Blackbox,
I had a Cheetah back in 1991-92 on my Turbo TA. My set-up at the time was the usual, big fuel pump, running 60-62 psi of fuel at around 19-21 psi with 101 unleaded. Basically, my opinion of the turbo was that it was honestly a total dog. True I was running a squished factory downpipe, but the convertor was gutted, but even when I tried running an open downpipe it still was lame. It spooled so slow and didn't really seem to ever catch it's stride. Maybe turbonetics improved this turbo later on, but if it's what I had, I would deffinetly go with a prescision turbo. I have the same basic set-up now as then with the exception of Alcohol inj., THDP and a bigger throttle body and different chip and I'm running the TE-44 with .63 housing. It was an easy install, it blows the cheetah away and there is NO noticeable lag time. It even spools like crazy when I run the dump cap closed through the factory YES factory cat back exhaust and muffler. Actually the stock turbo running a then opened factory dump pipe would totally rock. When I went to the track on crappy radials in 94 it ran 12.90 at 108 on pump gas. This was by far the best run, it usually ran 13.00 at 106.
With the above mods and really no tuning I went to the track for the first time in 12 or so years last September and it went 12.11 at 113. If there is any doubt about the TE-44 having any lag, well I got anxious and blew drag radial into a smokey oblivion for about 80 ft. Invest in the new turbo technology, but first I would get a scan master and alcky injection. I think these two items and a stock turbo are worth more than any turbo.
