Hello, big fan of this site, owner of a 2000 Durango 4.7 4x4 since new. Love the car, hate the brakes and ball joints. At 100k miles, on the 5th set of rotors (I know how to drive and typically baby the truck) and 3rd set of ball joints. Have recently found out that selling the Durango will yeild me nothing and I decided to keep it and put about $1000 into some mods to make it a bit more peppy. I am considering a "roar" cold air intake or a K&N FIPK does anyone have any experience with either?
Also looking for a cat back exhaust system and have read all the messages. Whats the best? I like the way it sounds stock, a little louder wouldnt hurt, but not much. With these two mods, would I feel anything in the pedel?
Should I plan a chip or program change with these mods as well, if so any recomendations?

I think I could get the air intake and exhaust done for my grand but just want to know if it'll help.
These are my primary questions, if you have time, I have a few others that I would like some help with.

Driver door window inop and in the up position. Went to the manual to start to tear it apart and the first step is roll down the window! Is there any way to get around this or get the window down?
I have religously changed the oil and have all the documents to prove it. Under the oil fill cap appears to be the infamous "sludge" but the D leaks nothing and runs great. Should I panic? Always used Castrol GTX. Should I consider a Synthetic, Blend, stick with what works????
Driver side rear door lock only works manually. Anyone delt with this?

For the sites information, mine is under the recall and I have been instructed by the stealership that the last set of ball joints (the only set I paid for ((others under warrenty)) can be reimbursed if you provide proof of payment and mail too Daimler Crystler "reimbursments" department. We'll see how much of the $650 I get back (upper and lower change at a Les Schwab tire shop in California). I also specifically requested the Not OEM ball joints. Cant remember the name of them.

Thank you in advance for any input you have.

 

check out this message section;

https://dodgeforum.com/m_117305/tm.htm

I have a 2000 Durango R/T that I am saving to put some mods in. Problaby a grand budget like you. These are what I think can give you very noticable HP improvesments within the Grand budget. Also, I like to stick to mostly Mopar products to maintain the stock look.

Mopar M1 intake manifold.

Fastman ThrottleBody upgrade.

Mopar Cold air Intake.

If there is money leftover, I like to get the Hypertech III programming computer to reprogram my chip.

I feel Exhaust would be the last upgrade piece on the list as my R/T has bigger stock pipes going to the back than regular Durangos.

 

Thanks Kensai for your reply,
Intake Manifold? Sounds like it'll eat up a bunch of our budget and potentially creat other problems???? Looking for more novice plug and play stuff any ideas? I like your comment on the chip though, what is the potential cost and what do you know about them. I am very nervous about computer changes, as I fear that any wrong move leaves me without the car until a solution. With these "re-programings" or "chip's" things is there a "system restore" mode or method that you know of?

Thanks again

 

Intake manifold would cost ya a little more as far as labor is concerned unless you have a great friend that is a mechanic or do it yourselfer. As far as simple plug and play for the novice folks like me also, I would choose the Mopar Cold Air Intake and the hypertech III chip programmer.

The hypertech III is not a computer replacement. You just plug in this computer programmer into the Durango's diagnostic port or connector harness for direct access to the chip. Then the hypertech will reprogram the chip to your specifications. The cool thing about the hypertech programmer is that you can always revert your chip back to factory settings. I read alot about hypertech and so far this is what I would go for compared to other chip upgrades. You just answer the questions on the programmer with a yes or no and the programmer does the rest. The Hypertech would problaby be my first choice for my R/T because with the programmer, I can reprogram my R/T to use unleaded fuel instead of the premium fuel required at present. But I'll still gain somewhat more power than the stock settings. The price I saw for the Durango's runs around $342 I think from their website. I want my tranny to be reprogrammed to be a little more aggressive between gear changes. Current stock settings, the gear changes too soon when I need the power and so far, I have to manually upshift the gears when I need power.

Here is the website for the hypertech if you want to read more about it. I cannot wait to watch this product in action on spike TV.

http://www.hypertech.com

 

if 1000.00 is the budget, you are lookin at exhaust( i went with the gs motorsports cat-back duals), a fastman throttle body, and a cai (i went with the air raid) very happy with all, for a 5500 lb. slug it has tons more "get-up-and-go, if the installs are done yourself, you may have a couple of hundred left, a cheap upgrade is installing some autolite 3923 spark plugs, they fire a bit cooler, and improve the throttle response( they dont seem to work too well on the 4.7 engine though)