I had a couple of parts queued up for installation and finally had time over the week end.
It was no big installation like some of my previous how-ts (WOT Box for example) but it was fun and easy.
First up: BWoody Check Valve.
This is a tiny thing no bigger than a whistle that plugs into the recirculation tube from the valve cover, after the PCV valve, that feeds back gas and oil vapors right back into the intake manifold.
On sustained turbo boost, the check valve is rather wimpy and will, in some case, allow for some pressure to leak back into the cover. The BWoody Check Valve provides protection up to 150psi! So you wont loose any turbo pressure from there any time soon.
Next up: the BWoody Front Engine Mount
The stock engine mount on the SRT4, like other Calibers, is rather soft. In high torque conditions, the engine will move around (along with transmission), causing direction to suffer and resulting in torque steering. Also, this can cause wheel hop on hard acceleration.
This video shows how soft the stock mount is. :shakehead:
The BWoody Front Engine Mount is basically a replacement for the stock mount, which provides MUCH stiffer engine mount, practically eliminating torque steering and wheel hop:
Using simple 8" ramp provides much room to play under the car, so no need for a full hoist:
There's plenty of room to wiggle the engine mount around so you don't need to take off the support rail, nor do you need to support the transmission or engine. It's really easy to do:
The mounts install using two supplied bolts torqued at 74 ft. lbs. (100 nm) and a using the stock traverse bolt at 35 ft. lbs. (47 nm).
High res photos and more captioned photos are available here.
The engine mount makes the car idle like a diesel. There's noticeably more vibration in the car on idle, and there's a slight moment of farm tractor feel if you just prime the engine from a stop, at around 1200RPM. This vibration causes the car to shake a lot if you linger on the start too much. You'll get the hang of it pretty quickly.
At highway or boulevard speed, there's practically no vide to feel so it's not going to shake your contact lenses off.
The steering has a slightly stiffer feel to it. The car feels a bit more composed but otherwise, feels just normal.
Upon hard acceleration, though, is where this is truly fun. Torque steer is practically eliminated (I'd say more than 90% gone) and wheel hop is all but gone! This truly makes the car feel like a totally new beast.
I can't wait for my summer rims and tires to be on :naughty: :naughty:
Well, I had it since sunday and I'm having a ball. I've hit heavy traffic and highway conditions and it's just dandy.
Some might find it course on stop light launches, but it's either the vibe (aka, half-second lower back massage) or slightly faster acceleration than normal.
It's really just a timing issue and you adapt fast. Heck, it's another clutch saver
Very easy. Literally, you could have the whole thing done in 30min, start to finish.
Took me a couple of hours because I did road tests before and after the valve, plus I goofed.
If you do the valve thing, be extra careful NOT to drop your worm clamp down the tube, like I did. Took me 40min to fish it out with a hook after magnets failed :loser1:
I don't think I'll do any mods any time soon, money is an issue and even I've always looked at what was possible with each car I owned, I never went as far as to try anything.
The first thing I would do thought is strengthen that chassis a little bit. One nice strut bar would do nicely. How do you like yours so far?
I don't think I'll do any mods any time soon, money is an issue and even I've always looked at what was possible with each car I owned, I never went as far as to try anything.
The first thing I would do thought is strengthen that chassis a little bit. One nice strut bar would do nicely. How do you like yours so far?
We need to post this info from Bigtsr in our Knowledge Base as a sticky. It's too important to let it get buried. I have edited it to add how I did it because the way I did it really improved the throttle response! This possibly could improve the manuals as well since it is mainly a...
Got around to installing the header we got off Ebay last month... Allocated a morning to do the job, parked the car in place last night so it was nice and cool to the touch this morning.
Step one, jack stands. Doesn't have to be way up in the air, in fact, you only want it as high as it needs to...
Homemade Air Intake System
Where it all started
Cardboard and Gorilla Tape
Early mockup, still testing.
Air Filter box and tube covered with DEI heat tape w/ my Mopar logos:gr_grin:
Structure braces, heat tape and seal added
Fiberglass cap/hood scoop added, only for looks. Also...
i was reading on how to bypass my solenoid, i read it like 5 times but i am still unclear, can someone please give me a very detailed description on how to do this please. thanks
First of all I have to thank Dawm for pioneering this idea to begin with... if it weren't for your venture into the unknown, Dawm, I probably wouldn't have attempted this. Thanks!
Now, on to the goods!
I followed the "herd" and bought the 63 series K&N shortly after purchasing my Caliber... and...
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