Gregg:
That was a good conversation, with a lot of ground still to cover.
I just have to share a little bit of my excitement. My valvetrain parts are shipping from TechTonics Tuning. I should have them early next week. These guys are "THE" name in VW components. They put together a very nice package of rare and exotic stuff for my 1.5/1.6/1.9 Diesel engine. (Actually, nothing is super rare, or exotic, but the combination of parts for this engine is unique). What's cool about so much of the VW stuff is that a lot of the components are shared between engine series, so if you know what parts work with which other parts, you can put together some neat combos. I'll be running an "AAZ" 1.9L head, using 7mm stem valves which were not stock to this head, dual valve springs from an 8V gasser, custom matched valve seats, retainers, and keepers for this combo, and lightweight lifters with some kind of teflon-type coating from a later model 2.0L gasser.
I have to give a big shout out to the guys at TechTonics, especially Colin, for helping me work through this combination. They ordered in some valves, just to find out if they would work with this setup. When the first valves weren't quite right (1.5mm too long), they dug back into the depths of VW part numbers and specifications to come up with the right stuff. Not everyone can or will go that extra mile, but I can wholeheartedly endorse TechTonics tuning.
Steve M.