ok, I KNOW  this is probably the most talked about subject about our baby Suzukis. So I have an 88 Suzuki Samurai ,i wrecked it.. 5 yrs. ago. and im re-storing it (finally) . I need to cut the whole front end off of it just to get it off on the fact i wrecked it and its rusted after 5yrs. and today actually i found a guy selling a 2001 VW Jetta 2.0L... I need good advice on this .. because i've onlly read about a 1.9l and possible V6 conversions. i really would like a 2.0 in my Sammy and nothing less ...O and this motor is a NON-desel motor .. So any good advice would be Greatly helpful

Money always is a factor, but with that said, there are many options.  I personally have a Toyota 22r in my 87 sammy and I love it.  It seems like the later model 1.6l 16v is the most popular, but not necessarily the best in my opinion.  I have heard of people doing the the diesel VW engine swaps, and they seem to like them.  I would be curious to how much power they would have.  Extreme 4x4 did one of these swaps with a turbo, and it seemed pretty cool.  I would be cautious with the VW motors though.  I know of 2 people that have had Jetta's around the same year you have described, and both of them blew up their motors.  And they were still in there Jetta's, not doing hard off-road use.   A close friend of mine that it is a respected mechanic says he sees alot of these in his shop.  They have cheap pumps that use plastic fan blades that fail and the engines over heat.  If you trouble shoot these engines and find a way to working out kinks they may work fine.  Some people say the 22r is to hard to convert, but in my opinion, if your going to swap make sure you put in the engine you want, not necessarily whats easiest to install.  My buddy has a Toyota 3rz in his Toyota truggy, and I think that would be sweet in a sammi if it could be done.   

I am no VW fan. the engine i my boat was a VW Diesel converted to a fresh water cooled marine engine. I never ran it over 3000 and cruised at 2k to 2.2 K . It blew up at about 400 hours from a broken water pump..Yep a broken water pump. It seems VW uses the timing belt to drive the waterpump. When it fails and it will the valves hit the pistons and if it lives you will need to replace all the valves and pump or you get what I did a broken rod, piston, damaged head, and valves. My step sons Jetta did the same thing last summer. I have had lots of problems with VW engines over the years but these were just a waste.