How did VW up the horsepower in the 2002 jetta?

[ThoughtisPower]

OK I want to buy a VW jetta 1.8T. The dealership I'm looking at has a 2001 wolfesburg edition 1.8T. I know the 2001 only had a sluggish 150 hp where as the 2002 jetta 1.8T had a lot more peppy 180 hp engine. My question is where did all the extra horsepower come from. I really want to know if I can easily tune the 2001 into a speed demon or should I just go for the 2002 and up.

[TimR]

The 180 will have a bigger turbo and different engine management. You could probably get the '01 chipped or remapped to produce a similar output.

[nbrenker]

The turbo is not actually bigger between either car. One is a K03(150hp) and the other is a K03S(180hp). The only difference between the two turbos, is the K03S has a "muffler" where the turbo meets the charge pipe.



The extra horse power came from a better engine management and better fuel mapping on the AWD and AWP engine codes.



Depending on how much you want to tune the car, they will both end up being roughly equal. If you're planning on "chipping"(or putting a performance software on the Engine Control Unit) and just basic bolt on mods, cars will end up roughly the same with somewhere between 205-215 crank horse power.



But if you're going to get the common K04 bolt on turbo and software upgrade, the HP will be almost identical. Same thing if you're going to pop on a 'big' turbo(ie GT28RS).



They are both the same easiness to tune, but  the 2002 is going to have more bugs worked out. Trust me, it's a VW, there will be problems.



No matter which car you pick, just make sure the timing belt is changed every 60-70k miles, and have prepare for engine misfires, as the coils on these cars are common to fail.