Westly has come a long way since that first post we made about him. We’ve bought various engines (2), parts, and headaches (those were ‘free’) and now we’re down to ye’ old install the parts in the Vanagon time.
First, the story of the engines. I was not going to change out the engine on this as it is a recently rebuilt Wasserboxer, and generally runs okay. After a few longer trips and some less than fun times traversing some large mountains I decided more power might be in order. A friend of mine had a wrecked SVX and I thought, hey – that should fit, and what could possibly go wrong with going from 90 to 230+ horsepower.
We pulled the engine (photos below) got it home, and I started calling around for conversion kits. Smallcar was very helpful in putting together a list of all the parts I’d need (hello $3k), but everyone was doubtful my transmission would last very long. I figured I’d put an external cooler in for the transmission, and it’d probably be okay. But probably is not a word you want to hear when setting out on a cross-country drive. So I started looking for a 2.2 Subaru motor in the area – and found one, still attached to a 98 Impreza (glorious picture below).
At this point the engine in the van is ready to pull and the Subaru is waiting for the removal, and conversion parts are on the way. If you need an SVX engine please contact me.
Another series of changes that were necessary were the wheels. While Westly came with a fine set of alloys the tires on those wheels were decidedly not rated for the weight of a Westfalia. There is an almost unimaginable amount of information out there about the specifics of what fits, or doesn’t on a Vanagon. We went with the easy solution of ordering a set of wheels from GoWesty.com and installing the tires locally. While the T/A look is really cool on these, we went with the Michelin’s due to the mostly on-road use we plan for this year. That, combined with the fact that we don’t have a syncro – or even a limited slip means that all that grip would be mostly for show. While the wheels were off I also replaced the drivers side grease cap so that our speedometer works again (probably). Again, if you need alloy wheels…
While our interior is in very good condition there were some updates that were necessary. While we’ll detail the really cool changes we plan in another update we did install a new rear table (again GoWesty), removed the nasty shelving unit the prior owner installed, and took out the battery in order to examine the box. We found it needs a bit of cleaning out, but otherwise was fine.
Interior:
We have many more upgrades in progress, some of which we’re very excited about. Stay tuned here for the summary, but if you want the blow-by-blow please follow us on Instagram or Twitter.