2005 beetle tdi weird issue

I am working on my 2005 beetle tdi pd dsg. Car has 212,500 miles.
At 200,000 received a new transmission, has had timing belts swapped on time evertime. I do vw timing belts, axles and general maintenance as a side job.
The car has been getting louder and low on power. I have the car doing a camshaft now. The factory cam still had the the chamfer on all lobes, but the back side of the lobes were scored. The lifters were slightly scored but not bad. Anyways when removing I found the egr was completely clogged.
Here is my biggest issue with car.
It has no power, the turbo actuator is working correctly.
In first gear it will not shift Till around 4,000 rpm and it takes a long time to get there. Car never picks up power. It will cruise at 70 mph fine, it just has a hard time getting there.
My father has a 2004 that is identical to mine. I also do all work on his. His car has within 5,000 miles of mine but his at half throttle will outrun mine at full throttle.
Could this be a issue with a clogged catalytic converter?
I did clean her and will be putting car back together in the am. Will clogged her cause power issues?
What about a dirty maf?
I have had 5 tdi vehicles, alh’s, pd’s and cr. I have a diesel ranger with 50hp and that’s about what my car feels like.
Lastly with my 2005 and my fathers 2004 sitting side by side my car clicks lauded. The car cranks fast and is dependable, but just slow.
All maintenance is up to date, new in tank pump and changed fuel filter 3 times.

Also my mileage sucks. 10,000 mile ago I was getting 44mpg, now I’m doing around 35
Sorry for the novel. Any help appreciated

Whats a eve? Intake?

A quick cheap way to check the cat is to pull the oxygen sensor and take it for a test drive see if you’ve got any more power. It’ll be loud.

Is this low power after the cam change? Low power could be all on the cam if it hasn’t been changed yet.

Or your new transmission could be having solenoid issues or on its way out already.

what is a dirty "mag" ...have you checked to see if it's making boost? any codes? do you have vcds ? turbo shaft or compressor could be broken and it not lose oil, but would set an underboost code

I posted this with my iPhone. Autocorrect issues. The eve is the egr. Egr was clogged.
My dirty mag was supposed to be maf.
There are no codes and no cel. I do have vagcom.
Transmission has 10,000 miles on it. Shifts great, and feels smooth. To me it feels as if it is a power loss issue.
Lastly I will have the car running today, I am doing the camshaft as we speak

Did you replace the cam? It sounds bad.

Also check the EGR cooler pipe that run to the exhaust manifold. They are prone to cracking if someone leaves the mounting bolts off.

I am doing cam today. The old cam has scoring on the back side of lobes

Does the turbo actuator hold a vacuum?

I finished up a billet cam swap today. Seems to run better, with smooth power. Car shifts at low rpms now as did when I purchased it. I did clean the maf, cleaned egr valve. The turbo is making boost. Car still seems a little anemic.

I did the 30 minute high rpm breaking with zddp addictive, then swapped oil and filter.

How long does it take for. Camshaft to fully breaking?

You have to clean the intake.. Couple ways to do it one is really dangerous
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vog9AJniOW0
or you can soak it in diesel for days or?

something else I have noticed is when cold the power is way less than when up to operating temps. Scoping the intake manifold it seems to be pretty clean, just a lite coating of oil.

Would a clogged or clogging cat clear up when up to temp?

Another thing I checked was on my fathers car which is identical to mine: if you put you hand at tailpipe and have some one stomp the gas the exhaust flow is strong enough to move your hand. When I do this with my car it is way less flow. I know this is not scientific but it is very noticeable

I ran car in vagcom, it is doing 2080 mbar at full throttle. Which is roughly 30 psi of boost. The turbo is working fine through whole range. I watched the requested and actual boost. The actual pretty closely mimicked what was asked for, but car is still slow.

On other sites I read the pd intakes don’t clog as the alh ones do. Is there any truth to that?

I have done the intake cleaning on alh engine before. I will order gaskets and try it on this car. Looks to be easier on a pd because of the two pieces. I do have a parts cleaner to soak it in.

ktmkris said:

I finished up a billet cam swap today. Seems to run better, with smooth power. Car shifts at low rpms now as did when I purchased it. I did clean the maf, cleaned egr valve. The turbo is making boost. Car still seems a little anemic.

I did the 30 minute high rpm breaking with zddp addictive, then swapped oil and filter.

How long does it take for. Camshaft to fully breaking?

Click to expand...

We will be working on a 2006 Beetle right after we finished installing the new shocks, warn winch bumper and some LED lights on the current truck project. It seems we need to the same cleaning and billet cam swap as well.

ktmkris said:

I have done the intake cleaning on alh engine before. I will order gaskets and try it on this car. Looks to be easier on a pd because of the two pieces. I do have a parts cleaner to soak it in.

Click to expand...

The BEW is more difficult to take the intake off of than the ALH. However, it does not sound to me like that is your problem.

Since you have another identical car, try swapping the MAFs and see if there is any change. I have heard of, but never seen myself, BEWs with clogged catalysts. You can remove the lambda sensor and drive the car to see if it runs any better (it will obviously be noisy). A clogged catalyst will cause the MAF value to stop going up linear with RPM, and in some cases it will actually start to go back down. A clogged catalyst on an EGR equipped turbodiesel will act a little differently than on a gasoline fueled engine. As the EGR strategy is a little different. The engine will run, just at reduced power since it cannot get any oxygen.

I did unplug my maf and the power was even worse. I will pull the oxygen sensor tonight and see if that helps

ktmkris said:

I did unplug my maf and the power was even worse. I will pull the oxygen sensor tonight and see if that helps

Click to expand...

Could still be the maf....I would still try swapping the maf's......probably easier than removing the ox sensor.
Having said that my wifes bew with 475,000kms ran much better and quit going through ox sensors after the cat was removed.

I gave the car the elongated version of the Italian tune up. Drove 20 miles at 4,000 rpm, and about 15 more miles at 3,000 rpm. The car is strong again. I am thinking this would prove the failing or plugged catalyst. I will see in the morning if it is still clear. I don’t know if getting it that hot would push everything out of the cat. Hoping when it is cold it will still be good

That's quite the run, it would reach temperature a bit higher than you normally see. If nothing over stresses it would be good for it.

Once the car cools down the performance is better than before but still not perfect. Am I right in thinking it more than likely is a catalyst issue?