1997 A4 1.8T Quattro Automatic, 125k miles. She's been sitting for about 2 years without being driven (long story...)

I had to replace half a dozen valves after a timing belt change fiasco, so this is the state of it after that work... (sent head to machine shop, and they did the valve job there.)

It idles fine, but soon as you hit the gas, there's no power. If you slowly hit the gas, the engine revs nicely.

I thought it could be the MAF sensor, so I took it out and cleaned it. It improved power slightly, but it's still having the same problem. I thought it might be the throttle, so hooked up scan tool and readjusted the throttle...still no go. There are no codes at the moment.

Any thoughts on where to start digging into this one?

TIA,
---John

 

2 years! Um lets see... BAD GAS? (fuel ) I'm sure if you drove it around enough something would register with the ecu. But if you are driving on 2 yr old fuel then I'd highly highly suspect that. Not sure about how to drain it if not with a syphon (evacuation pump if you have the means), but try that, add a stabilizer and top off with fresh. Replace your plugs after you do this. Old gas will probably ignite, but not very well.