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My 1987 VW vanagon died this weekend. It needs a new engine. Anybody out there know of a good source for re-built VW engines?

oh hunny...this is soooo sad.

Here are a few places you might want to check....you engine is water cooled not air cooled...otherwise I could help you more....ahh...3 years older and I could have..

rocky mountain motor works
West Coast VW
Parts Place

good luck!!!

I bought a rebuilt engine for my 84 Westfalia from "Gowesty"
http://www.gowesty.com/engine.html

expensive but nice.

I think Charlie is out paddling/climbing today, but he might be able to point you somewhere as well.

Wes

Spradlin Auto Parts in Cincinnati carries a lot of VW stuff.

we visited gowesty a few months ago...awesome place...they let us test drive whatever we wanted...they were a bit pricey though...and all the way in CA

there are other engines out there that'll fit into a vanagon besides vw's

www.justveedubs.com

www.rebuilt-auto-engines.com

or get a book on how to do it yourself http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... 2?v=glance

Good question. People without a VW fetish will want to skip the rest of this post...........

What's the problem? Is it the head or problems with the full block? If it's just the head you can refile and replace with a reman for ~2K. If it's rings or other piston issues you're gonna have to scrap that baby. Now, if you're scrapping and want to replace the engine I'd go with the VW reman. It's a "new" remanufactured engine and heads built and installed by the VW dealer. Price is around 4.5 K but you get a 12K / 1 year warranty and if you've talked to as many mechanics as I have you know 2 out of 3 water cooled engine replacements lead to other problems that will bump the price. Because of that most people end up paying as much for an aftermarket engine (gowesty/GEC) with no warranty and they have to remove / ship the engine to CA to get it serviced.

That said, go to your dealer and talk to the mechanics. See how much experience they have with wasserboxers because you don't want them to learn how to replace an engine on your baby. If you don't trust them, go somewhere else. The guys in Lex knew their shit.

I found a pretty cherry bus that's cheaper than the reman engine so that's my plan. If I didn't, I'd probably go ahead and replace with VW since my block had over 150K on it. Now I'll have 2 busses and plenty of parts!

There's plenty of stuff on this at westfalia.org. IMNSHO that's the best site for wasserboxers.

HTH and good luck!

Thanks everyone for the input and advice!

charlie, I do need a whole new long block, i through a piston rod Created a pretty large hole in the side of the block. I sell auto parts so you'd think I would be able to get a good reman long block for a good price, right?, wrong. First off, all the reseach I have done do far states that the factory reman engines from VW are re-built in Canada and they aren't that good. I've emailed a guy that has install about 5 VW reman's and all of them had problems before 30k miles. This guys recommends ww.bostonengine.com, he says he has installed many of their engines(inc. one on his personal van) and never had a problems with them. Have you heard of Boston engines?

Either way I am looking at spending around $3000.00 to get back on the road which is a lot of money. The worst part is I just bought this van two months ago...oh well.

So if anyone has any info or experiences with VW reman engines and/or Boston Engines please PM me and share.

Thanks again everyone!

--Rob

I've heard some good rumors about Boston Reman but don't know anyone personally with their engines. What would worry me is the warranty. If you have a problem (most engine swaps do) do they cover labor or just the engine? Do you have to ship them the engine or what exactly, tow your bus to their shop? Those are the answers I'd get in writing before deciding.

The guys at my local VW dealer had installed around 20 remans from Canada and only had problems with one. At that point they yanked it and installed another reman free of charge. That's what you get with the VW warranty, free parts and free labor if something goes wrong. A reman is a reman regardless of who does it but the VW quality control I'd assume is better than a smaller shop and the labor is guaranteed. That's why I had decided to go that way.

Keep in mind those are the decisions I made for myself. Weigh your priorities and see what kind of risks you're willing to accept. Check out all the stuff at westfalia.org and also the vanagon.com mailing list for Bostonengine.com history. This is free advice over the internet and not worth much more than you paid for it.

rhunt, I bought a Marshall rebuilt engine, and was very happy with the price and high quality work they do. I'm not sure if they rebuild VW though. It would be worth it to check them out.