Thanks Fred! That response took significant time and effort and I very much appreciate you going to the trouble. Clearly, there are things I need to think about, and whether or not I pursue this, many thanks for your well considered input .

 

Fred is the man. Thats all i have to say.

 

like every one in here is saying that which one you choose will depend on your turbo size. if you just don't know what to put together then it would be a good idea to go with a kit for a site like turbokits.com or your local turner shop and see what they can do for you. because in the long run it will definitely save you a few bucks and having to deal with a blown motor. plus with a kit it usually comes with every thing and will even have a base map so you can goto the tunning shop and have the base map for your car fine tuned.

 

Fred IS the man! And while I have nothing further important to input on the subject I will say that I too like the idea of low boost and no IC for this car. Add 50whp to our car and it will blow away a lot of stock cars out there and probably a Mustang GT as well :D I can understand wanting to go the cheap and easy route and its obvious that TrevorS isnt some stupid n00b asking so I can definitely see this going somewhere. If I had the money Id probably just buy the Descendant kit and run about 6 or 7 lbs but if someone could come up with an awesome and cheaper Stage 0 kit then Id much rather have that.

 

I'm really flattered by the compliments but I don't deserve them. I'm hardly "the man". I simply made some educated guesses and ended up with a turbo setup that worked reasonably well with the stock ECU. However it wasn't without some problems like a relatively long learning process for the ECU and a P0101 (MAF out of range) CEL that kept coming back. I think I know the solutions to the problems but my theoretical solutions are as yet unproven. I should also note that chosing the wrong combination of components for a stock ECU turbo setup could easily end up very badly. For the vast majority of people it would be best to go with a proven kit from Descendant, Treadstone or Ancla.

BTW, regarding the Descendant kit w/o the FIC, IMO the turbo and manifold are not well suited for a stock ECU setup. The turbo is too big and the mani too free-flowing. IMO a small turbo and Treadstone mani would work better. Also, in order to minimize the ECU's long learning curve and rich AFRs in unboosted open loop requires injectors smaller than 440cc which really limits how much power you can make.