Hehehe, well that was an interesting day yesterday.  After I got the passenger side head off with no problems I moved  onto the driver side.. man o man, I almost sold her...lol

Here goes... first exhaust stud broke about 11 A.M.  then  the others refused to budge so I ended up breaking them. as well. That head seems to have allot more corrosion on it. I ended up snapping all of them off. then cam other head bolts.. no problems there but when I began to remove the head from the cylinders, they were stuck tight! would not budge.!!! 

My one fear at this point is that I if I pull the heads off to far I will pull the cylinders off the pistons and that, I have heard, will result in my having to pull the engine in order to get the pistons back in the cylinders. Is this true??  I have tried banging on the heads with a rubber mallet (lightly) nothing happened.... what do I use to pry the heads from the cylinders??? anyone have a special tool or technique??? Do the water jackets come off the block??

Another thing is that I do not see any of those rings they show in the Bentley book.  The ones that are suppose to be in the head where the cylinders rim rests.  Were are they???  the passenger side head seems to be missing them. I am not sure yet about the drivers side as the head is still stuck.

One more thing... Bus depot has an awesome offer on a total gasket set for the 1.9 vanagon.. the complete set with head gaskets is $99.. holy moly.. that's an awesome price considering the head gaskets alone can be way over priced... Thanks Ron!!  

More later!!!  

Tim