Hi,

So here's how it turned out.

I had a faulty connection at the Hall Sensor connector (next to the
distributor) - one of the wires had broken (or was barely connected).
This I could see when I pried back the rubber boot around the wires. (I
followed the Bentley ignoring the "warm when idle" and just assumed
that it didn't idle.)

So, the problem was that the Ignition Coil had enough juice to run the
engine for a short while. It wasn't getting recharged, or wasn't
getting the voltage from the Hall unit. After it was off for a while
until it had enough voltage again.

My longstanding complaint with VW is that the wires that are most
necessary have never been a large enough gauge. Why use 22 gauge wire
going to the Hall Sensor if that is such a critical part? The O2 sensor
has a nice thick 18 gauge wire - but doesn't need to be connected to
run the engine.

In any event. Thank you all for your help.

Conrad