---- snipped --------
quick  inspection shows that the exhaust has super heated. the engine temp
guage is about a third of the way up but my nose tells me somethings really
wrong.
---- end snipped ---------

Check a few items:

AirFlowMeter for the intermitent "pauses" in power at highway full
throttle... could also be the idle switch, but I had the same thing
happening with my 1987, and after replacing the AFM it was better. (I also
had the dreaded intermittent vanagon syndrome, which has disappeared too).

If your exhaust overheats, and the engine coolant is not boiling... then it
may be a timing issue, leaky fuel injectors, or as was the case in my
situation, a switched spark plug wire.  I switched the right side
inadvertently, and although the van ran (not so smoothly) it built up enough
heat fighting with itself, that the cat became red hot within 15 minutes or
so, and the insulation from the wires above the heat shield bagan to
smoke... stank like hell.

The idea is that fuel can, when things are out of adjustment, pass out of
the cylinders, and into the exhaust ... if there is a ton of gasoline in
your pipes, burning... then it gets rather hot in there.

Hope this helps!

RSF

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Robert S. Fish
Salzburg, Austria
1987 Wolfsburg Vanagon 2.1 GL Weekender
1987 Golf Cabriolet
1991 Golf