Originally posted by Rara:
And how much, dare I ask, was your CR changed by changing the gasket? Not too much I would venture. Further, changing gasket thickness enough to alter CR an appreciable amount is so the wrong way to do things its not even funny.


My CR was changed by a warped head, which was shaved. I had understood that it was commonplace to lower it back down with a thick gasket. If this is a bad idea, maybe I should check further into this. Question: if a thick gasket is a likely failure point, does this apply even to no or low boost, or is it mainly a high boost problem?

Originally posted by Rara:
You also seem to be completely missing the point that air charge temp plays just as important of a role as octane, if not more so.


Where do you get that I missed it? I acknowledged it. I am just wondering if it is so important for low boost levels. A natural thing to wonder, since there are lots of low boost cars that don't do much about the issue.

Originally posted by Rara:
Who exceeds 10% gains? not too many, and certainly none that don't make significant mods across the entire engine system.


Not too many, perhaps, but enough. And all the ones in the zetec forums are still using stock internals. Are they wrong?

Originally posted by Rara:
So, what you are telling me, is you want to half-ass your upgrades?


Well I guess you could call any smaller upgrade "half-ass". That does not mean there's anything wrong with it. Yes, I want "half-ass" power upgrades, rather than a $10,000 drag racing setup.

Originally posted by Rara:
You are willing to pay to upgrade the engine, but not the transmission? And because you aren't willing to upgrade the transmission, you are willing to accept a poorly conceived forced induction system?


Well, if every un-intercooled compressor on the market is "poorly conceived", I guess I'm hardly alone in being "willing to accept" that.

Originally posted by Rara:
Just because you can buy something, and it fits, doesn't mean its a good idea to use it.


I'm not buying something that fits, but never mind, I'm not here to explain myself to your satisfaction.

Originally posted by Rara:
You are jumping all over the map with your comments, and none of them really tie together, except that you apparently want 200hp because you think yur transmission will explode the instant you exceed that,


Don't put words in my mouth.

Originally posted by Rara:
and you don't want to pay for an intercooler to get to that power level. I'm saying that an intercooler, even at a given power level, will make things much healthier for your engine, with increased cushion against detonation, and lower overall temps in the engine.


Yes, that's what you're saying, and I've heard you, and I'm sure it's true, and I don't think it has to be said any more times.

Let me put it this way. There exists one range of power, or of air charge density, at which it is perfectly safe to not worry about cooling. All NA engines should be in this range. There exists a higher range of power or density in which it is not safe to disregard cooling. Somewhere between the two is a transition from safe to unsafe. The location of this transition can presumably be expressed as a level of boost. The one point I'm not satisfied on -- on everything else I have no dispute with anything you've told me -- is whether this transition falls above or below the level of boost I'm interested in, which I estimate to be somewhere between 5 and 8 psi. You seem to be saying, so far, that any real-world boost application is always above that line. But lots of people drive such cars, so I have to wonder if there isn't a reasonably safe zone I can work in.

Originally posted by Rara:
Unless you are running ~5psi or less, which is almost pointless to go through the effort and money on a small displacement engine to setup up a turbo for that.


I think I mentioned that this is not a turbo. (And it'll probably be next year before I can start on it, so this is all preliminary.)

At this point you seem to be suggesting that the 5 PSI level might well be safe. That's helpful information if it's solid. I'm just speculating that maybe I can stretch it to 7-ish. Is that so unreasonable an idea? It seems to be right where you'd estimate the iffy area to be. So why not just give it a try, and if it won't tune into a good state, settle for a pound less.

Originally posted by Rara:
Quote:

Well, this is genuine new information. Do factory turbos really run super-rich? They must pollute like hell if that's so...



Now, see, this sums up most of your posts and comments on this subject; This isn't new information. It is common knowledge amongst anyone with some reasonable familiarity of forced induction systems on internal combustion engines.


I meant new in this discussion, Einstein. As in somebody finally said something that contributed a useful point instead of repeating what had already been said.