Loads of white smoke but not a burnout ?

Really ? What else could it be ? You may think: "Depends where the smoke comes from". I must confess - not from spinning wheels. That's a blown cylinder head!

It's was an ordinary evening when I and my friends were cruising in town. Suddenly engine's cooling gauge went to red zone and I stopped car. Left it to calm and cool down. After three hours I was trying to start engine again. Starter motor was spinning not so easily, with some resistance so to say. Eventually I was unable to start engine and battery drained.

The car was taken back to garage where I did start it somehow, but noticed that enormous amount of white smoke coming out exhaust pipe. Everything seemed clear to me that moment - head gasket or cylinder head had cracks.

After few days I made decision to remove cylinder head and check what's inside. 

And... Suprise! A causer of arduous starter motor spin is seen. At least hydro impact to rods is avoided.

As engine almost unpicked I wanted to check bottom end. Removed pistons with wrist pins and rods. Strange, but everything looked as new, cylinder wall remained with no stripes at all and surface where as shiny as mirror. Piston ring required to be investigated and measured. These where worn out.. Piston gap was to big to continue using these rings. So have ordered new Goetze's and put it for later use. The turn for bearings has come. Didn't measure anything there, but visually they looked great. 

Sourced an another used cylinder head with all internals. It was in good condintion I have disassemled it and took for an inspection.

People who did an inspection said it was ok, have prepared surfaces and I was ready to assemble it and put back. Also did valve grinding job and replaced valve stems oil-seals.

Finally after three evenings spent in my garage I did start my Golf again. Engine was running smoothly, further I did all of the tasks needed for freshly assembled engine and etc. It didn't overheated anymore and compression check showed that I had 12.5-12.8 bar compression on every of cylinder. I was glad my Golf was back to track.