Well I have done it .... or at least I think i have blown a head gasket ?

Running along minding my own business at like 65 mph taking it easy on flat highway ... I just had completed a small climb over the Altamont pass in California.

Never got hot on the climb ....  so got on the flat side drove for another 15 miles slowl loss of power and then
temp started going threw the roof ....

Pulled over let her cool down REFILLED the coolant, tried to crank her over only to pump the water out of the over flow 

I assume the head gasket is done ........

So I have yet to do any mods ... dang it.

So what I need now are the links for parts .....

good thing this thing is a tinker toy ....

Do you think there was some other failure like the pump or the fan after the
pass hill climb or just the gasket let go because of old age or whatever.

Check the torque on the head bolts to see if they were up to spec, I don't
think you can get away with just doing that and running the engine, I think
you need to do the gasket still, but just to figure out what happened so it
doesn't happen again, like did the head bolts get weak and stretch or break

Wild

welcome to my camp deeprecon1  I know your pain man, like everybody who does this swap I think its great on paper but thats it. anyways.....call Aaron from bora tdi parts in Oregon for arp head studs (by far the cheapest anywhere) and get a OEM metal head gasket its a pretty easy job if you can leave other stuff well enough alone. mine should be done soon I hope. (then I will await the next failure). good luck and feel free to pm me for any info I can help with. ~jluck