Damage?

I know this is going to sound really newbiesh but I'm going to ask anyway Today I decided to hook up my busta boost controller I got from vlad a while back. 1st situation I ran into.......

With the original hookup design I ran into the problem where any adjustment just seemed to increase the "spike factor". It would spike to however far I adjusted it and then settle back to 11 psi. To me, I can't even see how the design is usable without doing the small hole drilling which I did and pretty much fixed the problem.

Next........

So now I'm trying to dial this thing in to 15 psi. Either I had 10-12 psi or I went screaming to almost 20. I had 2 runs where the boost went rocketing before I could even get off the throttle in 3rd near 20psi. As soon as I saw it go flying over 15 I jumped off the throttle, though. That made me VERY uneasy as the last thing I want to do is blow the motor as I was just trying to get a little extra performance out of the car. I'm almost sure I heard some pinging one of those times

So now my major worry is did I damage the motor?

I'm assuming I better try testing in 4th gear to keep the boost from building so rapidly that I blow the motor.

Flame away

I doubt you hurt anything. It was for a very brief period and if you did knock, your timing being retarded should save you. If your still not sure, do a compression test.

I'm with Waldo on this one, I doubt you did any damage, these engines are pretty robust and 15-20 PSI isn't too bad in just a short burst like that. If you want to make yourself feel better that nothing is wrong you could pull out your plugs and see if there's any signs of running lean or knock. <A HREF="http://www.buckeye-illinois.com/sparkplugs.htm">This page</A> has some pictures of different plugs that have sustained different types of damage. What you want is a nice light brown/tan plug.

If I were you I'd recheck your connections to the boost controller, and possible open it up to see if the ball and spring are seated correctly, etc, because I have the same one and I don't have any problems setting the boost levels.

Thanks for the replies....

I pulled the plugs and they're nice and tan ....also the compression is fine.

As far as the controller goes, I'm absolutely sure everything is hooked up correctly. I started out tapping the bov line initially because of some of the posts about spiking.....but that didn't make any difference for me. The hole drilling mod seemed to reduce it bigtime (maybe 1psi spike now). I must admit I have a considerable amount of extra vacuum line attached until I decide where I want to mount the controller which could be causing some of the problem.

Hey Gary, I have the same MBC and ran into the same issues as you. Actually Id did the engine running 23psi and not looking at my guage... but as been said as long as you let of the throttle your fine ...anywayz that boost controller is very touchy. Just turn it so you can barely see it move in between runs and you'll get it, and once you do lock that sucker down cuz Ive had to re-adjust it a few times because it came loose.