mk3 golf 1.4 hesitant on acceleration..

[Ladvr6]

The birds car has almost got me beat, hopefully one of you might know a fix...

started a while back but steadily got worse...when accelerating the car judders intermitantly as if a lead has gone down, not at any particular place in the rev range, but once its gone above say 2.5k it normally clears.
checked all earths, inlet or exhaust gaskets not leaking, then changed:

sparks,
leads,
dizzy,
rotor,
borrowed a brand new coil,
then done a compression test, no.1 was down, shortly after it over heated so assumed head gasket.
vac test showed exhaust valve not seating right, replaced and skimmed head.
replaced headgasket,
replaced thermostat,
serviced car,
put it back together (twice as snapped exhaust stud in the head!)
and.......its no different!!

any ideas would be gratefully received as i'm close to a 'Falling Down' moment.

Thanks.

[Silverbullet767]

ECU? Maybe a reset needed? (read, take it out and put it back in again)

Worked on my first car (ka, hesitant acceleration and revving on its own)

[Ladvr6]

I'll give it a go, thanks mate!

[brisel]

Mass Air Flow sensor. When they go, they don't necessarily throw a fault code. A test drive with the VAG COM diagnostic computer plugged in should be able to display the MAF readings. MAFs are pretty unreliable, especially on VAG cars.

Change it anyway - a non OEM one might be about £75.

The only other guess would be a coil pack, but it sounds like you have already covered that one.