So my car feels a lil sluggish. Sometimes it feels normal, bossting hard in all gears, then sometimes it will fall short in 3rd (by fall short I mean it doesn't feel as strong, the engine doesn't cut out or anything)

Then sometimes it'll feel less powerful in all gears. I thought it might have been the compression, but it seems the compression is good. My numbers were:
150-150-160-152 from belts to trans.

Seems pretty consistent to me, and the numbers dont seem low, unless I'm completely wrong, I even checked them twice.

Some things that I know of that could be a problem are:

Cracked bov, not all the way through, but on the flange there's a crack, I gotta jb weld it.

A short somewhere, not sure where, but when I turn on my blinkers the lights dim every time the blinker blinks. And when I give the car gas, the headlights get brighter, I've checked everywhere and can't find a bad ground.

Some kind of fuel problem, I'm running rich as hell, at least I think I am, the exhaust smell is really strong. And my gas is going way too fast, not sure if its due to my heavy foot and the addiction of the bov melody, or some other cause. The other day I smelled fuel really strong in the car, but I had the access panel for the fuel pump open (not the panel on the fuel tank just the lil aluminum panel to get access to the connectors.

My headlights still won't turn off with the headlight switch, I have to go and unplug the relay to get them to shut off, I still can't figure that one out. They turn off with the switch when the car isn't on, but when I turn the car on, the headlights will not turn off with the switch.

Lastly, and I don't think this is relativ e to the power loss, but I have a leak where the tranny bolts to the bell housing. Its leaking trans fluid. Not sure where from exactly but somewhere in that area.

So, sorry for the novel, but I'm not sure what would cause the power loss, so if you guys could give some insight, I'd appreciate it.

User warned for topic, If you know there are things wrong with the car that are going to effect performance, fix it first before asking. Follow the rules, and read the sticky stating what you must do before posting a tech question.

Have you done a boost leak test?

Not yet, I don't have a boost leak tester

How much boost are you running again? Hows your knock sensor? Other than that the BLT would be your best place to start like joe said.

I'm at 15-16 psi, and I'm not sure what you mean by how's my knock sensor, its there, but I'm not dure how to tell the status of it.

And I know I gotta do a blt, but I don't have a tester, unless someone wants to let me borrow one

The reason i ask is because if your knock sensor has gone bad then it could be pulling timing at random intervals (because the ecu thinks theres knock). Its easy to see if its ok all you have to do is reach around the back of the block and find it screwed into the block. If it feels/looks like there's something gooey then that's a dead knock sensor.

Ill have to check it when I go on lunch, are they expensive?

Also, I'm not sure what my compression should be at, do those numbers seem ok?

The numbers seem ok even though cylinder 3 is higher than the others. The service limit for a 2g turbo (7bolt) is 133psi, and for a 1g (6bolt) is 121. A knock sensor usually runs around $60? Around there.

I thought as long as they were within 10% of each other it was fine, I was more worried about the numbers, but they seem to be good then.

Like I said ill check the knock sensor, hopefully its that and not something major, and of course a BLT.

If your knock sensor is bad I have a used one that was working when I took it off my car. You can have it if you need it.

Thanks ill keep that in mind.

Ok, I checked the knock sensor and it didn't seem gooey to the touch, however when I pulled my hand out from behind the engine, I felt a film on my fingers. Not sure if it was that or the carls jr. Famous star that I had for lunch.

If its bad is it kinda like a film? There was no color to it either.

Oh and jstoned has a boost leak tester that he's gonna help me with today. So I should be able to eliminate that problem. Also, 97spyderGs has an extra knock sensor off of a 7bolt block he bought, so I think I might just switch that just in case. I wanna try to eliminate these problems.

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You've been warned.

There's a goo sort of noise insulation in it. If you feel the goo has melted out, it's dead, if it's still there and good, it's probably good. Boost leak test should always be first and foremost. I do a test on my car once a month, and for those that have seen my setup, it's very simplified , solid one piece IC pipes with as little couplers (4 couplers total) as possible and only BOV and FPR vacuum lines.
Richness and sluggishness are tell tale signs of a boost leak. But intermittant power loss are signs of a dead/dying knock sensor.

Thanks for the warning illeagle, you're the best

Anyway, did the boost leak test and the BISS was leaking, and of course the bov, took that off and found that it was cracked completely through. I jb welded it and I'm letting it cure overnight so right now I'm using a 1g bov that I found.

Did some deep searching under the dash and found one connector not connected behind the fuse box, connected it and now my headlights function normally.

The running rich problem I think was due to a bad o2 sensor so I swapped that out. During that process I managed to completely strip the threads on the turbo to manifold bolts, and the threads on the turbo for those bolts. So I bought some nuts and bolts to put it back together.

So no more running rich, no more boost leaks, but I still don't know if its fixed cause the 1g bov is unmodded and I'm pretty sure its not holding the 15psi I'm running, so when the greddy bov is fixed Ill reinstall it and see if the power loss has subsided.