A GTi for $500...

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B Campbell

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Brought my GF's bug to the mecahnic today to get some brake work done, and noticed he had a MkII GTi. It was sitting over wher ehe has his junk cars, but looked like it was all in once peice, so I asked him about it. He said it's mine for $500, but needs about $1000 worth of engine work. Still, $1500 for a 16v GTi isn't bad.

Later I was thinking, why not drop a 16v Passat engine into it instead? It's slightly more pwoerful... about 133hp and 135lb/ft as opposed to 115/120 or so. Can't be much more than $1000 to do that either.

Not sure though. If I get it, it's gonna be my only car for a while, and I need something reliable. But I cna buy it cash, instead of getting a newer car and a loan...

Oh well. Any suggestions?
 
nice ... a GTi 16V is a sweet car but since you need an engine, i'd try to pick up the 2.0 L Passat engine ......i think you have a 1.8 L but if you had the 2.0 L 8V engine i think it's simply a case of changing the cylinder head ....the Passat's is a DOHC.....that's why it puts out the extra power .....i believe the engine blocks between the two 2.0 L's are identical .......but if you say yours is a 16 V, then i think you have the 1.8 .....therefore no easy swap of the head .....but my friend has a passat with that particular engine and with an exhaust and k&N, his car goes really good ..... and that's in a car that weighs like 3300 lbs.! .....drop that engine in a GTi which weighs considerably less and you're going to have some serious performance ......what year is the GTi?
 
Why not swap in a VR6? You have the same price as aquireing a 2L passat engine, but with more HP. You should be able to get a VR6 easier than a passat I4, so that might be worth it...


Also a note, see if the car has a junked title... If it does, you need to get it up to snuff THEN get it inspected, smoged and other such things... I can be done to register a car with a junked title, but they make it damn difficult.
 
I didn't do a thorough check of the car, just asked about it. I thought it was a junker because it was with the other junkers, but he said the rest of the car is in pretty good shape, and it would just need an engine to get back on the road. They don't smog check here, so that's not an issue.

It would be possible to drop the VR6 in, as I've seen it before. However, I'm sure it would be more expensive, considerably so. I have heard that all VW watercooled 4-cylinder engines are interchangeable... which means I could even put the G60 in if I could find a good specimen.

The car doesn't _need_ a new engine, it was just a possibility that came to my head. The engine is by all means repairable for about $900 or so. Even in that case I could have a nice GTi for about $1500, a great deal assuming the rest of the car is in good shape. The real problem here is this woul dbe my only car for a long while, and I was relaly looking to get a newer car for practicality purposes... but it would be so fun...

Still, if I relaly wanted to drop a Passat engine in a Golf, I wouldn't really need a GTi to do it to, and I could do it at any time. So I'm probably not going to do it, but it's something fun to think about. I'll probably call and ask him what he thinks, and he'll laugh at me I'm sure, but it would be interesting just to know.

Good to know there are some people here who also like VW's!
 
that's what i thought .....a VR6 would be much more costly than any of the 4 cylinders ......i really like Corrado's .....my friend had a G60 and the performance is near Porsche 944 territory
 
A while back I was thinking about getting an old Sircorro and swaping in a turbo VR6.... Could be interesting as they only weigh 1000kg.
 
Originally posted by Deathhawk
A while back I was thinking about getting an old Sircorro and swaping in a turbo VR6.... Could be interesting as they only weigh 1000kg.
Click to expand...
haa..... that's all they weigh ......that is really light .....about 2200 lbs .....and the corrados weigh at least 2600 lbs
 

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