He's right.
It will take a good hour to remove and at least that to put it back. Now, scrapping etc. will put you back 4 to 8 hours depending on how bad. Personally, if it looks that bad I will set it in the tank with straight spic and span - no water and let it sit over night. Do that and then use compressed air and it usually cleans up nice. Either way it takes time I guess.

We currently have an '03 and a 04.5 and the '03 has carbonned up 3 times since I rolled it off the show room floor. The '04.5 has done it 1 time. I'm pretty good at cleaning them I think.

Which BTW they are both for sale, Evil. Are you interested? The 2004.5 is an Estate Wagon (was a Jetta wagon before parts from Germany) and the 2003 is a Golf - both loaded, both with chips, air boxes, exhaust and summer and winter wheels and tires.

Cheers.

 

Wow, 20mpg is pretty bad. Wonder if he has a leak anywhere?

 

no it does not... i don't think

 

20 in this car is like having 9 psi in a dodge 2nd gen - you know something is wrong...

 

I bet you need to clean the intake manifold and EGR. Then unplug the EGR unit. You will get a CEL on the dash, but don't worry about it. It is the car telling you that the EGR is disconnected. This will prevent the soot build up.
When it is time for your emissions test, plug the EGR back in, use a OBDII tool to clear the code and take it to the testing center. Then unplug the EGR as soon as you leave the testing center.

 

This might work on the older TDI's but it won't work well on a 2003 TDI and will not do much good on a 2004.5 PD or newer.