1988 VW Vanagon

Here are some pictures of our 88 Vanagon we use to have. It was modified a little like most of our stuff...

Built it over a few months and then Ashley drove it daily for a couple of years. Decided it was just too big for us living on Capitol hill with one kid and we replaced it with a 95 M3...

It was lowered with H&R springs and Bilstein shocks. It rode some much better after putting the Bilstein's on, well worth the fortune that they cost. The KYBs that came off didn't look that old.

Wheels were 17" twist style with 9.5" in the rear and 7.5 in the front. They were installed using Wolfgang Steel adapters. In the front I added a 10mm spacer to get the stance just right.

Engine was a 1.8l out of an 88 gli jetta. Would have put a 2.0l in but the 1.8 was cheap and available complete with harness. Had to splice the two harnesses together.

Engine was made to fit using a combination of fabricated parts and Vanagon diesel parts.

Fabricated parts:

Engine support created using portions of the stock diesel mounts, liquid filled jetta engine mounts and a bunch of 2x3 square tube

Power steering pump mount and pulley

Air flow meter mount

Jetta exhaust manifold adapted to tiico header and modified to use 7" round performance muffler.

Diesel parts:

Oil pan

Oil pump

Water hoses

Colant tank

sections of motor mounts

Clutch

Bell housing