New to Vdub/need a bigger engine in 82 rabbit

[Boredinak]

I am new to VW and recently bought 2. One 2001 Jetta 1.8t wolfsburg, and a lil 4 door 82 RabbitL I sold the rabbit to my bud and we want to put in a bigger engine, and throw in a 5 speed. What would be the best bang for our buck? what would be the easiest to install?

We Found a 1.8t out of another 01' as a possibility. We also thought of gettin a late 80's 1.8 block, puttin in performance internals, and throwin on a 20v head.

We already pulled the engine and tranny, and are not sure were we want to go from there. Any suggestions?

thanx

[stevethefolkie]

The most straightforward would be a 16V from a (similar vintage) GTI or Scirocco GTI. You'd get more horsepower (although it'll come higher in the RPM range than an 8V) - Next would probably be a 2.0 tall block from a later 'dub.

If you can find a donor car (either wrecked or rusted) your swap will be a lot easier - as all the bits for the FI, the exhaust, the shifter, clutch pedal and the like will all be there -

You can get pretty decent acceleration from the stock Rabbit engines - however - if you're willing to do some work on 'em - there's a lot of tuning information available for them. As you're looking to go to a 5 speed I assume the '82 had a slush box? If so just the 5speed will liven things up quite a bit - the 3 speed slush boxes were pretty pedestrian. The manual 4 speeds were hell for strong -

[quincypunx77]

the easiest thing would be to find a complete donor car.
anything will work with patience money and modifications.
i am about 5 days from starting my g60 2.0 swap into my 82 rabbit