SRT-4 ME

Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance. Always use OEM replacement parts when possible. I also stick to expensive full synthetic fluids in every available application. Oh, and avoid driving like a douchebag on a regular basis. Occasional hooning is acceptable. 

So I finally put an aftermarket intake on the car. It's a warm air intake, but it's also dyno proven for 10hp across the powerband. Install was easy and the price was right. Plus, it's not all blingy like so many of these things are. 

I was mainly looking to free up space under the hood and this accomplished that nicely. I no longer need to jack up the car to fill the transmission, which is super handy. 

This thing is loud. I mean super loud. Under boost, it sounds like a vacuum cleaner. The stock surge valve now sounds like an aftermarket blow off valve. I'm going to have to get used to all the extra noise. I kind of like it, kind of don't. Let's just say I'm glad that this isn't my daily driver anymore. But whatever... it's fun. 

In reply to JeremyJ :

I'd be collecting a new radiator. That one is not long for this world. 

Nice hot air intake.  The extra hot air makes the turbo and intercooler work a little harder, but to each their own.

I know. I'm eyeing a Mishimoto radiator for replacement. I'm probably going to rest my hand on it one day and end up breaking the hose inlet off. It's pretty bad. 

Stefan (Forum Supporter) said:

Nice hot air intake.  The extra hot air makes the turbo and intercooler work a little harder, but to each their own.

Ten horsepower is ten horsepower. The intercooler is way more effective at cooling the air in a turbo car anyway. Also, I prefer the term "warm air intake". 

Ok, but why make the intercooler work harder?  The air inlet temperature differences make a noticeable difference in power output, especially on a turbo car (cold, clear days are awesome for example).

Just put a heat baffle around the open element and a quicky duct to make sure it gets fresh air from outside the engine bay.

Also 10hp is pretty much noise on many chassis dynos and since they often run with the hoods open the tests aren't really relavent to the outside world.

Ever since installing the coilovers a while back, the car has had a bit of a rake to it. I don't mind a rake, but the rear was just a little too high for me. I decided to drop the rear a full inch to level things out a bit and I took some pictures. I think it looks a bit better. I think it could go down probably another inch, but I'm worried about rubbing at that point, so I'll probably leave it as it sits. 

This past weekend, I addressed something minor that had been bugging me. The original owner swapped the dash bulbs for white LEDs. This made everything light up a pale blue. It's not my favorite, but it does make it look like the newer Dodge dashes, so whatever. The odometer was still lighting up green, which didn't match anything and it drove me nuts because OCD. I remedied that with some clear red light filter material from a company that makes lighting gels for theaters. 

Here's the original green ODO:

First, I pulled the cluster, then removed the clear cover.

Then I cut a piece of the gel in the correct size and shape. I slid it under the face of the gauge that goes over the ODO window and used a small piece of tape to secure it. 

Then voila, we have a red odometer screen. It's a bit darker than I had hoped, but it works well with the blue and red gauges. No more green.

Cool mod. I just bought a some-huge-number assortment of colored sheets off Amazon to make warning light lenses for a car im working on. 

I have a blue plate on my srt4 van and it's going on like 6 years that i've hated it and still not removed it (for noise reasons). My van also has a chinesium srt4 intake pipe on it (same shape as yours) that doesn't coordinate with the van engine bay in any way, but it's laying in there doing intake things..  My MS6 had a cone filter on it when i got it, and i put a modded stock airbox back in it just to reduce bov noise (it's recirc like stock srt, but of course you still hear it through the cone filter). I'm not against bov noise but i prefer a 'chuff' noise over a whistling. 

Yeah, the short ram intake on this thing made the stock recirc sound like a blue plate. It's super loud now. I wasn't expecting that. 

Well, I sold the car last night. It went to a nice younger guy who's had six more of these things, so he knows his way around them. I'm sad to see it go, but I'm ready for a new project. Farewell, sweet Neon. 

That makes me sad. What's replacing it. 

Hopefully a 2WD D150. Hot rod truck transformation time.