What should be the 1st mods on a 2nd Gen to make it faster and handle better?

Figured we could organize all the suggestions into one thread instead of having a new thread every week on the same subject.

Let hear the ideas.

 

Please keep your replies and suggestions serious and useful.

Also, maybe share the site or place you got the part from.

 

honestly, it depends on how much money you have on hand and what your looking for first on your Neon.

A.)Under the hood would definately be my first (and is going ot be very soon) a Cold Air Intake

B.)You could also go with an exhaust depending how much work you wanna put in and have the time to do it.

C.)Then there is you COULD lower it first for better handling and then go into your engine.

D.)For better Acceleration you could get into a better PCM... but i would recommend atleast 2 or more from above or other possibilities before even doing this...

then the list dives on.

Looking at price range wise and at time consumption it would go in this order (excluding item d cuz that is something for later)

A.) Cold Air Intake ~$200 (if installing it yourself) and ~ a couple hours to be slow and careful.
B.) Exhaust ~$520 (if installing yourself) and ~ a good week to install right
C.) Lowering Kit... really depends on your fancy and which kit you get. $300 ebay pairs - $900 sets

eh... personal preference

 

My first mods were
K&N VIPER filter.
Removed Resonator
AEM CAI.
Flowmaster high flow muffler.
Also new performance motormounts are a great way to knock off some time.
55mm throttle body and that should keep up busy for now.

 

I have a auto 2004 sxt neon and my first mods were k&n drop in cone filter and srt4 exhaust, mopar performance wires and platuimn champion plugs and soon to have a intake and also have nitorus and will have a hahn turbo. Because of the stupid computer in the 03-05 good luck with the performance.

 

my first mods on my 03 se were catback exhaust removed hollowed cat pacesetter header cold air intake 60mm throttle body underdrive pully cam gear grounding kit shortshifter lowering spring (struts, shocks,springs) front strut bar and its not bad

 

i was more looking at a cheap single upgrade someone could do for a decent amount of horse power vs price.

Whats on my list is as follows:

CAI (complete)
Cat Back Exhaust
JET Performance Chip
Unorthodox Racing Pully
60 mm TB
Motor Mount


----------------------

just a few notes on my mental note pad. Not too into all the body mods out there. So mainly everything i want is under the hood.

 

Nothing on that list is going to give you any huge increase, the exhuast is probally the best.

 

my first upgrades on my 05 sx, were
(all in canadian dollars)

- K&N typhoon intake - 356
- Tsudo header - 228
- Magnaflow Muffler - 179.99
- comp cam - 500 (didnt install it yet)
- APC strut bars F/R - 87.00
- Bomz coilovers - 56.00 (didnt install yet)


Future upgrades...
- Highflow cat
- INTAKE MANIFOLD -(HELP ME FIND ONE SOMEBODY!)
- maybe turbo
- Throttle Body

 

I have a 03' neon sxt my first mods were:

AEM CIA- http://www.aempower.com/product_intake_app.asp for about $332 but you can find it on ebay for about $150
"if you have stock exhaust remember this: if you put a cia on your car your getting 2 if not 3x the airflow you were getting now
thats alot of air comming in and verry little comming out your stock header and exhaust pipe, some people say it can mess your
car up with to much combustion others say its perfictly fine....

I HAD! 8.5mm wireset but im switching them out for Nology HotWires- www.nology.com for about $171
the hot wires are soooo much better they're unbelieveable i would def. get them

whatever you do do NOT get platnum plated sparkplugs for your car! they run to hot and are cheep and are not made for neons!
ive had nothing but trouble with them.
instead- i have :

Iridium-enhanced .6mm sparkplugs- www.autolite.com/products-will tell you all about them and you can get them from-www.andvanceautoparts.com "the plugs are called "Autolite Ignition Spark Plug: Xtreme Performance" and they're about $7.00 a plug

other mods: full cat back exhaust w/racing header and racing catylic converter- you can get the exhaust anywhere the header and catylic converter- www.advanceautoparts.com

Wether or not your getting a FULL bodykit i would deffenatly LOWER your car it dose give you better tracktion and handeling

as for the rev limitor and govner: To eleminate this problem....

I purchesed a HYPERTECH® Power Programmer™ - this machine reprograms and downloads racing softwear onto your computer
you can set " as in you can SET IT YOURSELF!" the rev. limitor on how high or low SAFTLY you can go and the top speed its great and your govnor is still on your car so you dont have to worrie about emmisions- you can get this part at www.advanceautoparts.com for about $390. and dont worrie if you dont like it you can simply choose to unistall the program and reset it to its original conf.

i could keep going and going giving all kinds of sites and parts but jst like everyone else has said it depends on how much money, and how much time and how far your willing to go with this.

but other parts i would deff. get:

performance motor mounts
straut bar
possibly either a complete turbo package "which they do make for the 02-05 sxt autos/man" whic comes with the intercoler and everything for about $3,000
if you already have turbo i suggest you get the stage 2-3 upgrade kits which also run about $3000

i meen there is just so much you can do to a neon its crazy i hope this post was helpful!