Re: How safe is above normal boost?

[rdh@sli.com (Robert D. Houk)]

   The big features that you miss with the home-brew and TcrAP-type mods Vs the IA 
   mods are:

   1) more agressive ignition timing (critical for max HP increase)

Au contraire...

"Home-brew" I can tune for any timing you want. You want conservative
'cuz you'll be running 85-octane water, fine; you want ultra radical
'cuz you promise to run only CAM2 104octane racing gas, fine -- do
any of Ned's chips take advantage of 104 octane gas? or 110 octane
avaition fuel? Or ???

   2) overboost protection

Au contraire...

   3) rev limit increase

Au contraire...

You want redline of 22,000 rpm, fine, I'll set it for ya.

   I think the IA mod is a win,

Sure it's a win, but it won't help the UrQ's shitty cold/warmup idle,
nor lousy idle control in general. (Or does it???)

Does the stage I do anything with the timing?

Does the stage-II (18 PSI?) really maintain the overboost protection?
I looked (glanced) at one, and didn't see any mods other than the ROM
change . . .

I know the Abt chip didn't change any of the timing. It didn't even
recalculate a new checksum for the chip, it just disabled the whole
damn thing!

You want different full-throttle open-loop fuel mixture? No sweat.

I admit, I am curious just how much Ned's IA mods do for ya, and how
much he actually changes/tunes in the new ROM.

Can you screw it up with home-brew? You betcha you can. you can toast
an engine faster than you can say "Oh s***". The nice thing about buying
a good commercial solution ("IA") is that someone else has done all the
research, developement, and engineering work, and can just sell you a
solution over-the-counter. It can even be very close to optimal (for
whatever value of optimal you care to define), but a "Home-brew" can
always surpass it in tuning for a particular engine (Oh, you're running
a Schrick cam with 4 degrees of advance, in 10F weather at an altitude
of 400 feet, with Mobil 93 rather than Shell 91 this week, OK, let's
dial that in...).

					-RDH