2005 BEW start, then no start after head replacement

Hi all,
I recently bought a 2005 TDI BEW Beetle with 175,000 miles from a friend. Planned to replace the timing belt as soon as I got home but on the way home the timing belt broke :< . (what are the odds!). Fortunately she paid me for a replacement head as the belt replacement was 15,000 miles overdue. Put on the head and successfully started the engine after about 2 minutes of intermittent cranking, which I assume was because fuel lines needed clearing of air. It ran at idle for about 30 seconds and then it just stopped; I can't get it started again. I've changed many timing belts on ALH's but this is the first head/timing belt on a BEW. I have the proper timing belt tools and triple checked cam and crank TDC positions and torqued everything to spec before initially starting it.

I have VCDS - no codes.

I used a mity-vac to pull the fuel through the fuel system. It took about 15 seconds to get any fuel and after that fuel with quite a few bubbles - is that normal? (In ALH it is not so I am assuming it is not o.k. with BEW as well). To pull fuel through I disconnected the return fuel line just before the fuel filter and also plugged the filter return fitting.

I then cycled the fuel pump about 6 times using VCDS basic settings block 35 - but no luck starting it.

Charged the battery overnight and made sure cranking was good.

Since no codes I assume the cam and crank sensors are o.k. I did not replace them when I had the head off.

What else to check? I suppose it could have jumped a tooth on the timing belt but seems unlikely - is there a way to check crank TDC without taking the pulley and lower timing belt cover off? What else to check?

Thanks for any help!
Ken

No start mystery continues

The mystery continues. I went back and double checked the timing belt. Everything lined up perfectly as when I put it together. It seemed to be cranking slow even after charging overnight so I bought a new TDI battery. I used block 35 to pump more fuel through the system. ASV valve is open (from others' post it seems the default is open). No codes. The new battery speeded up the cranking considerably, from 170 rpm to more than 230. After cranking twice for about 20 seconds it did start, and ran perfectly for about 30 seconds. I revved it up some, all seemed fine, and then it just died. I couldn't get it going again after 3 or 4 more tries and I don't want to burn out the starter.

I'm assuming the problem must be either some mysterious fuel issue or an electrical issue related to the injectors. Found a thread where someone said the connector to the ECM was intermittently bad and it did not give the signal for fuel. But I took a screenshot while cranking the engine and seem to indicate all is o.k. with fuel getting injected. Any other things that I should be looking at?
http://pics.tdiclub.com/showphoto.php?photo=124318&title=vcds-image-1&cat=500
http://pics.tdiclub.com/showphoto.php?photo=124319&title=vcds-image-2&cat=500

230 RPM may be to slow for the ECU to start the engine.
Long shot, take the alternator belt off and try starting it.
Thinking some accessory may be seized.
Did you get the correct head gasket? Thickness holes.
Last, your VCDS picture, 37.8C is about 100F.
Is it that hot by you?

230 RPM is plenty to start the engine. It was a brand new battery that was turning at that rate. I put on the right head gasket - triple checked that before ordering it. 100F degrees is cold temp - I am in central california - 100F is only 15 degrees above my garage temp.

Turned out to be a rookie mistake, though I double checked everything. I attached the fuel lines correctly, and then thought I should double check with a diagram. The diagram I checked (which I cannot now find of course!) had the intake line to the tandem pump on the bottom and the return line on the top, so I put them that way (backwards). . I realized my mistake and swapped them back - the fuel line from the filter enters the tandem pump at the top; it still took some cranking to get it going even after I used block 35 and ran the in-tank fuel pump three times for 30 seconds each time. Finally it started and runs just fine. Anyway, I've learned a lot about BEW fuel supply in the meantime.... Thanks for all the help !

Glad to hear it was something simple.