Looking to see how much boost i can run on a stock a evo 8, what does everyone consider safe or maxing out

 

Do you have any mods at all? Or is it 100% bone stock? Every car takes mods/tuning differently. Tell your tuner you want a conservative tune to be on the safe side. Or tell him to keep raising boost until you have knock/detonation then back it off. I would consider that a maxed out setup. I predict 23-25psi assuming 93oct is what your running.

 

^ on stock turbo yes, 25-26 is the normal "safe" tune range for a 9 turbo.

also, don't aim for boost numbers. aim for power numbers.

 

It's stock & running around 12 psi

 

you need to do a boost leak test and figure out what's leaking

 

whooaa... definitely something wrong. boost leak check and all that great stuff. even stock should hit 19psi on stock tune.

 

FWIW 12psi would be gate pressure

 

Just curious what are most people seeing stock for peak boost levels. My stock gauge goes up to about 1.25 bar

 

My stock 03 turbo once spiked 34 PSI. It's got Methanol so I supposed that saved it. It ran daily spike to 30 PSI.
Just make sure the ignition timing is not too aggressive and cool the charged air proper (Massive IC and Chemical).

 

That's def too high for my liking on pump I'm thinking 25 would be my max.

 

I run 28.5 with a spike now and then to 30-31. No major issues here on 93. Small knock or 2 on a spike.

 

from what i know and the tuners/turbo builders i've talked to, i wouldn't go above 25-27psi on a stock turbo if you want it to last long.
yes, you can do more, but you are seriously shortening the life of the turbo. and yes: people will swear it's safe. that's your call, though. 24-25psi seems safe on 91, 25-27 on E85.
if you bought your car used, it was probably modded and is now bypassing the OEM boost solenoid in some way. if you have it, you can hook it back up (assuming the ECU has been flashed back to stock). if not, you can add a manual boost controller. that should enable you to run more boost. assuming it holds 12psi throughout the RPM range, it's probably not a boost leak.
if you run more boost, you will be getting tuned. in that case, using a 3-port boost solenoid will enable your tuner to use the ECU to control boost pressure.
either way, you have a few options.

 

Yup. Anything over stock boost will "shorten" the turbo's life. I would not go much over stock boost if I want to keep my turbo forever.

 

I'm running a stock 8 turbo right now on E85 and have found that anything over 28 psi actually causes a drop in power. The 8 turbo just can't push any more than that efficiently. Anything over 27-28 and your basically just blowing hot air. That's also peak boost for me. I taper to about 22 at 7k. Again... any more than that and the car starts to lose power.

 

Ran 25 psi on my stock 9 turbo with basic bolt ons with no problems. I just wouldn't run that for a dd.