GEARS

I love the Westie, but there are a couple of things I want to improve yet.
I had talked about doing a syncro conversion, but the bill is around ten grand. Not really justifiable in my book if I want to retire any time soon.
The rear gearing in the vanagon automatic is way low, so at freeway speed (70 MPH) you are doing about 4ooo RPM. It is not approaching the redline of the engine, but is still higher that I would like. It affects both the gas mileage and the wear and tear on the engine and transmission.
I currently get around 17 mpg with the Subaru engine transplant, Not terrible for a camper/SUV, but not all that great.
While surfing the net last week, I found a site where they just completed a couple of years of experimenting and testing to put together a higher gear ratio set for the Vanagon automatic. The gears are 3.27 as opposed to the stock 4.05 gears. According to them this translates into much better gas mileage (21 as opposed to 17 MPG) and lower RPMs at speed (3500 versus 4100 RPM). The downside is of course the cost. The ring and pinon set is $1200, and figure another $1500 to put it in.
With the price of gas where it is, it will pay for itself in the long run.