haven't seen a write up but shouldn't be hard remove upper plenum, remove timing belt, sprockets etc, remove lower plenum then remove heads...
wasnt very hard on my NA > i already had EGR removed so only took a few hours. would take alot longer on a TT and if you haven removed EGR also.. if you have any question i might be able to help a little with anything but the turbo stuff..
just make sure u know what you're doing... new head gaskets, bolts, etc.... DON'T just use the old ones! hahahaha
It is in tech sect.A to Z Head Removal. Follow it closely, dont bend any pipes, & if it wont come off it still has a bolt holding it some where. There is also a 10mm bolt under each head. I would personally remove the engine next time.
There is an article in the tech section. I chose to remove engine ( TT) You can do lots of BLING BLING BLING !!!!! I don't agree that it shouldn't be hard with engine in.
Getting them off is one thing Getting them back on would be a major PITA. Pull the engine Con - I found out the hard way
give it a go but... I got the heads off in the car, but it took a lot of swearing. ended up pulling the bottom end out afterwards and reassembling out of the car. NA would be much easier
Its hard enough on a TT to get the manifolds off with the engine out of the car. I have no idea how you could ever do it properly and replace them with the engine IN THE CAR.
I did it with the engine in the car but I had a big advantage (time) I did the job on weekends over two months. It wasn't too bad but if I had to do the job again I would think about trying it with the engine out. I'm not sure which way I would go. Ask any questions you want about how to do it. Either way its a big job.
Con the job IS definately doable BUT there are many other things you will want to do that are SO much easier done with engine out. I have just finished helping my mechanic replace the headgasket with the engine in and he wouldn't do it the same way again. The hardest part was lowering the passenger side head/turbo while lowering the dipstick simultaneously. The reason this was difficult is because it is very hard to remove the heads without bending the dipstick, hence the problem lining it back up.
I did the job in the car because even though I have an engine crane the task of either pulling it out with the transmission on our splitting the transmission seemed a pretty hard task. The top bolts on the transmission are in a bugger of a place and are very tight. If you decide to go ahead with the job let me know and I'll send you some photos that will help. The hardest parts (in car) are the passenger side head removal and replacement and the EGR removal. There's a lot of other jobs to do while you have the plenum off so you need to plan ahead.
