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Which possible upgrade gives the most bang for the buck

8K views 46 replies 22 participants last post by  CoolCallie 
I still think the most bang-for-buck mods are suspension mods. Yeah, you don't get more hp - you just get a much more fun car to drive. The customer that they cater towards demand a smooshy ride - even on sporty models. Anyone who will compromise the comfort of their spine and kidneys can get a serious improvement in the suspension arena.

If you want to make your car just feel that much more agressive, fun, zippy, whatever - a revamped suspension with great feedback (stiffer springs, shocks, bushings, etc) will make your car more fun to drive. A loud exhaust and intake may make you think you're getting flashier throttle response or a serious cut in your 1/4 mile time - but really - you can add 100 hp and only shave 0.8 seconds off a 1/4 time.

Look at the "500 kit" from Hennessey for the SRT8s. You spend almost $10,000 add about 75 hp and shave 0.7 seconds off a 1/4 mile. Counter that with a scenario where you spend $2,000 for extra suspension stiffness... and spend another $1000 on roll bars. Your modded SRT8 will definitely feel more more sporty and you'll have much more fun driving the car (aside from just a straight line).
 
I don't think you can abstract a turbo to being just a single mod. While your engine gets more powerful - most stock cars aren't built to handle that type of power. The people that successfully run turbo applications on cars that are not turbocharged from the factory have to spend a lot of time tuning their motors.

Not only do you have to get the right air-fuel mixtures across the board, but you also have to do routine teardowns of the motor to make sure you're not running with damaged pistons, heads, etc. It's not just a plug and play affair you can do and then sort of forget about. To put it another way, the compression ratio of a Stock Caliber SRT4 is supposed to be 8.6:1. The Compression ratio of a 2.4L RT is 10.5:1. You can't just slap a turbo on the RT motor and expect good things on normal fuel (like stuff below 93 octane). This is ignoring the stresses to the rest of your drivetrain.

I wouldn't mess with a turbo or supercharger unless you have the knowhow to keep the car running well. A turbo isn't a new exhaust or intake - you cannot just 'set it and forget it.'
 
Yeah, some motors just have very robust internals to handle the added power, but what I'm trying to avoid is the notion that someone can just bug Jackson Racing to make some magical kit like they have to other cars and just boosting around. I think too many people read Sport Compact Car or Turbo Magazine and think that car modding is like LEGOs - they think it's just another part in a complex puzzle that can be mixed and matched with impunity.

I would like to see a tear-down of the 2.4 World-Motor just to see what people find. The motor is designed to wring power out of it, but you could wring power out of a GM Quad4 as well, you just had to be careful in how you went about it.

At a bare minimum, you cannot expect good gains from a supercharger or turbocharger without upgrading other parts (intake/exhaust), so it's sort of moot already. I do agree, a low boost application is probably perfectly fine and will do wonders for most cars, but by the time you spend the money getting it set up correctly, it's no longer an economical bang for the buck.
 
CoolCallie said:
Read the Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act of 1975, it's federal law dictating that a manufacturer cannot remove warranty off of a product just for the reason that you modified it. The only instance that allows them that opportunity is if your modification has caused damage to the factory warrantied part in question.


I agree, while you will void the factory warranty on suspension parts with new struts, shocks, bushings, etc, you will still maintain the warranty on the rest of the parts of the car. However, I think there would be a case that new suspension stuff will void the warranty on axles, ball joints, and other parts that are directly affected by your modifications, so there is a limited degree of risk you take with suspension modifications.

Off the top of my head, I can think of only 2 things that void the car's warranty across the board. The first is if you fiddle with the odometer (unplug it, attempt to bypass it, try to short it out, etc). The second is if you set fire to your car and try to claim the insurance and fail miserably
 
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