Sounds like you may have a clogged cat. How many miles on the car?

The cat isn't that hard to remove. Take it out, and shake it. You will likely hear a bunch or rattling. You can try to shake out the broken pieces of the "brick". This takes time and patience, but should unclog the cat for a while.

you know, i was just wondering about this, but I have an update. I have made some progress. During the hose job, i didnt see a few vacuum lines:

turbo-precontrol area up top, near the EGR and BOV vacuum lines. I replaced the 3 other hoses.
Rear compressor housing to lower intake
Two that go to that pre control? the thing that looks like a bov.

anyways, i pulled off the hoses, they looked OK. Hard, but not cracked. I replaced them and wa-la ... I am now getting 10psi on primary turbo.

Now for the pattern. I made 5 pulls in either 2nd or 3rd gear. Holds 10psi all the way to transission... then it hits hard...nothing smooth about the transition, it feels like hitting a 50 shot of nitrous. The pattern seems to be 10-13-8 ... again, it is spiking during transition instead of losing 2psi. it instantly jumps 13 to fades to about 8psi and stays right there. I was wondering about the cat as well, as it is a factory cat and I have no idea the condition it is in (pre cats are removed)... the cat MAY explain the losing boost,but does not explain the spike during transition...

I feel like I am ALMOSSST there..... I can see some light at the end of the tunnel. Where to look next ...?

Did you replace the two hoses that are supposed to have pills in them?

yes, i did and i put the pills in the new hoses. I used a point phillips head to make sure the pills stayed lined up correctly.

news update. I have a perfect 10-8-10 in first gear.

2nd and 3rd are still 10-14-8

Still working on it..

edit

boost is restored, car is running great! When I posted 10-8-10 in first, and spiking in 2nd and higher gears, I still had the airbox off the car (for test purposes). I now have 10-8-10 consistantly. Thank you everybody that offered advice.

Quick summary for those who land hear in the future:

This fixed the car:

Total vacuum job
Lubed and tested solenoids, replaced 2 of them
replaced all check valves

And I learned in the process that open air intakes cause my car to spike 4 to 6psi during transition.

So jealous :-). When you say that you lubed your solenoids, did you just spray WD40 into the nipples of those? I have my UIM off because I too have a stock car with just a DP and I can't get over 4-5 psi in primary and have no transition or secondary turbo boost. I am down to the rats nest and have been replacing vac lines but I need to remove the nest do I can get to more of the line and fully. Heck the solenoids. I have just applied voltage to them while still in the car and they are all clicking, but I am sure that is not a complete test.

Trev