I have already searched this forum and found some posts on this topic but the significant posts were more than a year old

Has anyone finished this kind of conversion? I have come to the consclusion that the only way to make it successful is to do a complete swap, i.e. swap engine and tranny at the same time, to get the gears right.

Any ideas? I have not bought a van yet. I am planning on returning to the states for two years to get my masters degree and then will return to the work that I do in China with orphans. I will probably travel 35K miles per year while I am home, then every two years will return for about half a year and will travel 12K miles during that time. I am anxiously looking at the diesel conversion because I thinking, in the long run it will save me lots of $$, especially if I can find an engine that will accept a mixture of straight veggie oil.