[Silver1998Beetle]

Hello everyone. This is my very first post. I am a little lost. A few weeks ago I purchased my first car, a 1998 Manual non TDI 2.0 L new beetle. It is in great shape body wise and has only 85k miles. I love it a lot and have gone through replacing a lot of things. I bought all new brakes for it, new exhaust which it needed and also replaced most sensors and just purchased a new mass airflow sensor.


I really love the way cone filters look, I love how they sound as well and with most cars they run clean and suck cold air in as intended. But with the Beetle mod. The way to do it is to remove the OEM air box and replace it with a air intake filter attatched directly to the mass airflow sensor. This looks nice and sounds nice but of course it defeats the purpose of cold air intake. It will only be sucking warm air from around the engine bay.


How can I get cold air to suck through? Is it possible? And is sucking the warm air bad for the engine at all?

 

[billymade]

Here is a thread where a 1.8T owner; fabricated piping to get cold air to the cone filter setup. I think, if there is a possibility of water getting into this intake piping; hydrolocking the engine, could be a possibility.

https://www.newbeetle.org/forums/1-8-liter-turbo/61533-007s-build-thread.html#/topics/61533

 

[billymade]

Because the 2.0L is a low power economical base engine and does not have much in the way of cost effective vs a substantial power upgrades benefit (e.g. cams, neuspeed super charger and much more expensive turbo upgrades etc), I would just keep things stock. The stock airbox is said to not be very restrictive, brings in cold air and doesn't have issues with water ingress and engine hydrolocking.

If you wanted a improvement in breathing with the stock airbox; a k&n drop in filter, does add a better throttle response/acceleration, for about $50. I have had this type filter on my1.8T, for many years and I think it is a good compromise; in keeping the stock airbox intact but improving the breathing/throttle response of the engine.

Long term, if you want a higher performing new beetle and a good foundation for performance upgrades; i would sell the 2.0L model and upgrade to a Turbo S model with the 180 HP 1.8T AWP engine and rhe six speed 02M transmission.

 

[Smileybug]

^ Yup. In order to properly get cold air into the intake with a cone filter, you're going to run the risk of hydrolock. I had one on my GTI when I got it. Immediately swapped to the stock filter. I'm even tuned and still running the stock airbox.

You won't get any power from a CAI, especially on a 2.0. You'll get noise for sure. But that's about it. If you like the look, just swap a cone filter for the stock airbox. If you want performance, I'd just leave the stock airbox alone.

 

[XavierNusum]

Because the 2.0L is a low power economical base engine and does not have much in the way of cost effective vs a substantial power upgrades benefit (e.g. cams, neuspeed super charger and much more expensive turbo upgrades etc), I would just keep things stock. The stock airbox is said to not be very restrictive, brings in cold air and doesn't have issues with water ingress and engine hydrolocking.

If you wanted a improvement in breathing with the stock airbox; a k&n drop in filter, does add a better throttle response/acceleration, for about $50. I have had this type filter on my1.8T, for many years and I think it is a good compromise; in keeping the stock airbox intact but improving the breathing/throttle response of the engine.

Long term, if you want a higher performing new beetle and a good foundation for performance upgrades; i would sell the 2.0L model and upgrade to a Turbo S model with the 180 HP 1.8T AWP engine and rhe six speed 02M transmission.

Billy pretty much nailed it here. There aren't any economical ways of getting more performance out of the NA 2.0L. You could do like drag79stang and set it up for handling and make it ride like on rails.

Aside from that take Bill's advice like I did and sell the 2.sl0 and get a turbo VW. I went with the GTI because the Turbo S Beetles in my neck of the woods were just ragged out.

 

[Smileybug]

You could do like drag79stang and set it up for handling and make it ride like on rails.

drag79stand has a newer Beetle with the 2.0T so he's also got power mods. Different beast!

 

[red99]

These cars have an interesting little thing called the snowbox. It is an extra airbox in the intake with a wire mesh screen in it. It is located in the fender under the battery. The actual air intake goes from there to the top of the fender not too far from the air filter box. I was able to demonstrate a 4 hp gain by removing the snowbox and some of the extra intake plumbing:

https://www.newbeetle.org/forums/te...1114-horsepower-increase-snowbox-removal.html

From my years of experience with the 2.0 I would say the most important performance items are a coil pack, plug cables and fuel pump/filter that are all in top shape. Especially, if the fuel pump is more than 10-12 years old I would replace it.

 

[bugst3r]

Remove the snowbox and cut out the bottom front/left side of the airbox and add a K&N filter. You'll basically get a cold air intake with protection from heat as well.