I have an '82 that started its life as a diesel but was converted to
aircooled at some point in its life. I have reason to believe it was
in the early '90s. In March, the bolt holding the fan to the
crankshaft sheered off. I managed to drill through the remains of the
bolt, but then broke an ez-out inside (the twist drill kind, not the
square kind). I've been fooling around with this thing for months and
decided to throw in the towel and call a welder. The welder said: drop
the engine and bring it in. He has a machine that will disintegrate
the ez-out.

So fine. It's drop the engine time.

I've had nothing but bad luck with these 2.0L aircooled engines. I'm
thinking about swapping in a 1.9 waterboxer.

Remember, this was a diesel. Everything that was diesel is gone. But
it's also a Westy. Enough said?

If I pick up a running vanagon with 1.9 engine in it, can I do a
straightforward swap? I assume that I'll replace this and that as I go
along, cooling hoses especially, but otherwise is this pretty much an
unbolt and bolt-in job, front to rear?

Thanks.

Mark