Engine arrives, but it's not the right one!!

The engine arrived, strapped to a shipping pallet. Tt looked great, but soon I noticed that it was a 2.0 engine, which is not common in the US [except for the turbo version, which this one was not], instead of the 2.2 engine I ordered

Initially the seller wanted to refund me part of the money if I would keep the 2.0. However I know that modern engines have so many computer controls that may or may not function in other configurations. Therefore I stuck to my guns and insisted that I get the engine I ordered.

The seller had to eat the cost of shipping the 2.0 back to the Midwest, then shipping the 2.2 engine to me. This obviously was not the happiest of solutions for him, but I did help him out by bringing the 2.0 engine to the shipper's loading doc, and going there again when the 2.2 arrived. That saved him having to pay the shippers come to my house for the pickup and drop off. Also, I sent him pictures of where the engines' identifying marks are located, so in the future he or his crew will not be confused by which models of these similar-looking engines they have.

This did eat up an extra week of time, but it was an honest mistake and the seller did his part to rectify it. Therefore I gave him a good ebay rating without any mention of the mixup.

Time to replace the engine??

When I bought the Vanagon, I knew its engine had serious problems and would need to be replaced. That's one of the reasons I got it so cheap. I thought it was a worthwhile risk...and it did get me all the way home! I've overhauled 7 or 8 engines before, so that part wasn't too overwhelming.

Considering that the Vanagon's oil pressure light came on a few times on the drive home, and that the engine was using so much oil, I thought that it might be better to find a replacement engine for it. [I could always disassemble the current engine at a later time and find out what was wrong with it.]

In Japan, the Goverment slaps very high taxes on vehicles once they have more than 65000 miles on them, so a large industry has been created by people who disassemble these Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) vehicles and ship the parts all over the world. Subaru engines are barely broken in at 65,000 miles, so I decided that this might be a good engine source.

After a few weeks, I found a JDM engine located in the Midwest on Ebay for a good price, and arranged to have it shipped to me.

Air conditioning?

The Vanagon's air conditioning system is an afterthought....an assembly bolted to the ceiling at the rear of the van. With the engine in the back and the radiator in the front, there is a lot of tubing, as well as a rear to front air duct that brings the cooled air forward. Not very efficient but better than nothing.

The seller was going to replace the existing clamshell [which holds the assembly to the ceiling] and had already bought another one in the junkyard.

I removd the old clamshell and discovered that the mounting bracket that supported the twin fans has cracked in several places. Some attempts had been made to fix them, but the bracket was in pretty sad shape. I repaired it using aluminum sheeting [from an old license plate], steel sheeting [from a joist hanger], sandwiched together with Liquid Nails and pop-rivets.

My father in law Salvador says I'm skilled at "mexicanadas" [simple yet effective jerryrigging], so I know he would laugh if he saw it. Using Liquid Nails again I glued the bracket to the clamshell so there won't be the vibration [when the fan was working] that I remember on the trip from Reno. Also I am replacing the clamshell's thin insulation with mylar-covered bubblewrap insulation. So. it will do a better job of distributing cool air.