advice needed from SRT-4 owners.

[customperforman]

a coworker has a completely stock SRT-4. after a ride in my car, he wants more power. i dont know anything about his car. so he starts talking stage 1,2,3 etc. i look at mopars site and am not really impressed with 'turbo toys' etc.

soooo.... he wants good power and doesn't have money to waste. just like us all. im doing research on www.srtforums.com now, but, please, if you can, which direction do i need to steer him. the real benefits seem to come from the stage 1...skip 2...and 3 seems to offer real gains.

or should we approach this from the aftermarket perspective? are their tuners for his car like ford/chevy stuff? give me insight into your world!! advice and comments are very welcome.

thanks again.

 

[LowNSlowNeon]

Easiest would be to have Stage 3 w/ Toys... and a nice exhaust...
That'll make him pretty peppy.


I did Stage 1 / 3" Downpipe / and a manual boost controller at 20 #s of boost...

Ran 13.2s and 13.3s on street tires.

 

[blinelaxd27]

i don't have a ton of info but he needs to go aftermarket and not stage 1,2,3 w.e. aftermarket will get him more power and will be cheaper... someone will prob chime in further

 

[Juruense]

Why doesn't he just lurk for a while on SRT forums and learn for himself? Oh wait, he drives a Dodge Neon.. Nevermind...

 

[knowfreed0m]

Well depends on how much he wants to spend off the bat.

For smaller budget I would go Stg. 1 and then after market from there. Boost controler, FMIC, Turbo-back, intake...

If he wants to dish out some $$$ then he should venture either Stg. 3 with toys, or go AGP and get a kit.

Methenol inj. is also a very nice. :beer:

 

[Mach1USMC]

Unfortunately "tuner" cars need big $ to get decent gains. IOW there is no 100 dollar pulley swap for an extra 40 whp.

But like with anything else he should start with full exhaust, intake, up-pipe/downpipe, header, TUNE (no brainer), FMIC, and last but not least- a bigger turbo, a gt35 would be a nice addition, oh yeah, don't forget the BOV- LOL, and suspension/wheels &tires. I'd start there- that should be somewhere in the 6-9k range depending on quality of parts and labor. Then you can get into better clutch, tranny, and built block. wihich is even more money.

 

[trottlebody]

If he goes the aftermarket route wont that void the warranty? But to see decent gains there is not car thats all that cheap to mod.

 

[Wishing4Cobra]

low budget go with stage 1, boost controller/bov/downpipe/intake/and tune.

 

[thomas91169]

Unfortunately "tuner" cars need big $ to get decent gains. IOW there is no 100 dollar pulley swap for an extra 40 whp.

unfortunately, you are so far off its unreal. 100$ pulley change? try a 5$ boost controller that can give you that 40whp and more.

though on the SRT4, the boost is controlled via the ecu, you can add as many manual boost controllers you want, the stock or stage1 ecu will see this and lower it by opening the wastegate more. back in the days, the wastegate was controlled manually, nowadays its is computer controlled, which is why a manual boost controller wont work for a srt4. this is where a AGP or Mopar Wastegate comes into play, its a manual wastegate, you can adjust the boost by the actuator arm, and the ecu can try all it wants to lower boost but it will fail.

for your buddy, i would start out with a Stage1 Ecu, if he has a 05 or 06 he already has the better injectors (560's if i recall) if not, he will need to upgrade to match the injectors with the ecu. then he will need either a mopar or agp wastegate to control his boost. finally, you can never go wrong with a free-flowing exhaust, backpressure is a turbo's enemy, so think a full 3" turbo-back exhaust. my buddy has just that and it rapes my 02 GT whole (Never got to run him with the cobra though).

most people think all listed above is super expensive. its not. the ecu can be had for cheap used, the wastegate is under 200$, and most any muffler shop can weld you up a full 3" turboback exhaust including fart-can muffler of your choice for under 400$, and it will undoubtedly perform just as well as the ones tard****s pay 800$+ for just so they can "Represent" and have name brand parts.

coming from a DSM background, modding already turbo'd cars is almost childs play. on a stock 1g awd dsm, you can go from the lame (though still able to take down most domestics of equal year in the 1/4) 180awhp to a modest 250awhp with a 5$ boost controller, a 15$ fuel pump rewire kit, a 150$ 3" turboback with a 40$ ebay muffler, and a 50$ ebay intake. to further that, the stock 14b on the 1g awd manual cars is stout in itself, capible of 20psi and around 450cfm (30-35lbs/min) of airflow. then just a cheap ebay front mount and piping(350$ max), a 2g ported exhaust manifold for 150$(fancy tubulars have been proven time and again in the community to not hold up or put out as well as a proper manifold design), a tubular o2 housing (100$ shipped), a 190lph fuel pump that doesnt need a regulator(or a 255 and a fuel pressure regulator if youre looking to go past the 350-400 mark) for 90$, some 550cc injectors that can usually be picked up for 50$ used, and a SAFCII (or if youre feeling like doing your own real tuning, a full 1g DSMlink setup for 550$, which will utilize the stock ECU as if it was a standalone, giving you all the driveability of stock, and the ability to tune every parameter that AEM EMS can do except for maybe pitch, yaw and roll, probably the greatest end-user tuning apparatus ever created), and you got yourself a 300-350whp, 12 second contender for around 2k invested into mods, plus you spend maybe 2k on the car itself, and the fact the motor is good to around 500whp without touching ANYTHING, and is good past that with the proper head gasket and head stud hardware (something the evo8 4g63 gets stock)

 

[LowNSlowNeon]

i don't have a ton of info but he needs to go aftermarket and not stage 1,2,3 w.e. aftermarket will get him more power and will be cheaper... someone will prob chime in further

Going off his post... the guys not tooooo knowledgeable on the cars..

A stage 3 is an easy bolt on and with exhaust and supporting mods could net low 12s high 11s....

 

[Neverlift]

Tell him to private sale the SRT and check the SVTP Market section.
I'm sure he'd find a vehicle well within his price range with more power than he can handle..

 

[Wishing4Cobra]

for your buddy, i would start out with a Stage1 Ecu, if he has a 05 or 06 he )

I dont think they made 06 SRT-4.

 

[neatofrito1618]

Unfortunately "tuner" cars need big $ to get decent gains. IOW there is no 100 dollar pulley swap for an extra 40 whp.

Well seeing as how turbo's aren't driven by pulley's I don't imagine there would be. Upping the boost is easier to do in turbo'ed cars than in supercharged cars. You just need a cheap boost controller.

 

[PSI87]

So much bad information here... Listen guys, if you don't know what your talking about, don't pretend you do. There's no 06 SRT and you can't do a header swap as some above suggested. I owned a 460whp SRT so I know what to and not do to them. It all really depends on how much you want to spend. If I were to do it again, I'd get a stage 3r kit, exhaust, intake, wastegate, clutch, short throw shifter, FMIC, motor mounts, and thats it. Then you would be making mid 300's and the motor wouldn't be in jeopardy. If you feel like being cheaper, I'd just get a wastegate, mapclamp, wideband, exhaust, intake, and FMIC. The stock FMIC isn't bad but it will heatsoak. I would not recommend Stage 1, it really doesn't do much if anything. Motor mounts will be necessary. The clutch will go sooner or later probably... If your friend does the 2nd set of mods I mentioned he would be making about 300whp and could possibly beat stock terminators.

 

[customperforman]

So much bad information here... Listen guys, if you don't know what your talking about, don't pretend you do. There's no 06 SRT and you can't do a header swap as some above suggested. I owned a 460whp SRT so I know what to and not do to them. It all really depends on how much you want to spend. If I were to do it again, I'd get a stage 3r kit, exhaust, intake, wastegate, clutch, short throw shifter, FMIC, motor mounts, and thats it. Then you would be making mid 300's and the motor wouldn't be in jeopardy. If you feel like being cheaper, I'd just get a wastegate, mapclamp, wideband, exhaust, intake, and FMIC. The stock FMIC isn't bad but it will heatsoak. I would not recommend Stage 1, it really doesn't do much if anything. Motor mounts will be necessary. The clutch will go sooner or later probably... If your friend does the 2nd set of mods I mentioned he would be making about 300whp and could possibly beat stock terminators.

yeah, ive been seeing alot of the "add wastegate and mapclamp" threads. how much would the latter choice run him? say...if he got the AGP WG, a mapclamp, and turbo back exhaust? how would he reprogram his ECU? i recommended meth inj instead of the "turbo toys" or intercooler upgrade.

anyway, thanks for all of your comments. keep em coming.

 

[Lightningfr]

sell the srt and buy a real car

 

[RDJ]

So much bad information here... Listen guys, if you don't know what your talking about, don't pretend you do. There's no 06 SRT and you can't do a header swap as some above suggested. I owned a 460whp SRT so I know what to and not do to them. It all really depends on how much you want to spend. If I were to do it again, I'd get a stage 3r kit, exhaust, intake, wastegate, clutch, short throw shifter, FMIC, motor mounts, and thats it. Then you would be making mid 300's and the motor wouldn't be in jeopardy. If you feel like being cheaper, I'd just get a wastegate, mapclamp, wideband, exhaust, intake, and FMIC. The stock FMIC isn't bad but it will heatsoak. I would not recommend Stage 1, it really doesn't do much if anything. Motor mounts will be necessary. The clutch will go sooner or later probably... If your friend does the 2nd set of mods I mentioned he would be making about 300whp and could possibly beat stock terminators.

What do you expect from a bunch of dodge neon owners? sheeesh ....

We got a new guy here last week .. he went to chow with us tonite and the group of us started talking cars .... and he pipes up ... Hey Dave . you ever hear of an SRT-4? I just gave him the "oh puhleeese" look and and he said "WHAT???? you don't like them" I just said ... "gay car for women ... no respect for them at all" he got all butt hurt over that LOL!

 

[LowNSlowNeon]

A map clamp from dasmopar would cost $20...

It's the wideband that cost a penny or two to monitor afrs


If he wants CHEAP power...

Home made boost controller, a spring on the WG ( to help hold boost) and a map clamp...

but like I said in the beginning...


Stage 3 , bolt ons ... 350 hp / reliable / fast....