16v was in reply to another post.
the best mods for 8v have allready been mentioned in this thread and others but there is no point doing them if people have unrealistic expectations.
you can go to 170 bhp with couterflow head but thats about it there just ain't anymore there and that costs.
as has been said menay times before in meany topics but once again heer we go
head off, sort the ports else it's allways going to crap.
give it a cam kent gs2h or 266 degrees and 11.2mm lift at least.
give it an exhaust to breath through 4-2-1 is optimal and 2 1/2 inch to the tail pipe
now it'll need some air so a pannel filter will help
now the ecu will be holding it back, it needs a tweek to stop it trying to protect the cat and then some bigger squirters ( good luck sorting the ecu )
there you answerd the qusetion again but it was probaly pritty much pointless. don't do the headwork the ports will allways strangel it and reduce effectivness of all the other mods, don't need an all out race head just tidyed up and opend out the the gaskets and a bit of valve seat work will make a nice differance.
oh btw can't call me hypocrite

i have had more 8 valve golfs than you can shake a stick at, infact still have one and it even comes out occasionaly. have also built and tuned countles 8v motors for myself and others and even pulled 100bhp per ltr out of an 8 valve to prove a point when i liked them. but i got bored of them and they ran out of room for development.