For those of you with stock Turbos with no added boost controller I thought I'd let you know that it's really worth installing a boost controller. I bought an inexpensive boost controller off eBay for about $25 and it was worth every penny and then some. I looked at a few being offered by different vendors on eBay and in the end went with a controller offered by a vendor by the name of lower_shores_performance. I thought his design made the most sense to me and offered the highest degree of control and best value for the buck. (I have no affiliation with the guy.) His service was good, instructions were clear and the product is well worth the money.

Stock boost on the 700/900 Turbos is only about 7 psi. That's very low. I've set my boost controller to give me a boost of about 10 or 11 psi max. At that level I'm still within the safe range and don't have to worry about doing any damage to the engine.

(My turbo gauge doesn't tell me how many pounds of boost I'm running but the instructions that came with the boost controller told me that for every turn of the fine adjustment knob would increase the boost by 1-2 psi. I think I went for 2 turns of the knob. Before installing the boost controller I could get the needle on the boost gauge to go 3/4 of the way to the right under heavy acceleration. I've set the controller so the needle will go 7/8 of the way to the right so I figure I must be somewhere in the area of 10 psi max boost. That's as far as I feel comfortable going without knowing exactly how much boost I'm getting.

Anyhoo, I find the car accelerates waaaay smoother and faster now because the controller holds the wastegate shut longer so the boost is not lost when the tranny shifts gears (which would force you to have to build it back up again after each shift). There's also a lot less turbo lag when I hit the gas as I'm moving or accelerating from a standstill. The car is much nicer to drive now.

So any of you with Turbos who haven't installed a boost controller I strongly suggest you do. You don't have to do anything radical with it if you don't want to. You can greatly improve the driveability of your car simply by increasing the boost by a few pounds.

Just my $0.02 worth.

Roger