satitan

I just had the engine on my 05 MT replaced about a week ago, plus new wires, coils, and plugs. I also took advantage of the situation to have an ACT Prolite and an ACT Street clutch put in (luckily, the one that came out was pretty much gone... love the new combo). What prompted the trip to the dealer was severe power loss after warming up for five minutes or so, and stalling + flooding (at stoplights... in heavy traffic... twice, almost didn't get it started), and a coolant light (bad sensor on the lower coolant tank, supposedly). They pulled and replaced the engine, put everything on, and during their test drive they told me it had no power over 5k and was throwing a misfire code. So, they replaced the cat (which seems pretty reasonable), did another test drive (supposedly) and said it was good to go. Everything was covered under warranty (except the plugs).

Problem is, after I got the car back, I babied it (RacingBeat break-in procedure) for the first few hundred miles, and a couple days ago I just had to push it a little. Everything seems to run fine until around 5000 rpm, then it literally jerks (like its totally losing power) for an instant and then has almost no pull from there up. I tried it in first the next morning and it started flashing the CEL at me for a few minutes after a pretty rough jolt (I'm guessing it's still missfiring). Power loss happens in every gear and even the RPMs seem to lag a little over 5k in neutral. Seems to run great under that and it gets pretty decent gas mileage (22mpg highway).

Now... my best guess is that they didn't hook up the auxiliary port actuator (APV) or somehow they managed to stick the valve. Either that or they messed something up with the ignition (put the leading plug in the trailing socket and vice versa?). What do you guys think? It HAS to be something wrong with the new engine or something they did or didn't do... the old engine with compression loss and three or four floodings pulled much better that high (when it was cool).

Taking it in tomorrow and just want to go in there prepared. Oh, and if it matters I'm in San Antonio and we've had 100+ ambient temps for the last few weeks, I know that's not a good thing for the 8...

ASIDE: I've noticed a little more gear noise in 3rd through 5th at low RPMs while accelerating... I'm guessing that's probably a side effect of the flywheel/clutch upgrade?

Thanks!