The problem is that it puts the air filter close to the firewall and that puts the intake noise close to the driver.

When I was 16-18 my dad replaced his farm truck with a more reliable streetble Dodge Truck, 440 V8 4barrel carb. He then had the engine over halled, and the previous owner had glas packs on it. I loved the sound, loud very loud. I loved driving by our barn with the mettal siding because it would bounce the sound back to me, and it was AWESOME, in fact I am lookign for some 1970's truck wiht a big block just to put chery bomb glas packs on it for the noise. I loved flooring it and letting off the throddle to hear the back fire.

I also turned over the intake air filter cover to allow more air flow to the air filter and to hear the intake sucking sound of the 400 V8 in the cab.

With that said a high flow intake for the Caliber sounds a lot different. When getting parts for my 4 I was conserned it would sound like the Hondas I see with their strate through exaust cans.

I installed the magnaflow cat back system because it was stainless steel and designed for the car. I wanted headers, but the AWD would not allow for the Mopar headers becaus it uses a different exaust.

I did install the K&N cai because of the heat shield. This heat shield may help but not much. The exaust manafold radiates enough heat in the engine bay that any air filter open to the engine bay will get heat from the exaust. That is partially why I purchased heat blocking sound decreasing dynaliner. This blocked some heat and decreased the loud snowmobile sound the car now had when giving it some throddle.

I then installed a second layer which blocked most of the heat and made the intake sound tollerable. By this time they had rebates, and I needed to replace my wifes car, and found that I could get a Charger with a 250hp V6 for a few hundred more than the equipped Caiber R/T AWD I wanted for her, so I took the Charger, and gave her the Caliber. She is very happy. This promped removeing the CAI because it was to much noise for her.

I installed the factory drop in high flow filter which increases the air flow and gets the majority of it from the outside colder air, plus produces about the same sound as stock, and my 0-60 performance testing with a belltech performance showed no difference between it and the CAI (Not a very scientific test, but all I had)

What I did do was take a lot of videos for youtube. Each step of the way and how it sounds. This gives you an idea. The camera is not that great, and it is a lot louder than it makes it sound with the CAI.

I am NOT putting down the CAI, just warning the sound is not like a V8, is lowder than most like, and even the heat shielded K&N sucks in a lot of hot air.

Watch all my Caliber youtube videos, you can see each step.

Some people post comments on youtube that I dont floor it on each video. The point was to see how it sounds when not flooring it, some people do drive with out wide open throddle 100% of the time.

Stock.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y709xVp4hyU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9OTmw_ntZQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOBgurj6Dzw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A04jCQ_Mvsw

The reason for the stock videos is to also show how my camera sounds so you know how to compare it to your car.

K&N CAI.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6G_qEWIEYk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsWq2AxON90

This is the one you want to focus on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w1Q734gSTw

Now I add the dynaliner.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuxuOMg00xQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxBhGufOp4o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM_o96lReLo

Magnaflow exaust.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhQ7XRba_Vk


Check out my various Caliber videos searching on my youtube id. This gives you an idea of how it sounds.

 

Albert, the name is billy, and I loved the sound of that magnaflow exhaust and cold air intake, but istead of the K&N I believe that I am going to get a AEM Brute force intake.

This is what I have found so far:
Cold air intake:
http://www.ultimatetruck.com/produc...products/aem_brute_force_air_intake_system.aspx?year=2007&make=1027&model=20360

MagnaFlow exhaust:
http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/productsearch/dodge_caliber_exhaust_system~magnaflow~M6616634.html?apwcid=P1135867996W43b3f85c7ab9e&apwkwd=Dodge+Caliber+Exhaust%20System+Magnaflow

And some Coil Overs:
http://www.eautoworks.com/product-Eibach-199421.htm

Tell me what you think please,
Billy

 

Albert, the name is billy, and I loved the sound of that magnaflow exhaust and cold air intake, but istead of the K&N I believe that I am going to get a AEM Brute force intake.

This is what I have found so far:
Cold air intake:
http://www.ultimatetruck.com/produc...products/aem_brute_force_air_intake_system.aspx?year=2007&make=1027&model=20360

Many people have the AEM, it does have the heat shield that K&N has, so it should be comparable

MagnaFlow exhaust:
http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/productsearch/dodge_caliber_exhaust_system~magnaflow~M6616634.html?apwcid=P1135867996W43b3f85c7ab9e&apwkwd=Dodge+Caliber+Exhaust%20System+Magnaflow

This is what I have, and is a great price. Highly recommended.
And some Coil Overs:
http://www.eautoworks.com/product-Eibach-199421.htm

I dont know suspension, but I do think eibach is good.

Tell me what you think please,
Billy

See my answers after your url in the above message.

 

Awesome glad to see you agree with a couple of the products, and I have found a couple of other mods im going to make to it.

These are the headlights I want for the Cali:
http://www.octanemotorsports.com/product_info.php?products_id=9675

And here are the rims I think will look good on it:
http://www.wheelsnext.com/wheels-tires-packages/Tork-F_15-Black Gloss.html

Just have to figure if I lower the car if those rims and tires will still work without rubbing.

Thanks billy

 

Awesome glad to see you agree with a couple of the products, and I have found a couple of other mods im going to make to it.

These are the headlights I want for the Cali:
http://www.octanemotorsports.com/product_info.php?products_id=9675

And here are the rims I think will look good on it:
http://www.wheelsnext.com/wheels-tires-packages/Tork-F_15-Black Gloss.html

Just have to figure if I lower the car if those rims and tires will still work without rubbing.

Thanks billy

I have thought about eiboch suspension, but the wife likes it at the current higth, plus I got awd for the winter, and lowering it hurts its snow ability. I only had mine a few weeks and we got the biggest snow of the decade. That is why I dont know much about the lowering part, but I do think eibach makes a good product.

Rims are a matter of tasee and preference. What one likes another wont, so get what you like and dont wrry what others think. They look good to me.

Those headlights look awesome.

 

Thanks man, and I am tryin to decide on what I want to start doing first, either engine mods or Body mods, I have more body then engine, and I am more partial to the body mods but I am curious as to what will void the warranty if I do anyhting to the engine.

 

If you have the lifetime drivetrain warranty and you want "no questions" mods, you are limited to:
Mopar performance free flow airfilter
Mopar Performance Cold Air Intake
Mopar Performance cat back duel exhaust system
Mopar Performance header
None of the above will void your warranty as long as you have a Dodge dealer/service center install them.
Anything else can be questioned if not properly installed, although the dealer will have to prove whatever you did caused it to malfunction if it comes down to it.
My attitude is why give them a reason? I got my Mopar Performance cat back system off Ebay for $375 delivered and it cost a hundred bucks to have the dealer install it.

 

mykTurk, I aapreciate the help, and can the mopar header be put on the RT model?

 

Yes, the R/T, but NOT the AWD.

The AWD makes use of a different header (a "multiverter" to be exact) wich is different in configuration than regular headers.

The Mopar performance headers exhaust in the center, whereas the AWD multiverter (a hybrid catalytic convert & manifold) exhausts on the side to make room for the center-mounted rear transaxle.

 

Hmm, so i'm guessing Mopar isn't going to put out a header for the R/T. And good god, the carbon fiber hood, and the damn cat back exhaust are so expensive, but I can only imagine that it must be worth it.

 

Hmm, so i'm guessing Mopar isn't going to put out a header for the R/T. And good god, the carbon fiber hood, and the damn cat back exhaust are so expensive, but I can only imagine that it must be worth it.

The Mopar header does work with the R/T FWD. It does not work with the R/T AWD. The problem is the AWD part, not the R/T part. If you dont have AWD, the Mopar Header will fit.

 

That is slightly depressing but I will live, and the exhaust from mopar is s expensive, and Im guessing two grand is what carbon fiber hoods run, and would love to get one but Im getting my Cali painted in a couple weeks and going half black and leeaving the bottom Inferno red. It should look good, and next friday I am going to get limo tint on it. I'll show some pictures. And the place that does my tinting, also does stickers for vehicle and I think I am going to have one made of CaliberForumz.com and put in in the black glass.

 

There is a company out there that offers an aftermarket hood for our cars. It's sort of like an SRT4 hood, but with just the one scoop in the middle, not the resessed side scoops. I'm pretty sure it's fiberglass and they run about $600 or so. I just noticed you have an AWD so the header is out completely. An option would be to just swap out the factory muffler with some sort of free flow replacement.
By the way, the tu-tone paint sounds great!

 

The Factory AWD exaust manafold does not look that restrictive to me. I have not removed it and measured it, but the outputs are designed simular to headers, except it is a heavy part. My gues is even if they made a header for the AWD it would not be of much benifit.

I found the high flow exaust helps the most for performance.

 

Awesome and yea right now I am trying to look around for good ideas on the tu-tone, I think I am going to stick with the Inferno on the bottom and go with a high gloss black on top, with the limo tint windows and the black rims, along with the black headlights, I think this Cali will look damn good.

 

The auto stick surely helps out the cvt. i dont have the exact times but i know that off the line the autostick is the way to go even if you want the full power use the autostick but dont shift, the car will shift itself just before you redline. i wouldnt reccomend it on a newer caliber but one with 10,000 plus miles on it is a good place to start trying the speed shifting and such with the autostick.I raced a 46 camaro this way and i totally smoked it...granted that the 2002 camaros had a v-6 with only 200 hp but still my R/T has 176 hp!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Have you timed it? The autostick does make the car feal faster. When you feal the shift it feals like the car is pulling hard, but that does not mean it actually gets from 0-60 faster. Time it. Try an area that you can test on the same piece of pavement over and over again. Test with the engine at the same temp, and floor it without using the autostick and time it to a specific speed. Then do the same with autostick, put it in 1 and leav it letting it shift, then try again shifting yourself, at different rpm's.

I tried this, shifting at peek torque, peek hp, letting autostick shift, and just leaving it to move the cvt smoothly through infinate ratios. I used a belltech comptuer for timing. I found the fastes time for 0-60 was without the autostick. If feals slower, but when you measure it I fonud it was faster.

 

WOW albert thas an interesting piece of information ...But i still like the autostick because it feels faster LOL.But i will try the suggestions and post the results. Thanx:smileup:

 

i have the awd r/t and when i use the auto stick i get around 10 sec even 0-60 time

 

I have tried mutiple ways using the cvt and found the cvt in auto mode feals slower, but it is faster. To me having an autostick on a cvt is kinda crasy, whats the point of making fixed ratios on a transmission witn infinate perfect ratios? but what it does do is give you a simulated gearing and the feal of it pulling when it jumps from a ratio to another.

I tried drive and flooring it, autostick leavint it in low and letting it upshift, using autostick and shifting just before redline, shifting at peek torque, shifting before peek shift, and every attempt provided measurable slower runs than just leaving it in auto mode. 10 seconds seams about right, but to me with a state of the art 172 hp engine, and the smallest car they make Id think it would be faster. My previous V6 had less power than that, and many of the 80's v8 were about the same, so 10 seconds just seams slow to me, but its probably the weight, low torque, high wind coeffeciant, and the cvt slowing it down.

I just managed 6.1s.

Mechanically stock SRT4.

That's 1/10th better than Dodge estimates. I'm happy

Thats more like it. Did you rev it to 3000-4000 and dump the clutch, and stomp it?

 

I just managed 6.1s.

Mechanically stock SRT4.

That's 1/10th better than Dodge estimates. I'm happy

 

After realizing that the timer kicks in when the car rolls rather than when releasing the clutch, i've started to experiment a bit more. This time I revved it to about 3000 and slipped it a bit rather than dropping it all together.

I had full ESP and AC turned on. So, I should be able to drop to 6 or maybe 5.9 if I manage the start better.

It was sort of a last-moment decision to turn on the timer and didn't have time to bother with the rest.

 

I test drove an SRT-4 once without the salesman in the car, so I have less than an hours experiance with the car, but I found that you need to get it up in the rpm range for power to come on.

 

I have my R/T FWD on 20's a lil heavy though 5spd and i can rock out 8sec and thats holding a cellphone camera while shifting i'll get a buddy in the car to vid tape it next time... =)

 

the manual is a lot faster. cvt is to make it smothe, not fast.

 

2008 R/T, FWD, 5 speed, cat back, half assed CAI. I ran consistant 8.9's according to my Torque app. Also, driving "normal", I get about 30 mpg to and from work, about 20 miles, mostly 40 to 55mph roads.

Cheers,
Kurt

 

Heres my ~9sec 0-60 on youtube
http://youtu.be/JklGGD92-R0

 

With my AWD R/T with AutoStick I just pulled a 10.5 using the function on my BullyDog. Not very impressive seeing the other scores here... No mods at all other than a K&N in the stock air box

 

My R/T AWD I managed to pull a 9.25 0-60 time. Fresh coppers, fresh Royal Purple Synthetic, K&N Air filter, my custom air intake nozzle and a cool day all contributed. I'll see if I can pull the screenshot off Torque and post it here.

But on an average day I see 0-60 in about 9.5-9.75. I see more of a time decrease using autostick. I've practiced a lot with it. Double shifting is key.