[16v] Newbie (of sorts), with questions.

[doubt at inwave.com (Nate Mellom)]

I've joined the hallowed ranks of the 16v'rs, with this:
<http://bronson75.tripod.com/redroc/>
All's well and good, for the most part.  It has a somewhat floppy 
shifter, a messed up passenger seat, and $3145 is repair and parts 
receipts since August 2003.  My major concern is the fact that at low 
revs, pulling away from a stop, it has NO power, it chugs along until 
the revs get up (sometimes almost to the point of dying).  I played with 
it for a bit after work today, and came up with the following.

:All of the following was done under the hood, fingering the throttle:

When it's cold, it revs fine from idle.  Ramps up nice, comes back down 
to idle okay.  But when there's a point, during the warm up, when the 
idle drops a wee bit, and then it gets wierd.  If I lay on the throttle, 
the engine bogs down, and almost stalls, but as the revs get up, it 
evens out.  If I blip the throttle repeatedly, working the revs up, I 
can hear the airbox sucking, and sometime at lower revs (depending on 
how fast I blip the throttle), I get small backfires, seemingly inside 
the airbox.  As the blips continue, the revs go up, and if it drops to 
idle, it'll rev just fine, until I let it idle for 30-45 seconds, then 
the blipping/revving results in bogging and backfire popping.  I checked 
the air filter (as it seems like the airflow is being blocked), but it's 
  fine.  I haven't taken the cold air intake ducting off yet, but I 
don't think it's the problem.  From the reciepts, it seems the PO had a 
lot of cold-start issues (I don't), and he had a lot of work done, 
including new air/fuel filters, timing check, mixture check, tuneup (all 
these within the last year), and a new (used) distributor installed in 
August this year.  He had the throttle plate cleaned and adjusted as 
well.  I haven't had a lot of time to play with it, but I checked the 
basics this afternoon, vacuum hoses, air filter, a basic once-over.

If anyone out there could give me some ideas, I'd appreciate it.  I 
don't have a manual for it (still trying to download the Bentley), and 
I'd like to get it running well.  My first MkII experience ended poorly, 
and I'd like this one to work out!

Nate
'81
'88