If you are willing to the spend the money and labor costs involved in this swap; i would also think about selling what you have and upgrade to something like the turbos s new beetle, which as all the upgrades like the six speed standard trans and the 180 hp 1.8t engine already. I went from a 2000 glx 1.8T 150 hp to the turbo s and it was a totally different car, performance wise and looked much better too!

i really didn't like the 5th hearing of the 02J and the rpms are up there, at highway speeds , the 02M has taller gears and cruises much better on the highway. If you decide to go with the 02J 5 speed; consider changing the 5th gear to the tdi version, which is better at highway speeds.