I recently had both heads replaced, water pump and rings on my 91 Carrat
with 130K miles on it.  Before I had the work done, it ran as smooth as
can be.  I had the work done, because I have a few big trips planned for
the summer and it was starting to leak anti-freeze pretty signifcantly.
I got the van back and it doesn't leak anything, but when I first start
it up in the morning it runs really rough.  It usually stalls for the
first five minutes or so until it warms up.  Even when warm, it idles
very rough.  I took it back to the guy who did the work and he agreed
that it was running rough, but he said it was a result of the auxiliary
parts being close to warn out (air intake sensor is the only item I
remember out of about five he mentioned) and with the newly rebuilt
motor having higher compression and being tighter, it was putting more
strain on these parts thus causing the rough idle.  Not wanting to be
confrontational, and because I didn't know if there was any validity to
this logic, I accepted the story.  I don't have much experience working
on VWs, but I have rebuilt many a BMW motorcyle motor (R75s, K75s) and
have never experienced rough idle like this.  The only time I've ever
noticed a problem similar to this is when I had my timing chain of by a
link.  No matter what I did to try to get the timing correct, it either
rough idled or rough road at higher RPMs.  Is it possible that while he
was doing the head work that the timing chain got messed with?  I'm not
sure about the architecture of these motors and if he even would have
had to touch the chain, but I thought I'd throw it out there to see if
anybody had any thoughts.  Long story short... does this guy know what
he's talking about or should I have someonelse look at it?

Thanks,

-Shane
 91 Carrat