1996 Volkswagen Jetta 2.0 - Cruzing

Six years ago, Efrain Cruz totaled his first Jetta in an accident. He spent the next two years walking to work. Luckily, it was only a few blocks away and he would regularly pass a local junkyard. One day, he spotted a Jetta and made some inquiries.

"The engine had blown so the owner was scrapping it. They were about to crush the car but told me I could have it for $500. The body was in good condition without any dents or rust, so we pushed it around the corner and into the shop where I work," he said.

The 30 year-old bodyshop assembler from Baldwin, NY got to work turning the crusher into a cruiser. His first priority was to get it running, so got a low mileage 2.slow and did the swap himself.

He chose an earlier OBD1 engine block because it had a forged crank and rods as standard, as well as oil squirters to keep the pistons lubricated. As such, it was much stronger than the OBD2 block.

He also decided to upgrade the cylinder head, enlisting the help of Evolution Motorsport in Long Island, NY. They fitted inlet and exhaust valves that were 1mm larger than stock, while the valve stems were 1mm thinner than stock to aid airflow. The head was then ported and polished to optimize airflow.

After using the car as his daily driver the original auto transmission "started to go bad." So Efrain's stepfather discovered a $600 donor car from which he could take the five-speed manual and its operating mechanism.

At this point, most of the mods were for reliability "but eventually I added wheels, and that's how it all started!" Efrain laughed.

The Bahn Brenner Motorsport Lysholm supercharger was the next addition as the owner embraced his hobby wholeheartedly. "I saw Bahn Brenner's ads in eurotuner and ordered the kit," he explained. "Stage 3 didn't exist at the time, so I opted for stage 2."

In this form, the boost is increased over stage 1 and the compression ratio is lowered. "However, that soon wasn't enough either," he laughed. So Efrain set about creating his own stage 3 upgrades. He bought a smaller BBM pulley to increase the boost and added larger 440 RC injectors. He also commissioned IRC Fabrications to create a water-to-air intercooler (chargecooler). They built it to measurements given by Efrain and it fitted perfectly.

The advantages of a chargecooler are more consistent cooling and simpler packaging. In this instance, the polished intercooler sits behind the passenger-side headlight. Pressurized air from the blower passes through it and is cooled by water that passes through a small radiator in the front grille. The water is stored in a large reservoir that sits behind the passenger seat. "I didn't want to mount it in the engine bay," Efrain explained, "because it would simply get hot. Keeping it in the car keeps it cooler." Another advantage is that the longer hoses required for this placement means the system carries a large volume of water so it remains even cooler.

With OBX headers and a custom 2.5" exhaust as well as software from C2 Motorsports, the blown Jetta turned in 215hp at the wheels and 226 lb-ft of torque. A Schrick cam was subsequently installed but the car hasn't returned to the dyno to have its effects measured.

As a direct consequence of the extra performance, Efrain took the precaution of swapping the transmission again. This time he swapped to the 02J gearbox from a Mk4 GTI 1.8T. He bought the trans from a friend who'd just installed a six-speed in a Mk4. The same guy also had a Peloquin diff, which was installed in return for Efrain's five-speed that was needed for a friend's car. Of course, nothing comes easy and Efrain also had to install a hydraulic master cylinder and all the lines to get the new trans working properly.

After the power had been increased, the next logical step was to optimize the chassis. "I could have bought some cheap coilovers but spent $1700 on Bilstein PSS9s because I wanted to do it right the first time," Efrain said.