[Dave at Pelican Parts]

If the Vanagon engine is still all air-cooled (I don't remember when they went Wasserboxer), it will have the "square" exhaust port heads. The only exhausts you'll find for using those on a 914 will be tuned headers with stub pipes that attach to the heads. I have heard talk over the years that the square ports have more room to modify things than the oval ports, but you do have to know what you're doing!

The Vanagon oil filler and dipstick will not be useable in the 914, unless you cut holes in the engine tin, engine shelf, and probably the firewall as well. The filler would end up roughly where the driver's lower back is. You can drill the case for the 914 dipstick (measure carefully!) and block off the hole where the filler goes. But I thin the 1980 Vanagons have the cast-over oil breather tower, so you would have to cut that off in order to use the 914-style oil filler.

Save the Vanagon motor for the Bus. Keep it pretty stock and enjoy lots of low-end torque. The Ghia would be my second choice for it, after doing an upright fan conversion on it.

For the 914, rebuild the 914's motor. You can go to any displacement on it, with little or no more work than any other. Keep it mild, though, for the injection. Just swapping 96mm P&Cs (get the kit specifically for the 1.8!) will get you 1911cc, which is nice, and you can bump the compression a half-point or maybe a bit more, if you're OK with using mid-grade or premium fuel. That should wake it up. For more $$, you can change out the crank and rods for the 2.0 versions, giving you 5mm more stroke. In that case, you need the 96mm P&C set for the 2.0, and you wind up with 2056cc of displacement. With whatever compression ratio you choose to run.

The stock 1.8 heads should support that kind of increase at least moderately well, so you don't have to mess with those unless you really want to. (The cam is a significant limit, and you don't want to change that if you're sticking with stock-type EFI.)

I know one or two people who have run 2056es on unmodified L-jet and claim no problems. I'd monitor with a wide-band O2 meter, just to be sure.

You can go bigger, but things do start getting more complex. And expensive.

--DD