Spend my money

I've got an 01 beetle TDI, the only current mod is a homemade gasket that i created from sheet metal to block the EGR path and plugged the vacuum line for the EGR valve as well.
Now i have about 1000ish to spend (ish meaning there's a little more that i will probably end up spending but i'm trying to avoid it). So please tell me what i should buy. Difficulty of installing certain things is no problem, cost is more of an issue with me. I hope since i've done engine rebuids before on other cars that most of the mods here shouldn't be too difficult. Let the games begin.

PP 520's from Kerma. You'll have more power and lots of $$ left over for more fun things.

Thanks for the quick reply, what are PP 520's ? I'm not familiar with TDI acronyms yet.

If you are doing one mod, get a chip. Will cost you around $300.

If you do 2 mods, chip and injector nozzles. Will cost around 300+ (200-300 for injectors). This most likely will result in clutch slippage in which case you are looking at about $400 in parts for a stronger clutch and flywheel.

And there you have reached your $1000 price point and should be right around 135-140whp and like 270 ft-lbs of torque area. Drop around $100 in total for a boostvalve and a boost gauge and call it a day.

Injectors.

Is the rest of the car up to snuff? Things like has the Timing belt been changed correctly recently?

Yeah, i did the timing belt with all new stuff including water pump about 35k miles ago.

PP520s or even Sprint 520s are nozzle options from www.kermatdi.com Kerma is a great guy and will treat you right. I would consider this the first modification on any TDI.

Why is everyone so pro injectors as a first mod? Chip is better bang for the buck(literally).

Kerma pays them all off

What if i wanted to avoid clutch replacement, would the stage 2 chip from RC be the way to go without the injectors?
Edit: Also where do you guys get your boost valve/boost gauge from? And are there pods available for the boost gauge?

Just a chip should be fine on the stock clutch. It varies car to car, some slip with stage 2, some slip with stage 3, some dont slip at all.

I got my boostvalve from boostvalve.com but they all work essentialy the same, the only difference really being the price.

Boost gauge I got from newsouthperformance.com. Just your standard VDO 0-30 psi gauge and it came with steering column pod. The other pod option is one that goes on the bottom of the A pillar and can be had from 42draftdesign.com .

I'm not sure if this was mentioned or if you know, I wouldn't have at first, but tranny upgrades are only needed for the manual....you are good to go if you have an automatic with the rocket chip and injectors upgrade. I didn't see any mention of the tranny you have and just wanted to make sure that all bases were covered for ya.

By the way.....I have a 03 NB with bilstien/eibach suspension setup and am mystified at how much better it made the vehicle handle. If you were thinking of suspension too....I would recommend that setup. Kerma injectors/rocket chip, and above mentioned handling for about a grand....plus install for the suspension components if you were gonna have that done.

=lot's o good times and perplexed faces

Sorry for not clearly mentioning it but it's a 5 speed manual. Thanks for your insight none the less.

My upgrade path so far is Rocketchip Stage 2 first. Plug & Play great power increase. It made my Bug slip 5th gear at freeway speeds in the winter. Sprint 520's were next with a clutch upgrade. There's your $1,000 and you'll be right where I am....vastly improved over stock.

suspension

Personnaly I would always be sure to have a good base before upgrading my car. You don't need power of you don't have a good suspension. Even tires seem necessery to me for a good power deployement...

Drop your car with a good sport or race suspension and then think about all the mods you could do.

My opinion,
Ross

RossTDIPD100 said:

Drop your car with a good sport or race suspension and then think about all the mods you could do.

My opinion,
Ross

Click to expand...

Whats wrong with his suspension? And how exactly will dropping his car improve his suspension?

Just thinking about it makes my camber hurt.

yeah good dampers are a must but these cars should be dropped no more than .5" max to preserve handling.

Depending on the mileage on your 5-year old Beetle, I would say the injectors would benefit from a fresh set of nozzles. That's where I'm coming from in deciding between injectors or chip as a first performance mod.

In general, I believe in doing the "hard" mods first before going to the software to tie everything together. Of course, I come from the point of view that this is not going to be your only and last mod.

I don't have a problem with getting a chip first. That is the path I took based on what was available some 6 years ago. But as you add more hard mods, you need to have your software remapped to take the best possible advantage of said mods. If your chipper offers free remaps for future mods you might want to try, then that's great.

Either path you choose is good. @ the original poster, you don't mention the boundary conditions for the budget you've set. Is all of that earmaked strictly for power mods, or do you want to do other things within that budget as well? The suggestion of suspension upgrades is a good one. Some of the very best money I've ever spent on my car (and I had spent A LOT) were on relatively small things that don't even add any power. Three I'll list are: 1) Short-shift kit 2) rear-sway bar and 3) Upgraded shocks and springs. If you do the installation yourself, you can do all three plus toss in a set of injectors or chip and stay within $1000 and believe me, you'll be driving a completely different car.

injectors take an hour. sending your ecu to Jeff takes 3 days. Get some PP520's and love em for a month or two... Start thinking about more power. Go from there.

Why stop at 520s? PP764s are the same price, right? Properly setting the IQ, PP764 with stock programming would be fine. That leaves a ton of future potential.

No suspension for me, i like the soft stock ride. I just want to give the motor some get up and go because the stock setup is killing me. If i want to go serious with a car, i'll stick with my frankenstein 911 (whenever i put it back together anyway).
BTW, what does IQ mean?

After reading through posts with the search function and what was written here, i think i'll do the injectors, because the car has 134k on the clock and could probably use some new injectors anyhow. But now for the questions that TDImeister asked, why not PP764's with stock programming? Will the car fuss a lot if i go too big?

Kerma is the man to ask.

Another Prosche guy in the TDI world! Awesome!

Go with the Rocketchip stage 2 and get a boost gauge and boostvalve to control the overboost and avoid blowing the turbo. IF you feel the need for more power, get the clutch done and go for the injectors.

I did the chip before the injectors and it actually ran smoother when I did. If you do too large of an injector with the stock programming, you just inject too much fuel for the car to burn and instead it comes out the exhaust pipe (smoke). The chip will change the timing and injection window, so I did the chip first and I'd do it again that way. If you do the injectors you'll at least have to mess with the injection quality setting through a VAG-COM to dial down the smoke.

...and the 911 will sit. He did say the car had 134k on the car. I think the injectors would be the best bet. I went with pp520s and am very happy. I did this at 75k and the difference is very noticable-the car will pulls much harder and be capable of spinning the tires, or tire actually, in circumstances that it would not have had the power to do so before . It should be even more noticable on a car w/60k more than mine. Additionally, you will see a MPG gain, provided you drive the same speed, with the new injectors. It would be good insurance to install the BV for the little that it cost. Then when you catch the bug and get your RC it can be better tuned for your new injectors. Oh, and don't forget with the install of the RC with the big injectors your clutch will slip. You're clutch would more than likely begin to fail with a high power RC like RC3 anyway. Also, even with the pp520s your car should not smoke unless you absolutely hammer it.

1fastredsc said:

After reading through posts with the search function and what was written here, i think i'll do the injectors, because the car has 134k on the clock and could probably use some new injectors anyhow. But now for the questions that TDImeister asked, why not PP764's with stock programming? Will the car fuss a lot if i go too big?

Click to expand...

With 134k miles on this car I'd be more worried what extra power and speed will have affect on worn suspension components.

Things to seriously look at when you put the throttle to the floor.

• Strut bearings
• Strut mount bushings
• Swaybar bushing worn
• Control Arm bushings
• Tie Rods

It's one thing to want the sensation of acceleration and it's another issue controlling a car with worn or aged suspension once up to speed.

At minimum replace your strut bearings and bushings with sway bar bushings too. If you're capable throw on a set of Koni Reds FSD which are very smooth and comfortable at low speeds and a bit more firmer at highway speeds compared to the OEM. Make certain your intake manifold is clean and your turbo is up to snuff.

Lastly, anything that is marginally worn-out "suspension wise" will only accentuate with more aggressive driving. Performance is built in balances.

Good luck,
Brian

...Personnaly I would always be sure to have a good base before upgrading my car. You don't need power of you don't have a good suspension

Thanks BrianCT, I think you make my point a little clearer for everboby...You don't need power if your car can't handle it. I'm not saying a stock vw can't handle power, I'm only saying if you want to fell it without killing the rest of your car, you should have a good, solid and maintained car.

Whats wrong with his suspension? And how exactly will dropping his car improve his suspension?

Usually when you buy a sport suspension your gonna have a drop, a small .5" at least and maybe more, but I don't know any sport suspension that will jack up your car... The suspension improve the car and the drop just comes with it...

I understand you 1fastredsc, no power can be really boring, but taking a tight 90 degree curve at 60km/h or so... looks pretty fun to me.

Ross

Can i tweek, if nessecary, the IQ (which i just found out stands for injector quality) with the basic version of VAG-COM that i have?

get bigger injectors. that way you can get a chip and only have to do the chipping once. if you get a chip then want bigger injectors you will need to get rechipped. Ive had my injectors for over a year and love them. Its been plenty of power untill i got passed by another tdi on the 407. I VOWED to never let that happen again and am going with rocketchip on saturday. Meet another TDI driver close to where you live. If you lived close to me id let you take my car for a spin and run it up to redline and see how you like the additional power.
injectors is the way to go for a first mod.

I'll agree to the injectors, but only cause of the mileage and the fact that they should be replaced anyways.

IF you chip first, you do NOT need to rechip after the injector upgrade. I had my chip a long time before the injectors (a few months) and it ran great both ways.