Well, last night I got the car running, but not without issues. First issue, went to prime everything, then noticed a good fuel leak, one of the clamps wasn't tightened enough (the one just below the filter). Then the battery died after about 3 more starts, I was using the vert's battery which has been sitting on a trickle charger since September. I was able to get my FC's battery from Ishin (I lent him it to do some testing about two years ago).
Then the car just wouldn't start. I went through the throttle body settings, and tried to set it back to factory, or as well as I could (I had it all messed up from the previous engine.)
Then, it started, the car is so quiet, I watched the revs climb, but I expected it to be louder, so it was almost surreal. It smoked the neighborhood for about 2 minutes, then cleared up. I let it sit at 2k for a bit with my foot, then i let off the gas and tried to see if it would idle on its own. To my surprise, it did! It was idling at around 600rpm, so i bumped it up with the BAC valve's idle adjustment screw to around 800-900rpm. Checked for leaks again, then decided to take it for a spin.
The Exedy stage 1 HD clutch and the lightweight flywheel really help the car out down low, it's got pretty good low end, it's actually quite surprising. The turbo starts spooling pretty early, and you can hear it spooling by 1700 rpms it seems. The idle is a bit lumpy, and has a definite brap to it, though nothing compared to Jake's FC, but more lumpy than my FD's idle and previous engine setups. Coming to a stop, the dashpot is doing its job by settling the idle to around 1100rpm, then a few seconds later it slowly drops down to 800-900rpms (I had a problem with this before).
Right now the only problem is that it's difficult to start without using the fuel cut switch I have. From what I've read, this should be the case as my setup has the stock fuel pressure regulator, plus a walbro 255lph pump. This shouldn't be an issue once I change over to a parallel fuel system. I don't have a gauge, but from what people have seen, this setup usually runs at 55lbs of pressure! Stock, i believe is around 27lbs?