2004 BEW no start - Motor swap, ran nice, turned it off, no start?

Thank you in advance for checking this out.
Did a motor change on a 2004 BEW jetta. Firstly, the tank fuel pump didn’t work, so I swapped that out today. It started right up after rolling the key a couple times and idled excellently for about one minute before I shut it off to tighten the power steering line because it was dripping. Put coolant in it at this point. Then it wouldn’t start back up. Code P0128 came up, but Is that really enough to keep it from starting back up? Lol please help me!
Steve

I’m guessing it is a fuel problem.

A newly installed engine would have some air in the fuel passages in the head, especially if you were trying to run it when the in tank fuel pump wasn’t working.

Once you get air in the Pumpe Duse fuel system it can take a ridiculous amount of cranking to get it to start. What you can do to purge the air out more quickly is pull out the glowplugs and crank the engine for about twenty or thirty seconds, or until you see puffs of diesel mist coming out of the glowplug holes. With no pressure in the cylinders, the injectors can push the air out much more easily.

When there is no air in the fuel system, the puffs of diesel mist that come out through the glowplug holes will be VERY obvious. If you see nothing, even after cranking for a while, then something may be preventing fuel from getting injected.

Probably not a good idea to have the wife’s Cadillac or the new baby in a stroller sitting anywhere near the front of the car while doing that. I found out the hard way.

Of course diesel makes a good bug dissolver and a great perfume.

I concur with the lack of fuel. You can use vcds to turn the pump on in the tank for 30 seconds at a time. Do that a few times.

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Thank you for the very specific instructions, Mike. Worked just like you said. It started right up after that, cleared the codes, ran it for a while. So far so good! I have a video of it running if you want to see it I’ll share that with all ya, let me know. You’ll notice the boost gauge and egt gauge don’t work. I’ll have to check that out too.

Glad to hear you got it running.

Do you know the status of the timing belt on the replacement engine? If you don't know, then you should replace that pretty soon. (And the water pump, rollers, etc)