European adventures in a 200 turbo

[Richard van der Hoff]

Hi from Slovenia^w Hungary!

So we're now on our way to Romania in a BABE-style rally in a 1984 200 turbo. Adventures so far include having to source a new alternator belt, and the centre silencer disintegrating. We've now had a new silencer welded in, so have stopped poisoning ourselves with CO. 

Anyway, we now have a new problem which I thought the list might be able to help with. The situation is that we seem to be low on power - most noticeably, the engine won't rev above 4000rpm in top gear. It seems anaemic in other gears too, though the auto box makes it a bit hard to tell :). Backing off the throttle actually gives more power and it will rev higher. There's also a smell of fuel, as though it's running rich.

A significant air leak seems unlikely since it's fine at idle. Also we're ruling out today's exhaust fix as a cause as we had the same problem with no exhaust (but bigger problems to worry about). 

Weak spark (though it was fine yesterday)? Wrong mixture under load? Any other ideas of where to start looking, given our slightly limited resources, and the fact that we're already a few hours behind schedule? 

Follow us at http://doubledrat.co.uk if you're interested!