[BlackZenkiS14]

Originally Posted by cotbu

The standard I follow maybe a little on the high side but here it is. stock bottom end can hold 450hp stock head gasket will blow from age, or detonation, etc. The head gasket is at least 17 years old. The head gasket is the weak link and it should be, but it's old a fuhhhk. I pushed 401hp on a mustang dyno at 21psi, I pushed 424hp on a dynojet at 22.5psi. That's when I decided to upgrade the head gasket and studs. Will everyone have the same results? No! You have to take all the logical information and make your own decision. Over building is not the answer though, but people still use terms like bulletproof, and will never push the engine to keep it that way. I beat the crap out of this redtop, with every turbo it has ever had, stock t25, gt28r, gt2871r, not to mention it's seen it's share of clutches, tires, spark plugs and fuel and then some.
The decision to swap a headgasket is tricky.
My head, block and gasket showed no signs of detonation. I do still have the gasket hanging in the shop and could get pictures. This is probably because of my tune. I followed the 11.5wot, and 14.7-15.2cruise rules Timing rules you can't have.

So if you've been having, spark plug breaking issues, cooling issue, oiling issues you might reconsider even pushing the engine hard.

So no one can actually say what is the safe limit, you will either take it there yourself or not.
Someone posted a picture about the stock max power, but that was passed by me long ago. So again not true in my case. And I'm not saying 424hp 372tq and 22.5psi is the max either, but what is MAX right before it blows up? or what?

Right on, well my car runs its ass off, stays cool, and has never shown any signs of detonation. I'm running a clean JWT tune with 11.5-12.0 AFR with meth/water also.

I'm just trying to figure out at what power level should I stop trying for more if I don't want to have to build it, or start significantly decreasing reliability.