Seeking DIY mods for increasing performance

[ryno187]

Hi my name is Ryan. I acquired a 98 beetle 2.0 5 speed. 116000 miles. Runs pretty good. Im not used to single cam little 4 bangers but I'm impressed by the way it handles itself with only 115 horsepower. I like how low the gear ratio is and it corners like its on rails! It doesnt quite have the acceleration my old eclipse turbo had but its still pretty fun to drive.
So far Ive replaced fan fuses, car battery, and the water pump. I added the factory grill with fog lights that I found in a junkyard as mine had just the regular grill. I also put a brand new Sony bluetooth stereo head unit in it along with replacing door and rear stock speakers (which 3 were blown) with brand new Kenwoods.
Ive done all the work on it myself. I like to tinker and upgrade in spots where maintanence is needed anyway. I want the car to accelerate faster. I read about an electic motor driven supercharger that bolts right near the maf sensor. Its supposed to build 5 psi activated at full throttle. Thought about trying that mod. I was also considering how much trouble it would be to find a lightly used or rebuilt 1.8T to drop in it... or even the TDI if at all possible?? Just wish I could squeeze a little more umph out of that 2 liter without drastically killing fuel economy.
I am extremely open minded to any ideas and I hope to learn alot from this site. I am an enthusiast of any vehicle I own and like to accessorize lol!!

My email is ryno187@gmail.com
(wasnt sure if I needed to put
my email here haha..)

[SMG]

Modding the 2.0 is a sad and frustrating experience. 1.8T swaps are really involved, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

[Toad]

It depends, how much power do you want? Like SMG said, you wonty get much without going crazy.

There are things like a catback exhaust, and more agressive cams you can put in, which will give you a liyttle more oomph. An intake won't get you much more than just more noise.

Unless you want to go all out and put a turbo kit on it, its a whole lot easer, and cheaper, to sell the 2.0 bug and buy one with a 1.8t in it already. And with a 1.8t, you're modding world is a playground of fun toys.

[SMG]

And exhaust and cold air intake gained me 2whp on the dyno. Bang for the buck a used Neuspeed Supercharger can be fun, but the setup will run you $2k easily since most used kits are missing a few parts and the ECU tune.

After blowing my 2.0T up I started a 1.8T swap, hoping for the best. Anyway, it's not the engine or major parts that get you, it's the small problems you run into. $250 here, $500 there for small parts gets really expensive.