Hi BBS and welcome to the VWWA forum. Here you will find that there is plenty of information and what nots to do. As well as alot of advice from many of our members.
In your desire for more power, how about doing a vr6 conversion, very nice and abit more power than the 1.8T stock. I'm sure that you would be able to go to a few places to do it. As for finding a engine look at Golf Loon he can possibly get you an engine for it, I think he may have 1 or 2 vr6 engines lying around and possibly a 1.8T
Will look forward to see a 1.8T in a mk3 so should be good, enjoy your stay.
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