9-3 Turbo Stutter
 

So Im curious, I just bought a pretty decent 9-3 (2000) 2.0 SE.

Not much out of the norm, but when you slam the gas the turbo does this stutter, its almost like the engine quits for a second comes back quits again and so on unless I let off the gas. Needless to say I don't really do that to often, actually not at all unless its on accident.

The A&P mechanics at work (who deal with turbos on the King Airs) have a lot of advice that I just don't get (Ive never worked on a turbo nor have I owned a turbo prior).

I guess Im wondering if there is anything that I should look for in fixing the problem?

So far I have checked the plug gaps -since I live in the rockies I know that the arc on the plugs is stressed due to the altitude so they are gapped at about 36-38) other than that I don't really know what to look for.

There is no loss of power and no smoke coming out of the tail pipe, the car really runs fine, except for when I put the turbo into the RED - in the yellow and orange it runs smooth

On a lesser note could lower octane gas cause this? I don't/can't really afford the high tess stuff due to school, but if thats what people think I guess Ill have to. This was just a thought while I was posting this thread.