In these down times I was thinking of great best bank for the buck performance parts. My list. 1. Cold air intake - $177 to $250 2. Solid motor mounts - $140 to $220 3. Diablo Sport Tuner - $300 to $400 (3.5 Mopar stage one - $500) 4. ChQ full exhaust - $90 and/or $290 (Down pipe and/or cat back) 5. Upper Strut bars - $50 to $300 depends on style (eBay to Titanium) How about you guys?
Qualife LSD, that will be my first mod, no doubt, not cheap, but money well spent! Fredrik (Just my 1.400 USD...)
Us SRT4 guys have have it easy. only 03 didn't have one. and if you have an 03 go buy an 04 or 05 tranny since the Qualife kit for our cars are basically the same price.
Best bang for the buck is Stage 3 w/toys, if you want easy reliable safe power (300+)... install and go.
discontinued Next best is the AGP Delta 44 kit. Very close to the same plug and go. Best bang would be motor mounts, exhaust, s1 ecu, and a wga. Makes the car hella fun to drive.
MM inserts and solid tranny mount is alot cheaper then all 3 solid mounts. the money you save on the upper and lower mount with inserts can get you some poly bushing for the entire car. $100 ebay strut bars are fine for everyday driving. but if you doing some good driving then go towards the DC Sports, Mopar or Pwecks Tri-point.
Discontinued yet still attainable used although from time to time you will find someone selling a kit new. The AGP Delta kits are the alternative but they are not plug and go. You still need fuel mods and a tuning device. The S3 comes with fuel and no need to tune (although you can if you want to) that is why I said plug and go. Mine put down 372whp/387wtq untuned with only a handful of mods on race gas/HOM. If someone wants to start with just basics and stick with the stock turbo for best mods for the money then I suggest... -Motor Mount Inserts and Transmission Inserts -3" TBE (Turboback Exhaust) although I'm partial to the Needswings 3" DP w/cut-out and its much cheaper then a full TBE. -FM WGA (PCM controlled boost) -Diablosport Predator (although the Trinity is also nice) -BFMIC Now with that list you always have room to upgrade to a bigger turbo/setup. Only thing that wouldn't work is the FM WGA as its made for the stock turbo only.
Complete delta kit below. And I would take a still supported system over a discontinued system anyday. Cause if something breaks you are left hunting down spare parts plus it gets you away from the cast exhaust housing and into a more standard one. The AGP S3D Complete includes the following components: -AGP Turbo kit with customer selected compressor wheel, AGP T3/T4 manifold, AGP-38mm external wastegate, stainless steel dump tube, 3" stainless steel O2 housing, oil feed and drain lines, gaskets, nuts and bolts, Stainless Steel heatshield, overflow bottle. -AGP 750cc injectors -Walbro 255lph Fuel Pump -AGP Specific SCT Flash w/ 3bar MAP and TIP sensors (NOTE: Our flash works will all the SRT4 PCM’s except stock 03) -Turbonetics Billet Boost Controller Modifications Needed to run this: -3" intake -External Blow Off Valve Setup -3" exhaust (not needed, but highly recommended)
Ya know convos like "best mods for the money" typically entail mods that are less than 1k... Ya know best mods that are affordable to all... But S3 though an AWESOME mod and I would rock 1, I would not suggest purchasing that to someone who isn't prepared to receive a pwn'd turbofold... Delta is still produced and warrantied (risk of a complete loss of money is almost nothing)
I am surprised no one has mentioned coil-overs...especially with the traction issues these cars tend to have. I am Stage 1, stage 2 WGA, and I have MM inserts, and upgraded sway bars. Since I had to downgrade my suspension, (remove the c/o and go back to stock suspension) I've been noticing an awful lot of wheel hop.(and I'm only putting down around 240hp/260tq, can't imagine if I had more.) Something I don't ever remember with the coil-overs. I very seldom get on my car, and right now it kinda Peeve's me off when I do, and get a bunch of wheel hop. I so need to figure out how to get my coil-over back together. :wallbash:
Whatever you say bro. I'm not going to argue with you. I happen to own (2) S3 SRT-4's and I happen to know about the Delta Kits and know people that have them.
Big deal maybe if you had one of each I would call it an un biased opinion but its not. We all know you think the s3 is the best thing ever but sorry man it is no longer being produced which means it isn't a very viable or wise option for those new to the vehicle. I happen to know a few people who work at AGP and a few others who run their systems and many of them came from an s3 and were happy to make the change.
I would say the best bang for your buck mod would be the Diablosport tuner and a Ragtek tune. Get you up to S2 w/o toys power for about $500. Then a Turboback exhaust (retune for this). An intake kinda an expensive power mod, you wont get much gains off a stock turbo 4-5hp, and they cost $200-$300 so that is like $75 per hp. A Dsport tune and exhaust will net you a 30+hp gain for $1000 ($33 per hp). The Dsport tune alone will net you 20-25 hp right off for $500. This is the best bet. You can always do the home depot spring mod, thats $10 and will net you 15-20hp :blowup:
I can't believe no one has listed the DCR Oil Mod here my car picked up 10-20hp across the midrange for $57.00. personally if money were an issue i would not get an intake the gains are way too small for the price. if we are really talking bang for the buck I would say the 3147 kit is it, even though they dont make it anymore for $1100 you used to be able to get a setup capable of ~400Hp.
But you won't make 400hp without a couple grand in bolt-on and fueling mods. But, I agree most turbo kits have the best bang for buck over most mods. DCR oil mod eh! $55, had something similar in my Talon. Reduced pumping losses=good
eh i ran a 50 trim for a bit then put the 3147 back on. it spools up sooner and makes just a little less power but worth it.