Mine never went boom. My distributer went bad, and my rear diff was thumping, so I bought a more reliable car and stored my notch for while. I had just bought a 2-way for it to. The car needed some down time and I needed a car like right now at the time. I love that car. Hope to keep it.
Pretty much the same set up there, except a T22 out of a Z32, and a 2&1/2" exhaust, some port grinding, and an MSD BTM(which shortens the life of the coils to about two years at most). We have 93/94 oct gas around here to.
It got 31mpg and never left me feeling the car didn't have enough power, like it did with the stock CA20. Oh, and I had a huge flat intercooler about the size of the radiator in front of the radiator with two oversized puller fans behind it(each rated for 400hp). At 65 on the highway in the summer I'd bottom the temp gauge and close the thermostat; that's how much those fans could pull. I've gone to 11psi for while after I rebuilt the turbo, it just spooled easier when you floored it, I didn't adjust the waste gate. Eventually it went back down to 7 after it got some miles on it.
I think a really cool charge, really good gas, and healthy ignition control is the key. Running like that, other things will fail long before the motor.