As most of you know I have been running 1.8 rr for the past 3 years or 60k. I have been running these on stock springs since " you are supposed to be able to run 1.8s with stock springs". Well I have always been fighting kr no matter what I did add fuel take fuel add timing drop timing, so i finally have the vehicle situation such that I can dig into sandy. After fixing the broken ss brake line on the test drive the water pump dies. To make a long story short I call a buddy that is a couple hrs south and he is a rocker car and we are talking and comparing notes. i come to find out his car is doing exactly what mine is, 1st gear is strong but second is all but worthless. we keep comparing notes and here is the 2 things that stick out we are both cat-less and have modded exhausts and we are both running on stock springs with rockers and spinning up to close to 6k before shift. The only big thing is he was on the bottle and my car hasn't seen the bottle yet.
Here is what i can glean from it possibly being
1.valve float from the higher revs and stock springs
2. Fueling being skewed because of the cat being gone
3. Altitude (both of us are at 5,000 ft elevation or higher I am at 6,100 ft.
4. Dying transmissions (his is a 99 mine is a 03 both with less then 100k)
5. Bent/ chewed up push rod ( I know 03 and 04 are known for it, but doesn't explain his 99)
6. False knock from the transmissions

As of now I am getting L76 springs and retainers and will be R&R the top end including the push rods. Is there any other areas I should potentially look. I will be putting on the IC this time since I might as well do it all at once and save on the cost of gaskets. I will retorque the lim and make sure the bolts for the sc are all tightened to spec. The only thing I can think of is I didn't use rtv between the N* adapter on either side could I have a vacuum leak there or unmetered air getting in skewing the maf values.

Any Ideas or thoughts of potential areas to consider please feel free to post. This car should be faster then it is now and I finally have a chance to dig in so help me figure out WTF is going on

I'm leaning towards valve float, or a noisy transmission. Do you have a shift kit? I've seen this help a bit with KR.

Well as for the trans it still shifts quick and crisp and has the thrasher shift kit (done before the diy kit was popular). After talking to people and thinking about it valve float seems very plausible. I am hoping this wakes the car up it is sad when the gf'* car feels stronger and has a lot less done

Get new valve springs.