuilt it??
> > Any special strengthening in the rebuild??
> >
> > Since I now have about the same power/torque as your engine, would
> > like your advice on longevity.  I don't plan to do much trailering,
> > but my van will be loaded.
> 
> =======================================
> 
> Here is a couple of comments about the grossly dangerous Oettinger
> conversions. These seem to apply to a lesser extent but also to TDI
> conversions with foot stomping drivers.
> 
> =======================================
> 
> Here is what Thomas Niksch said about experiences with large motors in
> Germany:
> 
> �You should also forget putting an Oettinger 3.2
> into any syncro. You can count the miles, until the gear-box will
> "explode"
> because of the power - and more impotant - high torque. (They used to hve
> automatic with most of the 4x2 WBX 6. We have had several 1,9 TDI (110
> HP, 260
> Nm) conversions and the gear boxes sometimes make it only 5.000 km.�
> 
> =======================================
> Michael,
> I happen to know some guys in the VW business who have the Oettinger
> franchise in Sydney,Aus. and are the local Oettinger tune-up gurus,
> although mainly these days for T4s,Golf,Passat & Polo.They have spent
> time in Germany at VW factory training courses and also at Oettinger
> training with the high performance tuning chip technology.They also sold
> me my Transporter WBX new in '92. Anyway they happen to have an Oettinger
> WBX 6cyl in a '90 Crew Cab.Originally it was in a camper that caught fire
> (nothing to do with the engine) and they got it for a steal from the
> wrecker for only $5000Aus who didn't really know what he had,or what it
> was worth! It has since had a top-end re-build as it was apparantly never
> set up right and used to ping badly,mainly I believe because it was
> running too hot as the stock cooling system didn't handle the 6cyl in
> Australian conditions.
> 
> Anyway,from talking to them about it (& while looking & lusting over it)
> I understand the following to be things you may want to consider before
> deciding what to do.
> *At over 3 litres,they have excellent performance,but rather thirsty &
> therefore costly to run.(yea I know, a 2.1l in a camper aint great either
> but...) *Unless you have an automatic transmission,they tend to destroy
> manual WBX gearboxes as it isn't quite strong enough for the extra power
> of the Oettinger.
> 
> ========================================
> 
> As a result of all these transmissions blowing up, the Europeans put
> together a special project to custom manufacturer super strengthened
> transmission parts, under the blessing of SDP itself, so they could drive
> their TDIs without such worry.
> 
> You can read about this here:
> 
> http://users.rcn.com/derekdrew/SEITE1.BMP
> http://users.rcn.com/derekdrew/SEITE2.BMP
> http://users.rcn.com/derekdrew/SEITE3.BMP
> http://users.rcn.com/derekdrew/SEITE4.BMP
> 
> In summary, compared to other engine conversion options, the Subaru
> motors may be among the best possible choices in terms of not over
> torquing the transmissions and therefore among the *better* choices in
> terms of transmission failure risk. I will consider the subaru motor
> myself when the time comes.
>  
> 
> ________________________________________________________
> Derek Drew                              New York, NY & Washington, DC
> derekdrew@rcn.com       
> Email me for Viscous Couplings
>    Now syndicating 16" Trailing Arms, Fender Flares, Final Drive Ring &
> Pinions
> '90 Syncro Westfalia...
> ...seen off-road at http://www.tiu.net/~des/vw/drew/index.html
> 
>         Also seen at:
>                      http://4wd.sofcom.com/VW/snow.html
>                      http://4wd.sofcom.com/VW/Campers/Campers.html
>                 http://www.vanagon.com/syncros/trips/ranger-rover/index.html
>                 http://www.vanagon.com/syncros/trips/peters-mill/index.html
>         Note: most valuable Vanagon sites on the planet (for owners) are:
>                     http://gerry.vanagon.com/cgi-bin/wa.exe?S1=vanagon
>                     ftp://gerry.vanagon.com/pub/
>                     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Syncro
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>         My refrigerator article:
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>         My article that shows how to deal with insurance companies:
>                      
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