How much power can I add to my Gen II 5.0 before I need a professional tune?

[rs2k]

How much power can I add to my Gen II 5.0 before I need a professional tune? I assume it would be a necessity if I added a turbo charger with 6 PSI of boost.

 

[Turdle]

The stock PCM is very adaptive, it will "run". Asking how much power you can add though is not the right question. You need to know how much metered air the PCM can handle-and without some sort of tuning device, you will not know how much you are forcing in. Ping a stock piston, especially under boost, and you will want the tuner. You will be scraping pieces of piston out of the oil pan, saying "why did I try to save a few bucks?"

 

[zachow3]

What Turdle said. With headers and a CAI with an intake spacer, I had Henson Performance tune my engine for best performance. Did it need to be tuned for those mods? Probably not. If you plan to run forced induction, then yes you will need a tune. And a dyno is really the only way to do it right unless you are comfortable with datalogging yourself. Im not. I dont have a turbo but I run a s/c at 6 psi and let the professionals handle the tuning because I dont feel I am knowleable enough to do it myself. Remember that you will need custom piping to run a turbo and also need to upgrade the fuel system to handle it. I thought it would be cheaper then throwing in a built engine but for me it was pretty much a wash with all the the supporting equipment needed. Not trying to deture you. It would be great if you follow thru with this. I dont see many forced induction 2nd gen's anymore.
Good luck with your build! And keep us informed! We love pictures