cool, well if you ever need any input on the runners let me know. I think .25 is not enough, i'd go .5~.75 minimum.

Also, do you keep track of your mileage? if so can you post back to this tread what your new mileage is? I have a daughter who bought my '97 from me and she's happy about her 19.8 mpg average but if there is an opportunity for more, she may want to do it.

btw, I poured a bottle of marvel mystery oil in her crank during her last oil change and it seems to have given her about 1.5~2.0 mpg difference since doing it. something to consider. My other daughter put a quart in her honda and went from 23~25 mpg to 29~31 mpg. made a huge difference in her car.

 

had to wait till i ran out of gas to check the mpg. i haven't totally finished boring my intake manifold yet but the mileage is a touch better once i stopped hittin the gas hard. i'd say the difference the TB and the custom cai make in mpg together are deffinitly big enough to spend the time and money on doing both mods. not to mention the power of both mods together really wakes it up. raced my brothers 300m special and actually kept a nose ahead till about 35mph. when i raced him before the adding the mods it was a different story. i've heard of the mm oil, i'll have to check that out. the pictures you posted, was that before or aft you cut the runners down?

 

in the 1st pic it is of 1 set of runners cut already... the ones in the foreground on the left side are cut, the rears are not. It is tough to keep your foot out of it once you have the power huh?

some other affordable mods... autolite 3923's... the regular ones are said to be worth 5 hp on the v8's i'd imagine they should be good on the 3.9's as well... thats what we used. MSD 8.5 superconductor wires... also a good way to go. when it comes to the cap & rotor it's been my experience that the best one to use is the stock mopar ones. Acell did nothing and may have worn out faster than the stock mopar cap & rotor.

on your custom CAI... if you can shield the air filter like the K&N setup is, you'd be better off than with out. heat robs HP & TQ.

another easy fairly cheep mod just came to mind... get some Thermo Tec insulating tape and insulate your fuel rails, they also make an insulating sleeve that you could slide over the fuel line as it passes over the tranny. this will help keep the fuel from heating up and also insulate the fuel rail to prevent a heat soak condition on it during stop & go traffic. cold fuel sprayed on your air stream will cool it down which will help HP. ultimately if yo could cool the fuel prior to it hitting the rail that would be ideal (did it already on my 2000 & it was good for a 6% bump in hiway fuel economy).

anyways, have fun with it...

 

ok, i see the diff in the runners now. shouldn't be too hard to tackle this weekend. don't need a shield for the intake, i actually run a large hose off the factory box (w/ a K&N) through the front rubber plate in between the radiator and the rt head light assembly. works pretty good but have to clean the filter a little more often.

 

as for the runners... I dont know how much to recommend you cut... go to hughes engines and see what they say for the 3.9 motor. then go from there. I yanked off 1.5" and got excellent results on my 5.9 motor...