Eurovan Upgrade to V6?

Anyone tried to upgrade their older Eurovan to a newer V6? Is it possible even to replace the 5 cylinder engine/transmission with a VR6 powerplant and transmission?

Reply to
jpappe
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anything can be done with enough $$$$$. That said you would be better off selling yours and buying one with the VR6.

Reply to
Woodchuck

I've seen air-cooled beetles and Porsche 944s stuffed with Chevy V8s and I've seen 174Hp VR6s transplanted into late 80s and early 90s model Vanagons. The Eurovan is obviously capable of housing the VR6 (*not* the V6), Vw built them that way, but doing the transplant would probably be prohibitivly costly. I'd personally like to see an 89' or 90' Vanagon Synchro with a 200Hp, 24-valve VR6 or a chipped 1.8T in it. The Vanagon can be had so cheap that even after all the parts and labor it would be a fairly inexpensive vehicle and would have a very decent power to weight ratio, plus AWD. That's something I'd buy. Steve Grauman

Reply to
Steve Grauman

Since VW decided that the VR6 version should have the different (slightly longer) nose, I wouldn't bother.

If you wanted to convert a Eurovan to something other than the 5-cylinder gasser, I'd try a TDI transplant. VR6 or TDI...either way it'd be pricey but at least with a TDI and a 5-speed you can expect great mileage. With a VR6 and the auto that they were fitted with, yo can only expect 16-21mpg (city/highway).

Reply to
Matt B.

Would Audi's 2.5 litre TDI V6 fit into the Eurovan? That's probably powerful enough to make a decent motor for the hefty Eurovan. The 90-100 Horsepower 1.9 litre TDI probably isn't going to cut it. Steve Grauman

Reply to
Steve Grauman

Not likely. The Audi 2.5 TDI is a traditional 90-degree V6 right and usually mounted longtitudinally? The EV has a very short nose and an inline engine or the VR6 are the only likely candidates (and the VR6 probably only in the longer nose EV, which still is probably too short for an Audi V6).

VW fitted the T4 van with 2.5L inline-5 TDI engines overseas. I believe there were three versions, the most powerful of which required the longer nose EV for the larger intercooler. But the mid and base 2.5 TDIs were in the short-nose T4.

Reply to
Matt B.

Hear, hear!

How about replacing the automatic tranny with a manual too? Anybody got an idea on that effort and cost?

Reply to
LaM

Someone on the vortex recently bought a '03 EV on ebay that was the 24V VR6 and manual transmission, which was never offered anywhere that I know of. All of us EV folks were mystified at how this manual-trans 24V VR6 EV came to be and he was able to trace it back to the first owner who had it converted using all OEM VW parts. The conversion was about 99% perfect with the only known issue being they forgot to add in the cruise control cancel switch on the clutch pedal. Otherwise it looked all stock. I think he somehow was able to contact the original tech that did the work and it was something like $7K (that number comes to mind). Wasn't cheap at all.

Reply to
Matt B.

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