Reliable power

[mozerman]

Im looking unto getting a dsm when going to college. Hopefully a 90-91( I like the lights better). I was wondering if there is anything i can do that will increase the reliablility and power on the car. What is about the cars that make them unreliabke? I never had one but ive heard they werent the most reliable cars. But then again, im coming from mk2 vws so it cant get much worse. I was thinking i might get a rolling shell and building a motor for it. Any ideas? Im looking into building it all myself and im not scared of building the engine myself. Im building one for my jetta now.

 

[Jeff822]

The cars relability depends on how you treat it. Make sure you have all the scheduled maintinance done before modding, keep up with everything in the car. Plugs, wires, make sure the timing belt has been changed, oil change, and do a compression test to see if the car can handle mods, etc. Then follow this http://dsmtuners.com/sub.php?page=1gtupgrades

 

[flyinghighlm]

Well any DSM is a project of some kind it just depends on the level that you are looking for. As you already know thou any turbo car is going to require rountine maintenance to keep it happy. If you start from a rolling shell build the motor, do not skimp on parts and try to save a buck here and there because that will bite you in the ass. As far as power goes what are you looking for as far as hp #'s?

Read these, they should help out,
http://www.dsmtuner.com/forums/showpost.php?p=731471&postcount=1
http://www.dsmtuner.com/sub.php?page=1gtstage0power
http://www.dsmtuner.com/sub.php?page=1gtstage1power

If you have any other Q's ask I am sure someone will help, I started out with the same goals as you and bought a car for 2500 and have put almost 2K in it to make it a good DD with the Free mods and Stage 1 and a couple Stage 2.......I went through my car and replaced just about anything I could get my hands on..... its been a month now but its worht it to take the time.

Oh what headlights do you like, pop=up or normal, 90-91 are the pop ups and 92-94 are normal, just noticed the years you put and I was not sure

 

[mozerman]

Im not looking for that much power. Im just coming from a fwd vw with 120 hp. Woot! Ive driven my friends fwd tsi with an exhaust but wanted a little more. I want to have a good base to start building up on. Is there any parts that have a bad reputation for breaking on the cars? My drive will be like 500 miles from Detroit to houghton. I plan on beating it around the roads up there and there arent alot of places to get parts. Also, is there a good setup for suspension? I dont want to lower it because of all the snow up there and I want to do a few rallycrosses. Thanks for the all the info and keep it coming.

 

[flyinghighlm]

Well if you are lookin for a bit more on the power stage 1 is still a good way (those a crank HP numbers) to go that won't cost you an arm and leg. As far as your suspension goes invest in some good coilovers so you can adjust your setup for DD and rallycross, get some strut bars, and look into replacing your suspension bushings with polyurathane ones if you wanna get froggy.
http://www.dsmtuner.com/sub.php?page=1gsuspension has alot of suspension info
Oh if thinking on racing replace your rotors and pads with some good ones, and go through the fuilds on the car and change them out as well to synthetic ones, as far as which ones thats up to you b/c there is alot of deabte on what to run.

 

[Dream On]

Find one that isn't beat to hell, that the previous owner took care of. That's the best way to catch one that's at least somewhat reliable. And afterwards, don't do anything stupid like turning up the boost to 20 psi before you have any other mods. Follow the tuning guide after ALL the maintenance is done.