I've been searching around the forum and got the impression that our engine can go up to 10psi without doing any work on the motor. And if one wants to up the boost past that, they lower the compression by putting in a head gasket in order to be safe.

My question is.....let's say I go 12psi or up with a 3mm head gasket. To make sure that the motor doesn't blow up, would I have to do work on the head or the block to support the high boost, or just the head gasket will do it?

 

By lowering the compression, you are able to boost higher and it makes up for it since 1 pound of boost makes more power than a point of compression. By lowering comp. and boosting higher, you are able to keep the same total compression (comp. + boost). It's actually more like 9 pounds on stock comp. btw, 10 is really really pushing it (you need to account for things like boost creap/overboosting).

I'm sure someone will come in soon with a neat little formula with how it works out

 

It really all comes down to the tune to consider what is safe on a stock engine and what isn't. You pull a lot of timing and richen her up, you could go past 10psi safely for WOT runs. I creep a little past 10psi when going WOT in like 3+ gear for a few seconds but my tune is safe enough that it doesn't concern me to much.

 

The tune is everything. This engine can handle a lot more boost than people give it credit for, but ONLY if your tune is good.

I run 22 psi on a daily basis w/ a 3mm HG and stock block/head. With my tuner I'd be confident running up to 25 psi but I'm out of injector.

Having said that, you can blow a motor on very little boost if your tune is bad.

 

damn, how much you put down.

 

I just had mine tuned to 24psi and my tuner is confident i could boost to atleast 26psi without a problem. Tuning is key...