here is a list of mods im putting on right now. i live in colorado (altitude) and we are planning a road trip to cali. is there a danger of running too lean? do i need to hook up my power fc?

intake
dowpipe
midpipe
catback
fmic
ac removal
pulley kit

 

with a straight exhaust i would say so...but just hooking up a power fc won't do any good unless you also tune it.

 

You should not be running that many mods without an ECU (fuel, boost, timing).
That is a good way to an early rebuild. Do yourself a favor, stay out of the throttle until you get some dyno tune time in or your going to take a loan out for about $4-6k.

Good luck, seriously.
Frank

 

i can put the fc on and have it tune it, but i have an auto tranny. i was preparing for a swap over the winter, but i didnt want to blow it on the way to cali. i guess ill just have to tune it and stay off it on the way there.

 

As long as you can stay out of it you'll probably be ok, just don't go running mad RPM's and boost.
Drive like your grandma on sunday and you're golden (of course, we all know that won't happen )
One thing you could do is to run a hiflow cat or stock cat, with or without an air pump, if for only this trip. This will help reduce boost and boost creep.

Frank

 

with that many miles is there a risk of me just trashing the stock cat? also, everyone i know around here (at this alititude) has never had boost creep problems when they installed their midpipe, any thoughts?

lst question. if i put everything on, all mods, and power fc, and i keep the boost and **** low, especially when its shifting, do u think ill be ok for this trip? i really dont want to have to tow a car home from cali.

 

leave off the midpipe and you'll be fine

 

I live at 7000ft, and when I installed my dp (I had intake, smic & cb already) I noticed a pretty considerable increase in boost. I wouldn't call it creep since I could turn it back down with the manual boost control, but the point is, don't rely on your altitude to justify running a midpipe without ecu. At altitude the car will be naturally running higher boost ("stock" boost is about 13.5psi @ 7000ft, with a dp it will try to go over 15psi).

Be careful

 

i do have a boost controller, so i can control an increase.

 

Yeah, I just wen't through this going over the mountains over here earlier this week. Got in a bit of a bind where there was only enough room to squeeze through some slower traffic while going up the pass around here (around 4000ft), and gave it a good tap of the throttle to get going. Boost gauge popped to 12 and looked to go higher! I let out immediately and backed off until I had more room. In the elevations, boost comes not only higher for given load and throttle input, but spools up faster, so be sure you have the turbos limited properly, and even adjust them for lower boost in the lower elevations.

Mods are DP and CB. Not even sure you can call mods, really...

 

so, if i tune it here at my altitude, and then drive to cali, when i get there i should probably do a little adjustments to be safe?