After a quick call to the VW parts desk, it turns out that what I had heard
about different pulley backings (and thus a need for a different 3 groove
pulley between engines using the regular oil seal and the syncro oil) was
not true. Both the syncro and nonsyncro use the same pulley and thus the
pulley works with both the syncro and nonsyncro oil seal. So now I have to
decide between a two part oil seal that will run $100 and one that came with
my engine gasket kit (or would run something like $5 by itself if I remember
the quotes correctly).

So I have a question for anyone that has gotten a good look at the two part
syncro oil seal - is it going to stop leaking any better? Does it look
like it will resist blowing out any better (my old seal ripped along the
face that touches the crank which I believe resulted from putting in too
much oil)? What do the two parts look like? How do the two parts fit
together? Since no dealer in the Bay area stocks this part, I cannot get a
look at it to make a gut feeling based decision ;)

dave