OK, first, because everyone will ask: 9psi.  I ran 6psi at first using the wastegate only.  Once everything was running well, I added a manual boost controller and bumped it up to 9psi.  How did I decide that figure was safe?  I asked.  Geoff Knight of ATS Turbo has done a few turbo kits in 2G PGTs and MX-6s, so I gave him an e-mail.  He personally boosts 9psi in his '96 PGT, but has customers cars that are running up to 12psi on stock bottom ends.  This seems a little excessive to me and probably damn close to the breaking point.  I could probably safely go to 10-11psi myself seeing as his kits use the much larger T04B-V2 compressor which is basically two "sizes" larger than mine.  12psi on that has be at least 13-15psi on my T3.  As a matter of fact, I hit 13psi a few times when setting the boost controller!  When I have the time, I'll try to calculate the exact CFMs for each unit and see where they meet.

The boost curve is determined by the VAF placement, the intake, and VRIS plates.

Obviously the last setup is the best and the one that I am currently using.  As I mentioned on the page, the car functions the best with the VAF after the turbo, whether the VRIS plates are tied open or not.  The idle is as smooth as stock and it's much quicker.  The idle is a bit rough with the VAF in front of the turbo, but it does run.  DO NOT mount the VAF in a vertical position--the car will not idle.

Collector gaskets: don't bother with paper gaskets.  After 2 days, I blew one out and had to replace it (the rear one naturally).  I ordered metal ones, but had to wait for them to arrive.  In the mean time, I replaced it with a new paper gasket.  This is what they looked like when I took them apart a mere two weeks later. The top one is a new gasket and the bottom two are the front and rear, respectively.   The front simply fell apart and the rear was cracked through one of the bolt holes.

In this photo you can see the copper collector gasket next to its paper counterpart.  The copper ones are a little more expensive than the paper, but they are worth it in not having to replace the paper ones every other week.

They are both made by Mr. Gasket with the paper ones being $2-$3 per pair and the copper ones costing $9-$12 per pair

I will be putting my car on a dyno soon to get some base line runs with the turbo just to see what kind of power I am getting.  Unless I get to it first, John Brown will be tweaking my setup for me.  With the Vortech 12:1 FMU running straight off of the manifold pressure the car is running super rich and thus costing me horsepower.  My original intent was to buy the Vortech 10:1 FMU and suffice it to say that that would've been rich enough and possibly too rich also.  Once we lean out the mixture to a sane level, I should pick up some power.  We'd like to do this with the car on a dyno to see the effects.  Hopefully we'll get to that soon.

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