thanks a million for the info. Given the water issue with bio d the this cars history of using it plus the FI pump issue, is this a car that most likely has other water caused issues waiting to pop up? I'm a diy guy but I don't want scored piston bores in my future. Especially since he's asking top dollar for it.

Just to clarify, I was referring to the bore inside the injection pump, not the engine piston & bore

http://journeytoforever.org/media/i/injectorpump.jpg

Having said that, if the injectors get a bad spray pattern from deposits, polimerization or rust, they can hole an engine piston pretty quick in a TDi

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1225420834.jpg

an engine with injectors not spraying correctly can be checked pretty easily

if you have excessive smoke on a cold start up is one indication of a poor spray pattern (could also be excessively retarded timing which can be check via vag-com) and I would also say pull the glow plugs. You will find some soot ie carbon build up but there should not be much and the amount of build up should be pretty even between each cylinder.

pulling the glow plugs is a pretty easy task (under 30 minutes) use a deep 11mm (may be 12 can not remember right off hand) and out they come.

water in any diesel is bad news as it will eat up your injector tips pretty quickly.