Why are BHW Passats so unpopular to make fast?

Why are there so few performance parts for b5.5 bhw passats? I have mine converted to manual and bsd with a stage 2 tune. I have a colt cam waiting to go in. I haven't found a true bolt on turbo upgrade. I inquired about larger nozzles and they tried to talk me out of it because of the bad handling manners of the car. I think it handles ok. I did find a nice shifter. I'm coming up on retirement and would like to dabble in Thursday night run what you brung drag racing, you know, piddle and tweek during the week and see what it'll do on thursday night. I thought about trying to get into tuning myself. (the car, not really myself) Anybody got any ideas? Or if you just want to call me an idiot, speak up, I don't mind.

They have a lot of other issues that most people address first like you have. The BSM and manual swaps. The cars really waken up at that point and most people are happy enough.

Sprocket has his modified with 2260 turbo injectors etc. Driven it and its a blast. Mine will be getting similar treatments at some point. Just had my head ported and a stg3 cam for it.

Frans has a bolt on hybrid turbo I believe. Darkside has an adapter that allows you you bolt a GTB turbo to the stock manifold. Just a smaller market on these cars. Looks like buzzken did come out with a downpipe.

There are fewer of the cars out there

They are more expensive to mod since the auto trans is junk and you must do a mod to the BSM. This will put you at spending $3000+ just to make it reliable when you could just get a 5 speed A4 platform car and spend that on mods.

I'm working on building myself a nice garage with a lift and if I don't die first, maybe I can start fabbing some parts myself. Once upon a time, long long a go, in a far away land, I was a machinist. I've thought about picking up a lathe and mill, hoping it will all come back to me.

Sounds like fun!

IMBM but I think I recall someone posting that there were only 24 to 30k Passat tdi's sold in the US in '04-'05.
So There are just not that many of those cars out there. Comparatively speaking the mkiv chassis is a much better value for someone looking to go diesel and modding.

Once the BSM and autotragic issues are out of the way, the BHW makes a great base for performance improvements - IMO the best of the recent TDI offerings. It has the among the stoutest 4-cylinder short-blocks, slightly higher displacement, proper piston oil cooling channels, etc. Appropriate PD nozzles, turbo(s) and ported head can easily support 300+ HP.

TDIMeister said:

Once the BSM and autotragic issues are out of the way, the BHW makes a great base for performance improvements - IMO the best of the recent TDI offerings. It has the among the stoutest 4-cylinder short-blocks, slightly higher displacement, proper piston oil cooling channels, etc. Appropriate PD nozzles, turbo(s) and ported head can easily support 300+ HP.

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Just picked up a 2005 wagon donor to part out . I already knew they're stout, but this is encouraging. Now to get the mk1 cabrio chassis here to toss it in

What about the BHW in an MK5 Jetta?

Mine is plenty fast with RC1 alone... it'll do 80 to 120 without even breathing heavy, it makes my ALHs feel lethargic in comparison. Heck it makes my 1.8t feel whimpy.

But there are other performance options, just that they already started with so much more power than the VE and other PDs sold here, most don't bother.

They sold these in much smaller numbers, and I think most of the people who bough them new were not much into performance mods anyway.