not getting all the power

Ok i just recently put my 87 TC on the road. It seems that it doesnt have all the power it should have. When i drive it, it feels like the car has a sweet spot. When i push the pedal all the way to the floor, it really doesnt feel like the turbo is working, but you can hear the turbo and the gauge says 15lbs. If i back the pedal off alittle bit you can then feel the boost, but the gauge only reads 5 lbs. It feels like it wants to go but you can feel a miss in it as well. Kind of like a surging or something is holding it back. I put new plugs, wires, fuel filter, coil, cleaned iac, Tps is set at .97 alittle high but that thing is a pain to adjust, got a K&N in the mail as well as new cap, rotor, PCV valve. It has some old gas in it but i filled up with 93 so that should even it out. I checked for air leaks around the IC but couldnt find any. What should i check next? Thanks

How well did you check for leaks? Did you take the hoses off and squeeze them, looking for cracks. Sometimes cracks open up under boost and otherwise it's very hard to see them. What you describe could be a boost leak

If the cap and rotor isn't on yet, wait on that and see. But also boost leaks like Pete said. Take the hoses off and squeeze them to see if they have any splits. Also check the VAM hose to see if it's got the spring in it to make it stiff, it could be collapsing.

Well the cap and rotor wont be here until saturday, but i will recheck the hoses.

also check your timing and make sure you take the little pill out when you set it i had that problem and remembered 2 days later that i forgot to take the pill out and took it out reset the timing and away it went, the turbo would spool up the gauge would read 15 or so lbs. and it just wouldnt go any faster that was my problem

Disconnect your knock sensor.

Alright guys i went out today to check my timing and i realized that the timing marks were on that plastic cover that i only have half of. So will this work, if i set the crank at #1 TDC then put a mark on the block and crank pulley. Then with my timing light set the distributor 10* BTDC, because i can retard the flash on my light.

i dont really understand what your saying maybe someone else will but make sure you are at tdc and the #1 piston is at the top and not at the bottom b/c i did that once forgot the check the piston and make sure it was actually at tdc, i just went through all this stuff for about 2 months but i got it finally

Originally posted by freebyrd:
Alright guys i went out today to check my timing and i realized that the timing marks were on that plastic cover that i only have half of. So will this work, if i set the crank at #1 TDC then put a mark on the block and crank pulley. Then with my timing light set the distributor 10* BTDC, because i can retard the flash on my light.

Should work.

Ok I was at the local junkyard today looking for some little odds and ends for the TC. Well i walked by this 88 mustang and seen that it had the 2.3l in it. So i grabbed the plastic cover off with the timing marks on it. THis cover should have the same marks as the TC cover had right? If so i will just use that one.