Tuning up

I'm looking to make some mods to my 97 Jetta. It's a 2.0. If anyone knows of some good mods that will get a few more horses out let me know. I know the basics are the intake, headers and the exhaust, but what brands work the best? I want to turbo charge my 2.0 someday, but that will have to wait till I have more money.

First off, if you are worried about cashish, dont think too much about the header and exhaust. And it is just header, not headers, unless your a V8. Those two wont really get you that much HP neway. The intake is a good start, then i would go with some pulleys and a cam gear. Then probably a good mod after those would b a new ecu chip. All those are probably around the same price as just the header and exhaust. Hopefully that will help.

I don't know Jetta specifics, but as far as mods for such a small engine, anything will work as far as brands. If you go 100% namebrand, the difference will be marginal, and definantly not noticeable. Go cheaper instead, get an intake off ebay for $30...if you are worried about filtration, you can always buy a K&N filter and attach it to the ebay intake.

Then get a header, a highflow cat and muffler, take it to your local exhaust shop and have them build you a custom 2.5" catback. They'll build it and mount it for $200 or less.

Obviously, some will say only go name brand...well it's your car, so your decision. But I guarentee you wont notice a difference between name brand and ebay...except in your wallet.
Also realize that even with I/H/E, you will only pick up 10-20hp combined...your car will have a much more aggressive/louder sound, but power-wise don't be expecting 50hp or anything.

And in response to the other post, adjustible cam gears require dyno-tuning and a fair amount of knowledge, as you are playing with your timing...you don't wanna just jump into that

As far as chips...if you get one, make sure it is an honest chip by a reputible company. SO MANY out there are either cheap 10cent resistors sold on ebay for $20 that lie to the ECU about ambient air temps. Or just worthless wastes of a few hundred bucks....for example the venom 400 which costs you a few hundred and all it does is lie to the ECU about how far down the throttle is pushed.
Do some searching on AF in general when searching for chips...to make sure you aren't getting ripped off.