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Q: Would you convert your van if you had it to do over? 

A: Yes, I'm very happy with the subaru engine.  This is my second conversion and the first took longer and I had more left over fix up problems, all of which were my fault to start with.  This second one was a lot smoother and easier.  There are times when there's frustration but all in all it's as simple as bolting parts together.  I did fabrication (welding and hammering) because I wanted to.  Most of the parts you can easily get from one of the 4 main vendors.
Whether you decide to try it or your mechanic does it, I'd be glad to answer questions or even take a drive out that way to give you guys a look at mine.

The donor car I purchased for my conversion was a 92 Legacy.  It was only after I got the engine out that I was smart enough to look and see that the car's original engine had been replaced with a JDM (japanese low mileage import engines) EJ20 engine by some hapless mechanic.  But that didn't stop me, it's still an improvement from the waterboxer.  I later replaced the longblock with an inexpensive EJ22 block (plug and play) to get the engine up from 121 hp to 135 hp.
Once i replaced my first van with a 91 multivan, i popped first an ej22 and then an ej25 (phase1 w/ DOHC) into it.  I was very impressed by the horsepower of both and even feel that the 2.5 is more than i usually need.
To summarize, I am a complete nut about the subaru engine in the vanagon.  I believe that vw made some major mistakes in designing the vw engine but I very much like the vanagon body and utilitarian design.  The subaru engine is "the bomb" when it comes to good, pure design and efficiency.  You'll enjoy the increase in both power and fuel efficiency.

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Q: Whats the big deal about OBD1 versus OBD2?
A: It's not that huge of a deal but it's important that you first understand what OBD means.  Hold on to your butts, here comes the nickel tour....
OBD stands for On Board Diagnostics.
1990-95 Subaru engines are all OBD1.  1996 Subaru engines (and all other engines sold in the US) and later engines are all OBD2.  
OBD is a system with a computer (Engine Computer Unit), a bunch of plugs and sensors, and a harness that connects them all to each other. The computer reads the sensors that are attached to the engine, exhaust, intake, and fuel systems in various places and makes decisions based on the readings it gets.  Those readings might be something like "how much air is coming through the intake ducting?".  Based on the amount of air it is receiving, it might decide to allow more or less fuel to be delivered to the engines fuel injectors.
In the old days, we had a carburetor with a screw on the side that would be turned to change the amount of gas being squirted into the throat of the carb where it would mix with air being sucked in.  If you wanted more or less fuel in your mix, you got out of the car, got a screwdriver, and turned the screw.  With OBD, the computer does it for you.  Truly a wonderful use of technology unless, of course, you like doing things the old way.  Heck with that I say, let the computer do the fine tuning!
As the sensors and engine parts wear or get dirty (as is the case with air filters) the computer can automatically make decisions and "tune" the engine to run as close to properly as possible - up to a point.
OBD1 is a bit simpler than OBD2 in that there are less sensors being read by the computer.  But that also means that OBD2 is more powerful, has more information available, and is therefore more complex to understand.

I'd think a bit before using a 96 EJ22.  The reason being that from 96 on, all cars are using OBD2.  Before were OBD1.  OBD2 is a more complicated (and more feature rich) method of monitoring the cars functions but also proves to be more challenging wiring because of the lack of resource for this conversion.  
You'll find that the most support related to vanagon subaru conversions is for 1990-94 EJ22 engines which are all OBD1.
Also, with the 90-94, you can purchase many of your conversion parts from Kennedy Engine Performance.  If you get the exhaust, header, air intake parts, from KEP, they will give you their CARB Exemption placque and paperwork.  That means that you cna have your vehicle smog checked anywhere (including CA) and pass, as long as your readings are okay.  If you don't have the exemption, like if you went with the OBD2 engines, you might very well pass because your readings are okay, but if the referee noticed that you had converted the engine, he could fail you.  There's no way to be completely legal with an OBD2 conversion in the vanagon yet.
 
Again, don't get me wrong.  A lot of people convert to OBD2 and get smogged just fine.  Because they just pull up to the smog place where the ref sticks in the probe, gets a good measurement, and away they go.  I just like the luxury of knowing I can sell to someone in CA someday and they dont' have to be concerned with sneaking around.
 
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Q: Is there anyone in Portland that will convert my vanagon to subaru power?
A: I don't know of anyone in the Portland area that'll do the conversions.  There's Tom Shiels up in Toronto, Seth Hatfield down in Santa Barbara, another fellow, Scott, down in southern oregon, SmallCar, and Leon Korkin out in Colorado, and Hans Achter on the east coast.
http://www.subaruvanagon.com
http://www.vanperformance.com
http://www.smallcar.com
http://www.kennedyeng.com/
http://www.turbovans.com/

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Q: How much should a conversion cost?
A: I feel that $5900 plus engine cost (around 600-1500 dollars) is too much money.  I'm betting that I put about 3500 dollars, including the engine, into my conversions.  If you have a vanagon, you might already be mechanical enough to get the work done yourself, don't think that it's rocket science.
 


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Q:  Why don't you like the newest engines from subaru?
A: I have no beef with newer engines.  In fact, I like newer engines.  I lust after the 2008 Subaru Diesel Boxer and can't wait until they become available.  The H3, the late 99 and newer EJ25, are all very good choices but still I stay away from them for the most part.  The only problem I really have with some of the newest engines is as follows:
	there is less support for the conversion
	some of the newer engines have a "drive by wire" throttle which presents some unique problems in mating with the vanagon
	newer engines are more costly.
	there're fewer of them available because the car that's carrying them hasn't gotten into a wreck yet. 
	most of them cannot be smogged in california as there is no available CARB exemption paperwork for them.
	
I have done a couple of ej22 and a couple of ej25 conversions and feel that the effort required is almost identical for both engines.  The fuel efficiency difference is small that it's not what I would consider integral to the decision.  In fact, the only reason that I would point someone to an ej22 is if they are in an area such as california where smog inspections are very stringent.  Not that the suby engines won't pass with flying colors, its just that the inspectors will question the appearance of the engine and could very well fail the inspection based on the fact that all engines (with the exception of the 90-94 ej22) are not compliant with air resource board requirements. 
I'd suggest that you look for a 96 or later EJ25.  They have approx 160 hp, are single overhead cam, have a non interference type valve/piston setup so you won't damage your engine if the timing belt every breaks, and are a good, durable engine.  Replacement parts/engines are readily available and you would expect to pay around $1000 for an engine with harness and ecu.  The later the engine (until 2001 or so) have improved head gaskets which will add to the durability.  I'd say that from 98 to 2001 are the sweet spot for those engines. 
Most of the vendors have parts for the ej25 conversion and they are well supported by this group.

 
One other conversion that you might consider is the EJ33.  They are about 230 hp and the fuel efficiency is not as great as the smaller 2.5 and 2.2 but they have a lot of torque that you might find useful.  They are also fairly well support although not as well as the smaller engines. 

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Q: How much does a Subaru EJ engine weigh and how big is it?
A:
	1990-99 EJ22 - EJ25
			inches	centimeters
	height:	24		60.96
	width:	28.5		72.39
	length:	16.5		41.91

			pounds		???
	weight:	240-250		


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Q: How do I identify a single overhead or double overhead cam subaru engine?
A: The difference can easily be spotted when viewing the front (the side with the belts) of the engine.  If you look at the front of the engine, it's not very difficult (especially with a history of drug use) to imagine the black timing belt covers as looking like Mickey Mouse's ears.  With that in mind, check out the picture here.
With single overhead cam engines (SOHC) Mickey only has two ears.
With the double overhead cam (DOHC) engines, it would appear that Mickey has made the wrong choice in living near the nuclear testing site.  Mickey has four ears.  

INSERT PICTURE OF DOHC/SOHC engines here...



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Q: How long does it take to perform the conversion?
A: 

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