ORIGINAL: Mat00ES

I have the same car, Im planning on a CAI, header, exhaust, 60mm throttle body, swaybars,lowering struts and springs.

Mat

ORIGINAL: mjj1587

Just lookin for input here...I have a stock 2000 Neon ES w/ 104,000 miles...picked it up 10,000 miles ago for 3500 bucks...It's bone stock with an auto tranny....just curious where I should start when it comes to engine mods...I know im kinda limited with what i can do being its an automatic..but i also know there are parts out there....Where should I start?

ORIGINAL: Freerider

First, your not limited by your tranny. Thats just dumb to say. You can do everything but tranny shift linkage items. You will just be quite slower than if you had an MTX.

Secondly, what do you plan to do? Go fast or just faster than stock? Either case....

Start off with an intake and exhaust combo. Thats probably the best bang for your buck.


For exhausts, just remember to stick with 2.25" tubing. Anything past that and you begin to suffer from backpressure problems. There are several brands. You have Borla and Magnaflow being the most popular and best quality exhausts you could possibly buy on the market.

Depending on your plans in the future, there are "performance" mufflers out there. They are NOT like these:

http://www.autosportz.com/exhaust/bomz_n1spec.jpg

NO!!!!! That's about as performance oriented as placing a potatoe in your catylitic converter.

Your looking at a highflow muffler off of Modernperformance.com Brands include Vibrant and Pacesetter. The reason those WORK is because the neon's exhaust, stock, is 2.25". However, when it gets down to the muffler it shrinks to 2". SO, increasing the diamter of the muffler to 2.25" you cut out the restriction in the exhaust and gain a few ponies. Not to mention it sounds better.

mine:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1..._0972fixed.jpg


For intakes, you can use anything from namebrand items or even ebay. It really comes down to the filter. They all go the same place:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...r/000_0209.jpg

peopel argue its "too low" and sucks up water. They will battle up and down for RAI's (Ram Air Intakes) because the possibilities to suck up water is next to null. So I will describe both.

CAI's, like the one I pictured and own, sit low to collect colder air outside the engine compartment. By limiting the amount of junk it goes through (like the stock plastic CRAP), you have a great system to bring cool air into the engine. As you can see by the picture... you need to be driving in nearly 2-3 feet of water to begin sucking stuff up. even if your lowered it is still quite a significant amount of water.

RAI's sit INSIDE the engine bay. They aren't as restrictive as the stock unit... but their downfall is that they sit inside the enginebay. They suck in the hotter air from under the hood... and in my HONEST opinion are not worth it. Its up to you.

Questions?