Hi there, I'm new here. I have a '95 T-Bird SC, but, my girlfriend has a '98 Bonneville SSEi.
Now, being the performance type that I am, my g/f and I were riding around in her Bonneville today. I asked her to floor it so I could see how much boost she was making (my car stock makes about 8lbs), she did and her boost gauge hit about 3lbs of boost. AFter we climbed a little higher on the speedo, the gauge started to bounce. It hit about 5, then jumped to 8, and bounced back and fourth until she took her foot off (bouncing fast, not smooth).
Anyway, I'm curious if 3lbs is average for her car to make. I'm figuring, since she wants her car to be faster, for her birthday, I might get her a 5% or 10% OD pulley.

Anyway, so is 3lbs normal, or is there anything I can do to fix that up a bit?

3psi is not normal... should be 7-8 stock...

gauge might be acting up...

get her a 3.4" SC pulley

should be in the 9-10 range under WOT then

Make sure that you AT LEAST open up the intake and/or exhaust system to flow better before doing the pulley. Also colder plugs and a colder thermostat, because these 3800'* really run HOT. Spinning that Supercherger faster will generate a lot more and you can get KR (Knock Retard).

if it hit WOT {which i did a lot today.....was late for work } the gauge shows 10 psi without any hesitation....and i'm stock

Now where would I pick-up a 3.4SC pulley? Perhaps getting her to stock would improve the performance enough for her. I'm gonna go play with her car a bit tomorrow and see if maybe I'm wrong, reading it from the passenger side, you know?

BTW, any ideas on what to do for the gauge? I'm not exactly a well versed mechanic, and what I know is Fords. I know absolutely nothing about GM.

pulleyboys.com sells everything that you will need to swap out the pulley on the car. As for the gauge....Mine tweaks out also....But tends to settle down after a while.....Good place to start would be to check for vaccum line leaks around the Supercharger and the MAP sensor. Get a Chiltons manual for the car.

Thanks for the info, where and what is the MAP sensor? I've never heard of that before.

Manifold Absolute pressure. fords have them too...maybe you're a carb guy

Nope, just a newbie! Still learning!

On the gauges, is it only the boost? Or does oil press and temp seem off from where you think it should be. And mine pegs after a moment or two.
Tstat is a 195

I found my gauges to be REALLY far off. No matter what my boost gauge says....I can feel it. Here'* my dash right now

They are easy to take apart and in techinfo there'* good procedures to clean the contacts etc. I've got an extra one...a 92-93 and I am going to try and fix it up to get rid of it. Far as I know it works 100% right now.

I've heard the superchargers do wear, or maybe it'* a boost soloniod.