Mark: I don't know what techniques where used to determine the state of the head, all I know is what the service adviser told me. I'll try to pry out more information.
robinson: We are past the point of it making sense to make repairs - we've made upgrades and repairs not because it makes any semblance of financial sense - but merely because we like the van. Perhaps a more pragmatic approach will be taken, not completely sure yet. FWIW, ours is a GLS, so functionally its the same a Sienna or Odyssey for most people.
I asked a similar question a few months back before I knew an engine replacement would be necessary and Cole had some great insight:
I put a ton of research into this when I swapped my first every Eurovan 24V VR6 out.
The conclusion I came to was that you could use the 3.2L block with the 2.8L 24V head from the Eurovan using custom head studs (available). This would give you the ability to use all the stock intake components.
You would want to scale the size of the injectors up slightly for the added displacement. The computer will take care of the rest. (it will have no idea there is an extra 400cc of displacement).
The big issue I found at the time was simply the cost of the Touareg and Cayenne Engines. People seem to think they are made of unobtainium even though they are the least desirable in those platforms.
I found the engine below,
http://www.ebay.com/itm/04-05-PORSCHE-CAYENNE-ENGINE-3-2L-VIN-A-5TH-DIGIT-135193-/142051816576?fits=Make%3APorsche&hash=item2112f2b480:g:PPQAAOSw7s5Xg-rG&vxp=mtrNow I just need to find the custom head studs (whatever those are!) and find out the appropriate injector size (another unknown!!).
Plus I'd need to find someone willing to do this work - most people don't want to touch custom builds. Plus that 5 year warranty would be gone. But the engine would be a touch newer and I wonder if it'd be of a better build than the AXK.
EDIT: Apparently the 5 year warranty doesn't apply to the motor that they found. Apparently this has neither parts nor labor warranty. Yikes.
EDIT2: Oops, buying the porsche engine wouldn't work since my head is bad, and that's the part i'd need to mate with the cayenne motor. Found a complete AXK motor in Oregon for $2800 w/1yr parts and labor warranty.
EDIT3: If I have the dealer swap in a new engine without chains its about $5k, with chains its about $6k. There's a VW dealer - Autobarn Motorsports in Evanston, IL that put in an R32 engine into the van. Here's a link:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Volkswagen-EuroVan-MV-Standard-Passenger-Van-3-Door-/391460259476?forcerrptr=true&hash=item5b24d98694:g:gAcAAOSwboVXO9So&item=391460259476I'm going to try to contact them tomorrow to see if they can either do the same for us or if they can help advise my local dealer on how to do the same. I have no idea what they'll ask, but it seems kind of a waste to spend $6k on a VR6 2.8L with 120K+ mi. If anyone knows of a shop around Central Ohio that can help me tackle this - let me know!