deon

why would many manufacturers put a BOV in their car if it were pointless and/or worse than not having one?

I have driven a car with no bov and then fitted with one..and there IS less lag...why? well heres why when your car flutters yoru turbo is SLOWING DOWN because the pressure build up is huge and air is beign forced to escape through the fins..hence why it slows down, only difference with a BOV is the excess pressure is released and the turbo, as a result spins faster.. You say I you short shift into another gear you get instant power..NO difference witha BOV because if you "short sh*tft" as you say it shouldnt have time to open. Beleive the marketing hype? maybe you just choose not to believe anything that's marketed, not EVERYTHING is bad. and answer this question. what race cars have BOV's and what dont. You may notice that rally cars, alot of race cars and many other cars that run no bov have another similarity..sequential gearboxes, ie clutchless shifts, BOVS not needed there.. You may like to think they are pointless and stupid "Show off valves" only boy racers and hoons buy them, but there is a good reason for them and most often then not theyre better than no bov..in saying that I prefer the flutter so id rather not run a BOV the difference in performance in my opinion doesnt justify the money however in saying that there IS a noticable difference and it IS better running say a standard bov on light-medium boost levels than taking it off..just not by much

Cavitation occurs in FLUIDS, yes fluid and liquids are two different things and air is indeed a fluid. BOV's are not used in rally cars and other high performance cars because there is a possibility of leakage and since long term reliability is not an issue in a race car they dont use BOV's. Also BOV's do provide better performance for on/off throttle applications I.e. street driving, racing on the other hand is usually at full throttle constantly, in applications like drifting where there is continuous throttle modulation BOV's are very useful. For the street in a car that isnt to heavily modified BOV's are good especially in a manual. In saying that most people remove the BOV to get that flutter sound and it doesnt really cause major damage unless your running a very high boost level.