Dude, people are making smartass comments for a reason.......they're trying to save you money. There are a lot of people on this board who have taken on projects with big scopes like this, and they're trying to help you avoid the pitfalls that they see.
Not putting in $100 worth of gauges to monitor the performance of the brand-new setup you're spending close to 10k after install on, before the rest of the necessary associated upgrades, is simply foolish. IF you're having trouble paying MEDICAL bills, why not sit on the parts, gather what you need to monitor the car, and save the headache? We're not talking aobut blowing up the car in 20k miles, we're talking about blowing up the car in 200 miles becuase you have absolutely no idea what's going on inside the motor, especially with a "hacked" (your words, not mine) stock ECU.
I used to work at a Subaru tuning shop, so I've seen shit go down with new setups. It's part of the game even with an experieneced builder or tuner. Scott is living proof (sorry, man
)that you can't necessarily trust the person doing the work or providing the tuning solution. What if the installer screws something up, or forgets a part, or the fuel system mods don't work like they should? Would you rather find that out on the first startup, when you can fix the issue, or would you prefer to be driving along, on your way to someplace important or time-sensitive, and have your untested, unmonitored car blow up and strand you? Pay attention, and listen to experience. Noone wants to see you fail, so we're trying to give you good advice. Look at all the people saying it ounds like a cool project. We'd like to see it work, but we're also trying to help you set the right expectations and make the right plans so you're not disappointed. If you take that as smart-ass comments and think you're going to "prove us wrong" you deserve whatever happens to your car. Why risk the investment you've already made?