Originally Posted by intenseblu
at least you have a shop to work out of... using the AEM you'll need a all new gauges as the stock ones require the ECU to drive them (they're dumb gauges, no controls in it, all controlled by the ECU)...
the engine can handle 300 hp easily... going any higher i would begin to worry cause it has aluminum pistons, very easy to damage with a bad tune, you won't even hear the ping...
you can get a stock rod and piston and send it out to JE or a similar company and have them make some nice strong forged components for the engine...
its not impossible... it is something you should only do if you have more time than money... with you working at a shop, i see you may have alot more time to work on your car than most so it may be a good way to go for you...
Gauges - at this time, one option is to use the AEM for engine control and the stock ecu for whatever it can't handle. BTW, the xfire really doesn't have any gauges, does it? Where is the oil pressure, oil temp, afr, egt, water temp with numbers, etc? One AEM serial gauge can handle 19 different parameters.
Pistons - all cars today have aluminum pistons, most are cast. Haven't seen a car yet that would not handle at least 6 psi which should give about a 40 - 45% increase - say 305. We use JE for pistons when building a NA racing engine with high compression. Stick with stock pistons when going FI. Cast pistons in a Miata have been standing up to 18 psi without melting. Key is proper fueling/ignition under boost. I'm willing to bet the stock MB pistons and rods are good to go.
Don't think it will take that much time.
For us, the biggest issue is finding a proper donor vehicle at a reasonable cost.
Cheers,
hp