[8695Beaters]

Yes, boost is a crappy way to measure how good the compressor is. There's a really good editorial in this month's SCC about that topic. When it comes online, I'll post it (or you could just buy the mag). Since how much air a turbo compresses is a function of how big the engine is and how big the turbo is (and its efficiency), 8 psi in an NHRA Hemi V8 is very different from 8 psi in a D16B. Unfortunately, everyone measures turbo eiffieciency in boost, not flow or efficiency, so switching terms would just be really confusing.

As for BOVs, set-up right (like so many other things on cars) can work just fine. They are more common, so more people know how to use them. Whatever floats your boat I guess. The trick with a BOV is to not let all the boost out when it releases. Since my first turbo car is still on its toes, I'm not all that sure about turbo tuning. I can build the system, but after that, I'm kind of in the dark. I'm more of a suspension/chassis/brake guy myslef, and not much on engine dynamics (that's junior year of mech engineering and I'm a frosh). The plan with the Sil-Eighty is to fill in the holes in my knowledge with some real world consequences.