I've been helping some friends get an old (I think 88) turbo MX-6 running. We've raised the boost up to over 10. The car is really fast now. My question is, we can hear the turbo spool up around 2000 rpm but the car doesn't start pulling until right on 3000 rpm. What's that about?
Also, we pulled the waste gate on it and the boost was crazy high but it was detenating all over the place. Everybody's first responce was octane booster or turbo blue. What else can be done?

well, pulling off the wastegate pressure sensor tube to "get crazy boost" was pretty stupid. that's a very good way to ruin a perfectly good mazda engine. if you really want to, you can increace the octane to reduce detonation (either use race gas or get a oxygen sensor that won't flip out when it sees lead) and go get some 110 octane low-lead avaiation gas. i have to use that stuff in my c152 and in my dad's archer, it's amazing. it's blue and it smells insanely cool... hehe but there are much more effective ways to reduce detonation like retarding the spark, cooling the air off more, reducing the compression of the pistons, etc etc etc... there's a pretty popular post around right now that XtreamRS (sp?) put up about detonation - probably motovated by his own turbo woes :P it's a very good read, i highly suggest.

I got a friend who has one of those, and is boosting about 14 psi i think. Its pretty quick, but not as fast as me :) Try and go on over to the mazda forums, you may find lots of info over there.

You said you can beat him. You running 10 psi or 7? Either way, that's awesome. I tried to tell them that I could beat it with less boost. But it doesn't really matter cause I'm NA for now...

It's called turbo lag :) My huge turbo starts to spool below 2k rpm, and you can hear it loud and clear. It doesn't hit full boost till just shy of 4k rpm though. That is just how turbos work. I don't get the full "kick in the ass" till then.

>You said you can beat him. You running 10 psi or 7? Either
>way, that's awesome. I tried to tell them that I could beat
>it with less boost. But it doesn't really matter cause I'm
>NA for now...
>
>

Well I never raced him side by side, we both were at the track one weekend, and both got the same times. He had a good run, but i had a crappy one with mad wheel hop, and my boost fade problem. I was running about 8 psi, fading into about 6.5 psi. He was at around 14 psi. Its a quick car, and spools fast. He'll get me off the line for sure, but catching up isnt too hard. I actually really like those cars..Its a good tuner car for sure. Not a whole lot of em out there. I believe we both ran low 15's? Yeah, still crappy for both of us, hehe..

I agree with Jeff_99GS that it's probably turbo lag. You will hear the turbo spooling during low throttle and higher throttle accelerations, but that's any turbo. The smaller turbo might begin to spool around 2000 rpm, but doesn't mean it's built up boost. Also, even when you've built up some boost, there's "turbo lag." The car will pull much harder when the turbo has achieved higher boost.

i was thinkin of gettin a mx-6 gt, quick car, i think it can run 17 psi max dont remember, go to www.mx6.com and post any more questions there, its a good site

They have the 2.2 Turbo....same as the 89-92 Probe GT. You cna boost a max of 12psi before hitting fuel cut. There are a few different ways to get by this though. The stock injectors are 330cc's and they run a low 7.3 psi stock...the computer will allow some overboost to 9.3 with perfect conditions. With a MBC set at 12, full exhaust, and filter kit ..you can get in the high 14's or better. The stock turbo is an IHI. They are small but fast spooling.