Throwing longevity out the window?...

Hi all,
As sad as it is for me I am going to be selling the glowbug here real soon. I have the red beetle that I am going to start driving now as I really only need one car. But I have decided that since I'm selling the green car I'm going to be doing some power mods to the all stock red beetle.
I am just looking to see for advice out there about what I should do? Basically I am looking for the most power I can get without throwing longevity out the window. I'm going to be driving this car back and forth to college for at least the next four years and will put on at least another 120k miles(at 141k right now). I want to have fun but I want this car to last darn near forever.
Here were my thoughts:

SBC stage 2 daily or endurance.
Malone stage 3 (130 something tq. lb)(150hp).
Spirit PP520's
Maybe a remap if needed??
A boost gauge or egt gauge (whichever is better)
And would LSD be really nice? I would really only want to buy it if it would really improve things. If it's not really needed to help improve traction when launching then I would probably pass.

Can I run all of this on a stock Turbo? these are really the only things I would want to change. If need be I would go down to a Malone stage 2 tune.

Thanks in advance!
Side note: Anybody got a clue what kind of 0-60 I would be looking at?
GlowBugTDI

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

GB,
Add a VNT17 to the list. Check out Wuzetem nozzles at CascadeGerman.
I'm a big fan of my Peloquin LSD, though rumor has it the Quaife is
marginally better from a dead stop in snow/ice.
Boost gauge is very handy, EGT not essential IMO unless you drive really
hard. If you upgrade the intake and SMIC, you'll pump a lot more air
through and probably not need EGTs so much.

Going to a stage 3 and driving it sanely won't hurt your motor, just keep up
with oil changes and service, you'll be fine. High boost and high revs will
loosen things up. Start pushing 200+hp and 30#s of boost and you better
start thinking about internal engine mods.

I highly recommend a catch can, a cheap mod, to help keep the intake and turbo clean.

The big ticket item is the LSD, but in view of the frozen north, I'd regard
it as an essential item for you. Price of turbos seems to be dropping, check out
this forum for the recent thread about PowerTDI, they've got a 17/52 at a bargain price.
You can do all this stuff incrementally as budget permits.

My wooden $.05

My old Jetta I kept the stock 10mm pump with 764 nozzles. Vnt 17 turbo 2.5 down pipe and 3 bar map. Then stage 4/custome Malone tune. Used the upgraded SMIC from dark side and the TIP from darkside. I was probably some where around 180-190hp and drove it every day to work. My car was a 99 so i had to get new chips for the ecu but well worth it.

As soon as you add a tune, nozzles and clutch, your car will be woken up pretty good. You’ll be able to spin the tires in 2nd at will. It will be cool at first but will get annoying after you have to buy tires a couple of times. Having taken a completely stock alh to the ~170whp range within the past 8 months, I can tell you that an lsd will be one of my next upgrades as I have to be careful to not spin the tires 1st-3rd. You’ll see, especially when the roads are wet. When you upgrade the intercooler, I suggest a front mount. I have an upgraded side mount and regret not going for the fmic as my car will noticeably heat soak after driving hard for a while. I will also add that power is pretty addictive and there’s a good chance you’ll want more after a short while, so i’d maybe suggest bigger nozzles. I went with pp764’s and now have to buy bigger as fueling is maxed out on my set up. My car is at the exact same mileage as yours and it’s pretty fun to drive around now. I also run the stage 2 daily endurance and like it alot. Your mods will have no effect on longevity at the power level your after.

LSD not necessary unless you have a very heavy foot. If you roll into the new found power you should be ok. A boost gauge is not needed but nice to have if your tune is pushing the turbo to its limit. Your list of mods looks like a very driveable car.

If you're serious about longevity keep it stock. Make sure timing is set perfectly, intake is clean, injectors are in top shape, and the turbo, actuator, and vacuum system are working properly. If running at their best these cars aren't bad to drive stock. If you want a bit more power get a stage 2 tune. You won't need a new clutch if yours is in good shape.

Not really a wrong way to go. Guess it depends how greedy you get with it and how much you want to dump into it.

Yourbuddysatin said:

Not really a wrong way to go. Guess it depends how greedy you get with it and how much you want to dump into it.

Click to expand...

If you're after long life there most certainly are wrong ways to go. There are lots of ways to blow up a turbo, bend rods, cause the head gasket to fail. The right balance of fueling, boost, and timing (tune) are essential to longevity. Too much of any one can cause problems. And even when set up well, extensive mods shorten engine life. My Wagon ran beautifully when it was making 185/320 at the wheels, but after 120K miles with those mods the engine was done. Rods bent valves loose in the guides, head gasket blown, bores ovaled. In contrast my son's '02 Golf, stock, is still going strong at 400K miles. Head's never been off, original turbo.

A good stage 3 tune alone will get you 125/225 at the wheels. Makes the car drive great. I have Rocketchip Stage 3 in my '99.5 Golf, everything else is stock. It has no trouble pulling well with its taller 5th gear, and it'll run up to 100 MPH pretty quickly. And i have an SMF conversion with a stock clutch.

Thanks for all the great comments guys! Basically what I'm looking for is to get my car faster than stock but yet not have to worry too much about damaging anything internal. I was just thinking Malone stage 3 because that one was getting me 150 horsepower where is the stage 2 was getting me 130 horse power. My biggest concern would be bending rods or having the head gasket fail or anything like that so whatever I do I don't want to start pushing the limits of this motor. As it is now I pretty much ask everything out of the motor without sending it over 3,800 RPMs. I want the car to be fun and a blast to drive but yet don't want to worry about things breaking internally. If a stage 2 will get me what I want but yet make it so I'm not going to blow things then that's what I will go with.

I was kind of thinking it would be nice to be able to outrun a 3.8 mustang, but idk what kind of 0-60s I would be looking at with some of these mods. With the Mustang having an 8 second 0-60 I didn't figure it would be too hard.
Some of these parts I don't mind buying second-hand so I hope that would save me a little. I believe I have found a Southbend stage 2 daily second hand ( $250) that would work unless people think an endurance would be overall better. At a torque rating of 325 foot-pounds I figured it would be okay. Basically once I take that transmission out and put it back in I don't ever want to have to take it out again.... so it looks like LSD is the way to go.

Right now id like my budget to be closer to a grand if possible. And I know that doesn't get me super far, but as I said it hoping to find a couple things second hand.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

And once I upgrade things i know i definitely won't be useing all the power all the time. But at least once a drive probably...

I'd also like to keep mpg at about 40. I know maybe im to picky, id just like the most power i can get without throwing longevity out the window. If that means clutch, pp520s, and a stage 2 so be it...
I'm just looking to those with advise before i get started. That way I'll hopefully make less mistakes or not regret getting bigger mods ect.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

With your budget/goals, the best bang for your buck will be tune/nozzles/clutch. Forget about the lsd for now. I can’t give advice on the used clutch as I’ve always bought new. But the sb daily would be perfect and is less aggressive than the endurance. Keep in mind you don’t have to do everything at once. The first mods I started with was a tune and 2.5 inch dp/exhaust. The difference between stock was night and day. My stock clutch also held fine (not saying yours will). So I’d say maybe start there and see how you like driving it. I wouldn’t be to concerned with 0-60 times or winning races right now. Also your mileage will only be effected by your right foot input, so as long as you drive it normally you will still get the mpg’s.

03Wagn said:

With your budget/goals, the best bang for your buck will be tune/nozzles/clutch. Forget about the lsd for now. I can’t give advice on the used clutch as I’ve always bought new. But the sb daily would be perfect and is less aggressive than the endurance. Keep in mind you don’t have to do everything at once. The first mods I started with was a tune and 2.5 inch dp/exhaust. The difference between stock was night and day. My stock clutch also held fine (not saying yours will). So I’d say maybe start there and see how you like driving it. I wouldn’t be to concerned with 0-60 times or winning races right now. Also your mileage will only be effected by your right foot input, so as long as you drive it normally you will still get the mpg’s.

Click to expand...

Okay sounds good. Well being that it only has a hundred forty Thousand Miles if I keep my foot out of it maybe I'll get that stock clutch the last while longer. soon as it slips once or twice though I'll probably put it in a South Bend. The one I was looking at the guy said it was brand new never used but I found that hard to believe because he was only selling for 250 but I guess I'll have to message him. It's worth a shot.

Do I have to get upgraded nozzles right away with the stage 2 tune? Or can I just adjust IQ or something? Because I was looking around and that's about six to eight hundred dollars to have new nozzles installed.

I'm not actually too worried about 0 to 60 times. I just thought it would be kind of fun to out run a Mustang. There was a specific race i was wanting to win for that one lol. But I don't actually care that much....
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

When I got my first tune, I ran it with the stock nozzles for a while with no issues. I waited until I got my clutch in before putting the pp764’s in. So I think you’ll be fine waiting on nozzles.

03Wagn said:

When I got my first tune, I ran it with the stock nozzles for a while with no issues. I waited until I got my clutch in before putting the pp764’s in. So I think you’ll be fine waiting on nozzles.

Click to expand...

Ok, nice. Maybe a dumb question, but are pp764's bigger then pp520's?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

Yeah 520’s are .214 764’s are .232

Go with the tune first and see what you think. If your clutch is in decent shape then it'll handle the tune fine. if you want more you can upgrade nozzles, but that will also most likely require a clutch.

My .02 is avoid PP764s. with a stock turbo. More fuel than you need.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

Go with the tune first and see what you think. If your clutch is in decent shape then it'll handle the tune fine. if you want more you can upgrade nozzles, but that will also most likely require a clutch.

My .02 is avoid PP764s. with a stock turbo. More fuel than you need.

Click to expand...

Okay. That sounds good. I guess I will start with the Malone stage 2 and then go from there. I'm kind of assuming eventually I will be looking at a clutch and nozzles.

One more question I have is if I were to get the stage 3 tune, pp520's and clutch will I start looking at harming internal engine components? Or should i just go for the stage 2? Noting that I generally Drive pretty hard/fast. I don't abuse the heck outa things but I do like running my 0-60 speed out pretty fast. I'm not too picky one tune from the other but I figured if I could get 20 more horsepower without having to worry about straining my engine too much or longevity being shortened quite a bit then I would go with malone stage 3.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

That setup won't increase stress on your engine enough to significantly shorten its life, I don't think. Might you need a head gasket at 300K instead of 400K? Possibly. But given you car's current mileage I wouldn't worry about it.

Okay thanks for all the advice. Basically I was just trying to see what the most horsepower I could get with some slight mods without ruining the longevity of the engine I know I'm going to need the car for at least another hundred fifty thousand miles as long as there's no accident. And for the next four and a half years that I have college I don't really want to have to be tearing it down to fix internal things Etc. And I'll be putting on about 120 miles a day so I figured since I'll practically be living in this car I want to make sure it's fun lol.
So I guess I'll do a little bit of thinking and then decide to go with Stage 2 or 3.

Thanks to all for the advice!!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

Purchased the 03 Jetta with 47K in 05. At @100K, RC3 tune with egr delete, and cleaned out the intake. At @190K, the mods in my signature were done. Driving with just the tune was great, basically a stock car with optimized tuning. IBW is correct here. The mods really woke it up though. Car rolls 500 miles a week, still gets 45+mpg. I think it could use new injectors and I'm looking at Bosio 1019 dlc's. To me the LSD is a waste. Never would waste the coin on it. The 717 5th gear is excellent though. I've considered upgraded intercooler, intake, lift pump, etc. but the car is getting older, and runs great, so I'm likely leaving it alone. With 300K on the clock, it runs like a Swiss watch, and shows no sign that the mods have overstressed anything. Don't go too nuts and all will be well.

I took a stock motor, added .205 nozzles and a Stage 3 (18PSI) tune and from stock the difference was HUGE. I live at 4200' elevation so we had to work out the altitude (boost) correction for where I do 85% of my driving. At 150k I did the tune upgrade and at 205k miles the clutch was still not slipping, but the starter ate the ring gear, so I purchased the Stage 2 Daily Driver as I figured I would someday put more power into the engine, and the extra grip was always a good idea. With the Stage 3 tune and 4 adults with luggage in my Jetta at 75 MPH (72MPH corrected) from here to Tulsa and back, I got a steady 52MPG and the car was fun to drive at sea level too.
Here is where the fun begins... oiling issue killed the turbo, so I put in a 17/56 hybrid turbo, bought big nozzles, Stage 4 tune and there was more power than I could use on a regular basis but bringing in 35-37 MPG was not what I wanted so I reduced the boost, went with smaller nozzles and I gained very little extra fuel economy and 42MPG maybe on the highway. The big power was fun for a while, and because it takes more fuel to get the turbo on boost, my FE will never get any better. What's my point? I really wish I wouldn't have gotten the big turbo that needs the big nozzles to spool it. If I knew then what I know now, I would have replaced my turbo with "stock" sized one and kept the .205 nozzles and called it good.

Good to know. Had the stage 2 south bend clutch installed. Next will be to buy the pp520's and mount them on the injectors.

Sent from my SM-G930U using Tapatalk

GlowBugTDI said:

Good to know. Had the stage 2 south bend clutch installed. Next will be to buy the pp520's and mount them on the injectors.

Sent from my SM-G930U using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

Keep us quoted on your progress.