Low power at low RPM's

This problem started last summer and I have been frustrated with it since. My car was working fine, then one hot day with the air conditioning on I noticed very sluggish performance while trying to accelerate. I always noticed this with the "air" on but this was worse. After turning the air off the performance did not improve to where it was before. I have tried advancing and retarding the timming, unplugging the wastegate pressure hose from the N75, so the wastegate stays closed. None of these things made any improvement at all! I hooked up VW tools and got an arror code of MAP (manifold absolute pressure out of range) intermittent. Plus the standard glow plug monitoring intermittant. But that was last summer, nothing since. The black line from the boost feed to the intake, to the ECU, is not blocked or leaking. Here's the odd thing, the power is fine once I get up to speed. I can accelerate fine on the highway and I have no top end performance issues, it's just getting there that I'm having trouble. In 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, the power doesn't come on untill I reach 2,100 RPM and then it comes on nicely all the way up. My worst situation is trying to accelerate from a stop, up hill, with four adults in the car. Any ideas? Thanks guys!

Assuming your air and fuel filters are ok, my bet would be an air leak or restriction that the MAF is not regulating.

Have you removed the mouse nest, aka snow screen from the bottom of the air intake box?

Well you are right about the MAF Howler! I checked all the pressure and vacuum lines for leaks this afternoon, everything fine, checked the movement of the wastegate, (thought it may have been blocked slightly open) everything fine, checked the filters, everything fine. Replaced them last fall, but looked and checked anyway. I read in a search on this subject that the MAF can be checked by unplugging it and checking the performance, and sure enough I had much better power right away. Something odd here though, I didn't get a CEL and I had forgot to plug it in the past one time and the CEL came on within a few seconds, wierd. Next I took the MAF out, and it was coated in suit!? No suit in the top of the air box but from the MAF through the flex pipe and the intake snorkle, as far as I could see, suit! I cleaned everything up the best I could including the Pierburg MAF. I reassembled and plugged everything in and, even better. Real nice power like I had before! I had heard these 1Z MAF's were not prone to problems and I don't think they are as I could clean it up and regain its function. Somehow I'm getting oil in the low pressure side of the intake stream, and that's a new development. Anyhow I'm feelin' good about getting eveything working well again but now I have to figure out why I'm getting that oil in the intake plumbing. Probably introduced by the infamous EGR. I hope this helps some one else out some day!

Johnny