I drive a beautiful 1987 TII, under the 100k mile mark and ran very strong until about a week ago. I get in it, drive it on the highway, begin to accelerate and she just died! I pulled off, pulled over and tried to turn it over, nothing. A friend came and jumped me, took a few tries, but it finally turned over. It ran extremely choppy, and if the rpms fell below 2k at idle, the car really convulsed, ready to give up. I kept the tach high, and carefully drove it home and made sure the rpms stayed between 2k and 4k. It yielded almost no power, and took a minute to build up power from the turbo before I could make it up hills or accelerate away from stops. The car will turn over, and will idle without dying, but like I said, extremely choppy. I guess a compression check is in order, which I will get done and report back, but any ideas? It gives the feel that reminds of how when an intake tube becomes loose and detached, but I checked and rechecked them, all attached. Anyone encounter this ever? I appreciate it big.

 

I had the vacuum lines looked at, apparently they're all connected, so unless there's a leak somewhere, it's not a disconnected vacuum line.

 

Check for an air leak upstream of the AFM. Unmetered air will severely affect performance. Otherwise, you cannot necessarily find a vacuum or air leak visually. There are ways to do definitive tests for such leaks and if you do a search of the forum you will find suggestions on how to do that.

Basically, if you mildly pressurize (like 10 psi or less) the intake piping, you will quickly learn if there is an air leak. For the vacuum lines, carefully and sparingly spraying a little starter fluid around the lines with the engine running will help locate any vacuum leaks.