Well, I am not one to remove emission controls, especially the evap parts, as otherwise you'll have gasoline evaporating constantly out of the fuel system. And I understand on a turbocharged engine they need to have some check valves, to deal with positive intake pressures, but why they had to make it so darn complex is what stumps me. The breather system alone makes my head hurt, and they changed it again on the 2.0t engines... now they have a 'pressure regulating valve' that routinely breaks and allows the boost to go into the crankcase... always good for the engine seals, eh?
Actually, the 1.8t also has a pressure regulating valve of sorts, kinda like a PCV, but rather than bolted to the valve cover it is buried under the intake down low near the breather box connection.... with little crimp clamps on everything.
The intake manifold is not hard to take off, once the coolant pipe is removed, which IS a pain in that it screws into that darn plastic coolant neck on the rear of the head, that has about a 50/50 chance of leaking after you touch it.
Sorry to rant, been having a lot of 1.8t B5s in lately, one here now actually. I guess I should be happy, as I am starting to know part numbers by heart now.