hi there, new to VW's,

I've owned a 2.0 mercedes 190e for the last month, been quite an eventfull month with that car, 4 hours of owning it, it got impounded, a "friend" assured me he had paid to be insured to drive it for that week, got it back a week later, 3 weeks later crashed it, insurers found out about the modifications and now i cant afford the insurance (i know, i know, i should of told them!), NOW the engine is giving up on me!!! but what can you expect, the car cost me £400 =D then came across a polo saloon on ebay, checked the car out in person really good condition got it for £270,

to put it straight, i need more power out of the polo, its a 1.3i, i dont know anything about VW's at all, i know the easiest way is a new engine, but I've gota keep insurance low, so what should i get?

thanks

chris

Hi Chris & welcome to the mad house! lol.

I assume it has the single point injection engine in it. new exhaust and air filter (both available off here) should free up abit of power, a new ECU chip (available off here too) may also help.

alternatively, buy a GT engine (75bhp standard) and drop that in. Chip, exhaust and air filter should see 80bhp. Its possible to get 100bhp out the GT engine.

Anymore power than that and you're into G40 territory ( 1.3 MPI supercharged) but you may find insurance a killer, as well as the price of the engine itself!

Jon.

it could also be a NZ (MPI) engine, these have the same kinda power as the SPI engines but are more tunable. as for engine swaps your pritty restricted unless you don't mind a lot of work. the straight forwards swaps are GT and G40.

Wack a 1.8 Spi Mk3 Golf throttle body on it mate :)

easiest way is to stick a GT engine into it, it's an easy swap and shouldn't go mad on your insurance. Obviously it depends more on what company you are insured with.

A g40 engine is the best bet for power and still just a bolt-in conversion. But will cost more on insurance.