General questions about my set-up

[NexDeus 10+ year member]

Hey everyone! Im sorta new to car audio stuff, and had a few general questions about my new set up. I'll start with the basics. I picked up a Rockford P2 15" P2D415. Its not the brand new model, its the 250 RMS one. Anyways, I built my own box for it. If my measurements are correct the box has roughly 2.9 cubic feet of airspace. It's sealed. Its a bit lower than suggested but pretty close. Next (I know this is horrible) I picked up just a little 400w dual amplifier for 20$ at a pawn shop, just because I couldn't find much to run that smaller wattage sub for the money. Well its hooked up and sounds, in my inexperienced opinion, amazing. I have the sub running at I THINK dual 2 ohm? (Connecting both sets of terminals Positive to positive, negative to negative to the sub itself, then a line out bridged into the amp)

Here's where the questions start.

First, my amp has up to 12db bass boost. I can turn it up to 12, crank the gain on the amp and it pounds. Hard. But is it too hard? I wouldnt assume that dinky little dual amp could overwork the sub. (500w peak sub 400w peak amp) but then again I'm here because I don't know! Second, what is the best method for tuning the thing so that I'm NOT overworking the sub, if I would in fact be at risk of it?

Also, if I did the wiring right, and Im at dual 2ohm (and the amp does say it runs 2ohm) what power am I actually getting then? Isnt it higher ohm = lower power? It says "50-Watts RMS x 2-channels x 4-ohms; 75-Watts RMS x 2-channels x 2-ohms; 150-Watts RMS x 1-channel x 4-ohms (bridged); Total dynamic power: 400-Watts x 4-ohms."

About porting: I have the sub in a '97 Honda CRV. Have it facing the rear hatch. Would I be better of ported in that type of vehicle? If so, first, what specifications would I use for the port hole size and tube length give or take? Second, top bottom or side ports?

Any thoughts or suggestions would be great! Thanks all =)

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[jordon]

Your probably clipping the he'll out that sub with gain and bass boost all the way up. Don't even use the bass boost. Also for tunning just use a dmm. Face the sub up with port to the back.

 

[NexDeus 10+ year member]

You think so? Even though the amp is smaller than the sub? It's sounded pretty clean to me, but I guess I dont know exactly what im looking for. I know what a standard speaker sounds like when it clips and distorts and I dont think I heard it at all from the sub. But yeah again Im new to all this so I'll take your advice and turn it off when I go back out there. Thanks!

Edit* I just thought of something. I put my sub right dead center of the box, and when I google sub up port back i see most of the subs are on one side while the port is on the opposite side. What would I do in this case? Dual port on each side or one big one on the side or one big one in the middle?