it sucks you just went thorugh a piston or two. yes, detonation is bad. No, detonation is not that hard to avoid in most situations. if you don't lean your car out a lot with an afc, or an afr, or any other kind of piggy back device to run boost, then once you hit 0 atmospheric pressure, your ignition timing should hit 18 to 15 degrees advance on the spot. MAYBE 21......no higher. if it doesn't, you are probably using an afc or some other device to make the ecu not see "full" voltage from the map sensor. it is perfectly safe to run over 8 psi of boost with 21 degrees of spark advance. The stock thermostat is relatively high for bosted applications, but it has been proven to work. a 160, 170, or 18 degree thermostat would work better, but the 195 does do the job. several cars boost on it and have boosted on it for quite some time. you ABSOLUTELY ABSOLUTELY ABSOULTELY CAN'T trust the oxygen sensor voltage alone. you will ABSOULTELY blow your shit up if you do. I remember helping 96venger tune his car. he had the corbin meter in his car, and it was reeding .999 to .998 volts when we first got his car runnign with the 440 cc injectors. at .999 volts, the car shouldnt' even be "running".........let alone have a huge hill in the middle of the air/fuel ratio curve. so we put the 2.72' disk in his car, and richened up the middle enough to flatten it out on the scale to around 11.5 :1 across the board from the time the pedal went full throttle to the time we let off.........the voltmeter said .99 to .98 all the way across..........guess what the afc said........... .96 to .95 all the way across. if you want to push your car past 12 psi, you REALLY need to hav eyrou car tuned with multiple instruments (i.e. egt gauge, wideband o2 sensor, and if possible aftermarket knock sensor). the factory oxygen sensor is NOWHERE NEAR accurate enough to keep your car runnin if you push it. if you run mroe than 12 to 18 psi, you really need to be in the 11.5 to 11.3 range in air/fuel ratio. if you run more than 18 psi, you really need to be in the 11.3 to 11.0 range. if you run less than 12 psi, you can probably get away with running at 12.0 air fuel ratio, but not for long if your car isn't consistant (due to a poor fuel pressure regulator). if you run leaner than this, you "will" be buying new pistons, and if you run mroe than abotu 21 degrees of timing at ANy of the above suggestions, your pistons and head and cylinder walls WILL look like someone went crazy with a tiny chizel around every corner and edge fo yoru combustion chamber and pistons. just keep timign around 18 to 20 degrees max under boost, and boost pressure under 12 psi on stock pistons and under 20 psi on aftermarket forged pistons on 93 octane gas, and you will be fine. if you don't.......you will be building another engine.......trust me, I know.

oh, and also, how can the J and S safegaurd retard each cylinder's ignition firing when on our cars 2 cylinders fire at a time (waste spark). that doesn't add up to me.

A.D.P.
"...If you do too much, people become dependant. If you do to little, people loose hope. If you do it right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."
bring it on............

A.D.P.
"...If you do too much, people become dependant. If you do to little, people loose hope. If you do it right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."
bring it on...........