85 5000 turbo accelaration and tranny problems

[Ivan Tuma]

here is an odd problem i've had on my '85 5k turbo...i wonder if anyone 
else has had something similar.

the car is an '85 5k turbo automatic with 128k miles with a high 
performance wastegate spring.
the car has never run right ... the latest problem is when I'm 
accelerating at around 3500 rpm with about
half throttle and about 1.2-1.3 bars of boost, the car looses power 
(stutters almost like the ignition is retarding due to
pinging) the yellow engine light does NOT come on at this point 
indicating to me that pinging is not the problem.
I am running 91 octane at mile-high altitude ... I have replaced most of 
the fuel injection hardware with no
noticable improvement other than a slight increase in performance after 
replacing the fuel filter.... i'm thinking
that this is probably more ignition related than anything else ... i had 
a friend's shop replace the timing belt and i've
gone back to check the engine/valve/ignintion time several times and I'm 
99% certain they are dead on.

when cruising on the highway, i can tell the car has potential to be a 
"go-er", as they would say in Monty Python,
but again, once I reach the magic boost number of 1.2-1.3 between 
3500-4000rmp, the car stutters and will not push over
85mph without protesting (so I don't force it) ... this car ...even 
though it never felt 100% right, did go over 135mph without protest
when I first bought it 6 years ago.

it doesn't burn oil, and it gets about 22mpg going to and from work ... 
it only gets castrol syntech and I have made sure the
automatic gets good ATF and the differential gets synthetic gear oil. 
... this brings up another problem ...
the automatic, when cold, occassionally doesn't like to shift out of 
gears untill you reach over 3000rpm... I know it's probably
a gonner but, what causes this probem ... I had the same thing on an '86 
5000 non-turbo ... i flushed it out , put new fluid in,
added Trans-Medic drove it until it got better again and sold it.

I just want to enjoy this thing for one week before it falls appart and 
I sell it for parts ... any words of wisdom out there?

Ivan