So far, from my reading. I've gotten that the F series motors can handle up to 8 psi safely without any internal modification, which is great. My concern lies in the auto tranny. From what I can tell, even with a transmission oil cooler, the transmission is going to heat up like crazy and be very unreliable. Is this true? My goal right now is to save up and go FI this summer, but I want to make sure the car will still be okay as a daily driver. If I lower the boost and only use 8 every so often will I be alright with my transmission? If not, how long can I expect my transmission to last? I would much rather have a manual tranny but, since it's a massive pain to switch them out, I'd like to go ahead and get some more air into the engine first. I currently have an 01 EX with 55k miles. Just a novice trying to learn here. Any info is appreciated, Thanks.

its people that dont take car of their slushboxes are the ones that go out. if your tranny fluid is changed every15k and you have a cooler on there you can run 8 all day. its your percentage mix of driving.......85/15 and your tranny will last a very long time prolly 200k or more. 85 percent of the time your just loafing around, 15 percent you have it mashed. just look at this. when you have it mashed and the tach swings all the way over, how much rpm difference do you see when it changes to 2nd gear. and then how about when you just drive normally? a lot less.......your hydrolic clutch and the gears have to suffer that shock. your tranny was built to last a long time, just as long as the motor. but just like the motor if you dont take care of it.....it will f up

Its going to heat up like crazy without a trany cooler. Thats why people add one to the auto trany to offset everything. You dont want to run higher then 8 psi on stock internals anyways. But an auto trany can handle 6 to 8 psi as a daily with an cooler. You just dont want to constantly run it hard.

Encouraging words. It's sounding more and more like turbo is the way to go. I plan on reading up on some DIY stuff and getting a few things figured out before I buy one. Installation and buying a kit can tack on so much extra money it's ridiculous. Plus, I have to raise the funds anyway. Thanks for the quick replies fellas.

no prob turbo is the way to go. in the turbo help post i put everything that you need for a turbo kit

I hate asking so many questions when the project is still far away from starting, but what size turbo do you recommend? I've been looking at the T3/04 Hybrid because it starts working around 3500 (so Im told), so it will work with my low rpms, and then high speeds are always a good thing.

t3/4 hybrid is a good choice, if you get a dual ball bearing one it reduces the lag a little more, and then theres a cam with a longer open exaust profile which will lower it. Im sure if its done right a t3/4 can spool up at 3000 or so. But if you plan on rebuilding your engine in the future you can always up the redline to 7000 or so and get more power. ^_^

Man, you read my mind. I was planning on low boost until I get some cash to work on the internals a little, then up it some once cash flow is a little steadier.

no you want your turbo to spool up at about 1500 rpm and that can easily be done.

well, i honestly dont know the effect of a ballbearing turbo and a cam with the exaust valves open longer would actually do for the spool up. Most t3/4's i see are the E's not B's. But personally I would be happy with a 3000rpm spool up. Doesnt take but a second to hit that on my car.