Spooled 7M-GTE said:
1st of all, those are really nice numbers, congrats for your project!
Lextreme, you must not forget that he might have "low" boost, but he has 7500-8000RPM, what the stock engine does not have.
Move the torque curve from 4000 to 7000RPM and the HP will jump with a dynamite in the butt.
Is Bob running the same size turbos as Maajola? One thing to remember is that bigger turbos will push more air at the same boost because they are more efficient. 18psi through a ct26 turbo is much different than 18psi through a T78. If Bob's turbos are smaller (I don't know of your setup Bob so you'll have to fill me in), that would make up the difference in horsepower. At 18psi, you might have 10-15 lbs of air (for example), while on the T78, you might have 50-60 lbs of air. Lbs of air + lbs of fuel to match = horsepower (to be simplistic). Doesn't have a lot to do with psi. We use psi because it's very easy to measure rather than the volume of air that goes into the engine.
Also, to get a little more technical, the "psi" number is the pressure of the air that DOESN'T get into the engine. Take two of the exact same turbos, put them on engines identical in every way EXCEPT some headwork. The one without the headwork may read 18psi, but push the same amount of air through the ported head and it will read more like 13-15psi (for example). All that will depend on how the port work was done and how smooth the airflow is, of course, and there are other variables to consider, but that is the basic concept of it. (Maximum Boost, by Corky Bell. Buy it. Ready it 10 times. Love it.)
Now, I'm not the expert on this, but this is based on my research. If I've said something incorrectly, please let me know!
If I haven't said this already Maajola, awesome work on your project. Definitely LEXTREME!
*edited for some correctness*