Mk3 Gti 2.0 - Performance Characteristics of a wet blanket

I just got hold of the block from a Mk3 Golf GTI engine (engine code

2E), and will use that in my Mk 2. With a ported head, ported intake and exhaust manifolds, a good exhaust, and a performance cam, that is usually good for right around 150bhp with KE-Jet injection. You should be able to get hold of a performance chip for your car, since it has Digifant. Start with chip and cam. Not sure how restrictive the exhaust is, but might be wort a few ponies. The cylinder head should be quite similar to the Mk2 cars, so it will respond very well to porting.

Espen

86 Golf GTI

Thanks Espen, I had a suspicion that would be the way to go.

message news:...

The Hydrosport Cam and GIAC chip will make it more acceptable. Not muchto be had in the exhaust area.. Head porting is effective, but you'll end up spending more for the port job than you did for the car.

BTW- it's not as slow as you th>After being nagged and nagged by a wife with an insistence on a car with

It seems to lack the torque punch that the Mk2 had. I'm not too bothered about power, and I can live without the noise, it's the responsiveness I'm after. In a good Mk2, at any speed in any gear, you can hit the throttle and it'll take off like a scalded cat. In the Mk3 when I plant the throttle it's like waiting for the wife to finish doing her hair!

The thing I have noticed about the Mk3 is that on a cold morning it has a much sharper response, air density I presume. I wondered about changing the airbox suction so that it doesn't take air from over the exhaust (I presume it does this once it's warmed up). The other thing I considered was fitting a water injection kit.

Any thoughts?

I also found the 2.0L a bit underpowered, and noticed better responsiveness on cool mornings.

I considered installing an Ice Man cold air intake

on my '99 Golf Wolfsburg in hopes ofaccentuating the phenomenon. They claim a ~ 6% Horsepower and Torqueincrease for ~250 bucks. But I came to the conclusion that 6% would never be enough so i bought a '03

1.8T Jetta

Problem solved.

Matt.

responsiveness

The A2 Golf is lighter by quite a bit than the MKIII is, which is the largest performance killer. The MKIII did reward you with a more "luxurious" build quality and better comforts, but it took the VR6, and with the MKIV Golf, the

1.8T to re-energize the car's performance. In addition, late model A2 GTis were avaliable with the 16 valve, 134Hp 2.0 litre, an engine I feel should have been carried over. The MKIII GTi's base powerplant (the one in question) was/is the weaker 2.0 litre SOHC 115Hp mill, which also doesn't rev as well or breath well at high RPM. Installing an intake/exhuast system with a chip will help a bit, but not make a huge difference. I'm hoping that your car is the 5 speed unit, otherwise it's almost futile to try anything. You could probably do an even trade (or maybe even pocket some cash) moving "down" into a 2.0, 16 valve A2 GTi, or move up into an MKIII VR6 without spending to much. Those would be your best options.

Been Tinkering with the engine and it's transformed the car!!

I read on another post of a website called Ken's Digifant Page (Digifant being the engine management system for my Golf). I went for a look and picked up some useful tips and a couple of things I hadn't thought of doing.

The most significant mod was to alter the spring tension on the air flow sensor. This sounds a bit drastic, but it was a piece of cake to do and, provided Ken's instructions are followed carefully, shouldn't mess up the emissions or cat. I kid you not, it has made an astonishing difference to the throttle response of the car and it now feels almost as quick as my old Mk2.

Other things I have done are altered the ignition timing, advancing the basic setting from 6 to 10degrees btdc. I tried it at 12 btdc but the pre-ignition was a bit too much fro comfort. I have also altered the airbox suction, removing the hot air suction change over flap and re routing both suctions straight down to the air intakes in the front bumper using some flexi hose i got from Halfords for £8.

Suddenly this car is not so boring any more I may end up keeping it.

Stevieshutts

Any car will run better in cold weather due to the cooler intake charge being more dense. On a naturally aspirated engine, a performance chip basically bumps up the timing and might add some fuel at certain rpms, but the main gain comes from advanced ignition timing.

Espen

86 Golf GTI

You could spend some real cash and go for the superchager kit by Neuspeed. That's an easy 174 Hp right there. OTOH, at that rate, you might consider putting the $4k into a trade-up for a 12V VR6 MKIII, which makes the same 174Hp before any mods, and can be supercharged by VF Engineering or Turbocharged by HPA Motorsport. There's an MKIII GTi VR6 over in West Los Angeles running an HPA Turbo system, and it's a giant killer. In addition, for only a few hundred dollars more than Neuspeed wants for their 174Hp kit, VF Engineering makes a

2.0 supercharger system good for 230Hp! That'd be a damn fun car too...although it's doubtful to help the 2.0s dislike of high revs.