Are there any telltale signs of compressor surge aside from broken parts? I just got the Satellite on the road after 10 1/2 years of "improvement". It has a 383 with an E-bay(chinese)copy of a Garret GT42 on it. The compressor spools and it gets to 9 lbs pretty quickly.All you have to do is accelerate about 50% while driving along at 30 m.p.h. and it will start to whistle. It pulls strong all the way through the revs,but I was concerned that the boost was coming up a little too soon. I guess I could always buy a real turbo from someone who actually knows what he is doing, but for now I'll try to learn a little and have some fun with this one. Thanks for your help, Eric

You can usually hear surge... sort of like a backfire

Uhh don't know what kind of surge you've heard but it doesn't generally sound like a backfire.

More like a turkey/pidgin sound.... funny I know but it really does.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evGFfuhUaRM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCj6Spwl1CU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_93kLsmU38&feature=related

You have to have stuff pretty mis-matched to get compressor surge under load...

Thanks for the links,but I haven't heard anything like that going on. According to all of the calculations,the unit that the chinese based their copy on should have been about right. I just wanted something cheap to get the project up and running,and when it does finally puke I'll call someone who actually knows what they're doing to get a "real" one.

how many rpms do you start to make boost?

I don't really know,it has no tach. It can't be much above stall speed which is supposed to be 2500 r.p.m. I know with the early/quick spool it's probably giving up some power on the top end,but it's probably better than a lag until 4000 r.p.m.

Mine are lit by 2800 rpm. That makes for a fun street motor.
Sure, I'm giving up some top end power but who cares? I'm having fun.

It makes for a fun street motor. Mine make boost around 3000. It is really hard to tell since it makes more power it pushes the converter higher in RPM. Great fun on the street is all I know.