[JP Noonan]

After a car sits that long I assume you drained the gas, changed the oil, pulled the plugs and oiled the cylinders and changed plugs. Try injector cleaner. Did you have to use starter fluid? Check the air filter, and look into the intake manifold to see if maybe the cold start valve is stuck open.
About the block, you have a hydralic lifter block (it originally came with hyd lifters) but if it has 914 heads (it sounds like it does) then someone may have put in solid lifters and a solid cam. Or they may have just put in solid lifters (not a good idea). Look at the fan housing, if it is void of a black plastic plug then they should be hydro (the GE 78-79 bus block I have has no plug and a little stick on the housing showing how to addjust the preload on the lifters). I say this because if they didn't switch housings they probably didn't mess with the block. The only way to really tell is to remove a valve cover, rocker arm assy, and a pushrod tube. Look at the top of the lifter, if you see a retaining wire inside the lifter it is a hydralic. It is hard to discibe though so go to a VW store first and ask to look at a solid and a hyrdalic lifter. Notice the difference in the part where the pushrod contacts it.