well when my car is off the boost gauge sits about 1-2 psi in vacum. does this mean when i boost the that i need to add 2 psi to what i am seeing and does anyones gauge ever get stuck at first turn on then the first time it hits boost5 staqrt working fine?

oh its autometer if that helps

 

well to start off with if you engine is only producing 1-2 inches of vacuum then you have a problem. either the engine is worn out or you have a vacuum leak somewhere. while at idle your motor should have around 15 inches of vacuum.
check for any leaks. are you having a problem achieving boost?? i really need to know more to be of any help.
check the lines going to the boost gauge

 

sometimes my greddy boost guage needle gets stuck in vacuum. so i get on it to like 5psi to get it to start working again. i dont know if that helps.

 

my bad i meant when the car is off the gauge does go back to 0. i sit at about -28 in vaccum.

 

he didnt say inches he said psi. and if the gauge actually reads psi vaccum instead of inches of mercury vaccum then it should read about 10psi vaccum.

now i'm thinking that this is just all wrong and what actually happened is he has the pressure line hooked in front of the throttlebody and not behind it like it should be.
in which case it would only read boost and not vaccum at all.. but would not affect the max boost reading as that is your question.

 

it is a standard silver faced autometer gauge.

 

geez nevermind.. your first post and your clarification are two completely different sets of data.. if you are sure your second findings are legitimate then you are pulling an ass load of vaccum for some reason.. but different cars make different amounts. normal stock vaccum is about 22INCHES OF MERCURY.

 

Pretty sure Ted means...

Car is OFF, the boost guage does not sit at zero, but is at 1-2Hg(no vacuum, remember, car is off) Like the gauge is messed up.

My car(we have the same car) sat at 1-2psi when the car was off, and 22Hg at idle, but never got stuck. My gauge was on perfect even though it looked off at idle.