'91 200Q Strange Happenings

["Stadmeyer, Francis" <stadmef@pweh.com>]

Hi all,

So here I am driving North to Vermont Fri. nite.  On the back roads
stuck behind several cars and a large truck.  Finally a safe area to
pass appears and I downshift to 3rd and pull out, WOT (I like to get
these passing things over quickly up there).  Suddenly I'm banging my
head on the steering wheel as the engine starts some serious misfiring.
I keep my foot in it hoping it's just a passing fad.  No such luck.
Back off the gas some and it clears up and I finish the pass without
incident (not good though - well past the no passing zone but I was
trapped).  Remember looking at the tach : 4 - 5K,  boost ~1.3 shouldn't
be a problem,  maybe I really do need to put in the cap and rotor I have
in the trunk (but I'm waiting for new wires to do it all at once).  A
little later on try it again (not while passing, in 4th or 5th gear I
don't remember)  Same result.
So I stopped putting the pedal all the way down the rest of the weekend
and had no more trouble.  Just tried it again yesterday - problem gone!
Can run to redline and max. boost (1.7bar) any gear - no problems.

Suggestions? WOT switch?  The weather was just above freezing and damp.
Later that night we had 6" of heavy wet snow.

TIA
 Frank Stadmeyer
91 200Q
89 100Q
86 Jetta GLi
85 Jetta 
73 WMB 2002 (awaiting re-incarnation)