Last night finally installed an autometer boost gauge. My car is still stock except for a drop in K&N air filter. At idle it reads 18-20 in the vacuum, the highest boost I could get it to hit was 14 though, no matter how hard I tried could not get it up higher. I've heard that some evo's came from the factory with very low boost, in fact a friend of mine with an 03 said his was only set to 13. What is the cheapest/easiest way to fix this problem? I'm guessing a manual or electronic boost controller. Looking to save my budget here, so whats the best/most effective/best priced boost controller to get?

 

first check all your ic, and dv connections.

 

I'm still kinda new to this whole turbo thing....the IC connections i'm fine with, what do you mean by dv connections?

 

Are you sure you are pulling a 3rd gear pull.. Max boost cannot be achieved on 1rst or 2nd. That is why most Dyno pulls are done on 3rd or 4rth.

 

I was running it up to redline in 3rd and 4th gear this morning

 

from what I have heard autometer gauges suck. Never used them myself, but I have heard they are about as usefull as stock boost gauges.

 

the band clamps holding on the diverter valve (blow off) on the upper intercooler pipe. those have been known to be loose and cause boost leaks. There was a huge thread about it a few months ago. Not sure if it would account for a loss of 5 psi but it's worth a shot. Do you hold 14 psi constant to redline?

 

another question, what would it mean if the vacuum is sitting kinda high, i guess normal is supposed to sit around 18-20, sometimes mines sits around 13-15

 

I'm gonna answer my own question here after reading thru a buncha back pages on the forums..apparently this is pretty normal behavior for the autometer gauges..no worries..now, just to make sure my boost is higher than the 13/14psi it was earlier..