so heres the issue. Im thinking of buying a 2008 Dodge charger with a 2.7 liter engine. From what ive read that is a 192HP engine on a car with a weight around 3600lb (roughly 1650kg) which is so-so. Considering the fact that im currently driving a 2002 Citroen C5 2.0 engine with 140hp on 1250kg im guessing its about the same performance...

If i do get the Charger im looking to increase the engines performance with custom intake and exhaust and if possible also some chip tuning (modifying fuel ratios and such gets you better hp and even lower fuel consumption at times, at least on european cars...im not too familiar with american engines). If i can hit around 230-240hp with these modifications ill be happy. Is this possible on the 2.7 Charger???

Furthermore, ive read that the car (dont know if its just the 2.7 or other aswell) is limited to around 115MPH (185km/h) or something like that. Is this a USA thing? ... im asking cause i can do at least 200km/h with my citroen so yah... and is it possible to remove this limitation when changing engine parameters while chip tuning it???

I think those are the major questions i have at the moment. Oh...and the reason im getting the 2.7 is mostly taxes. Down here i have to pay around 470 euros per year for a 2.7 engine which is about 660 dollars or so. Considering the fact that medium wage in my country is 350 dollars/month or so you can do the math...taxes are really prohibitive for big engines(and yes in europe anything above 2.0 is considered pretty big). Not to mention gas prices...gah...i pay around 1,8 dollars / liter of fuel in my country (Romania - CE europe)...

Anyway...i just love the car itself...if i can get better performance out of it with mods after purchase even better. Thanks in advance to anyone who is willing to clarify these issues for me...

 

oh...sorry for the double post...1 more quesiton.

Did they fix the oil sludge problem the 2.7 chrysler/dodge engines had a few years back? ...i guess its worth mentioning that we only use 100% synthetic oil around here and either 95 or 100 octane gas... Should i expect trouble ???

 

This is the first time that someone is asking real performance questions regarding the 2.7. I will have to look into some of you questions and get back to you. Give me a couple days though as I am going to be really swamped with my job, but I 'll let you know soon.

I can tell you about the speed limiter though. Yes the speed is limited at 115 mph. This is because of the tires that come with the car. The 2.7 will hit this speed rather easily though.

When I get a few minutes though, I'll look into you other questions unless someone pops in before me.

 

tnx for the reply...id appreciate any info you could find. About the speed limitation... im assuming changing the rims/tires wont be enough so i would have to re-write the engine's software and such (thats what chip tuning or flash tuning does). I know this is done frequently with european/japanese cars to obtain a 15-30% boost in power while still being within the parameter limits recommended by the manufacturer...most of the time this kind of optimization also reduces fuel consumption regulating the ammount of fuel the engine gets at certain RPM and so on. Is this possible for the 2.7 Charger or american engines in general or not??...im not a mechanic so i dont know if engines have to be built in a certain way to enable this process or anything like that...so any info on this would be a great help.
Again...tnx for the reply and for any other info you might come up with...

 

I'll sum it up for you, "complete waste of time and money" regarding performance anything on a 2.7 motor, trust me. Most 2.7 owners change the appearance, rather then performance.

Edit: Was short on time before... The 2.7 motor is extremely hard to find any type of performace modification aftermarket. Your limited to pretty much exhausts and CAI. Currently there are no aftermarket tuners that apply to the 2.7 applications, at least any I would dare to plug into my LX.

Trying to achieve 40-50 more hp at the motor with simple bolt-on mods such as a exhaust, CAI, and a tuner (If 2.7 LX application was available) still would not be realistic. Those numbers maybe possible with a 5.7 though, granted I'm talking numbers at the crank, not rwhp, with such modifications as you requested.

My personal feeling about the 2.7 is just Chyrsler manufacturing an under-powered motor for the weight/size ratio of the LX platform vehicle. It's really not worth any modifications, unless you looking for simple tone/sound change from an exhaust or CAI.

 

well yah i know they are hard to find...ive read as much online...but is it possible?. Personally coming from a 136hp on 1200kg(give or take) ... 192hp on 1600kg(on the Charger SE - is this figure correct, give or take??) doesnt seem all that bad. Sure it wont be the fastest on the road but if i wanted that i would get a BMW or a Mazda with the 2.3L turbo engine which puts out 260hp (the equivalent of a 3.5 v6 Charger on a 2.3 engine mind you). The point is if i can get a little extra boost.

I have already read about available exhaust and CAI...and thats all well and good...that would get me a combined 10-15 hp or so??...at least those are the figures on the engines im use to so plz confirm if im close.

What im talking about when i say flash tuning is when the tuner connects a laptop to the car's ECU (engine control unit) and remaps it... this does not require any extra parts/components...its a software issue and its frequently done around here netting between 10-30% power boost...lower for gas, higher for diesel but still. It basically tells the engine how much fuel it should use at different RPM values and such which also reduces fuel-consumption when driving normally(not in a race-like way and at lower RPM). This should also be able to take care of the speed limitation of 115MPH the car has.

I dont understand why this would not be possible on the 2.7 Charger...is there something i am not aware of??? ... cause if it is possible then a 10%(the lower end of flash tuning) HP boost would put me at around 210 which combine with CAI and exhaust would be 220+ HP which is a decent number.

Is there something i am missing here??...

 

You're not missing anything. Just here in the states, a lot of tuners don't waste time and money on the small engines because 99 percent of those buyers don't care about HP. They buy the car for the look, the ride, and the name as their daily driver. If someone wants extra HP, they upgrade to the HEMI.

 

Are you talking crank hp, or rwhp? You do understand that being rear wheel drive you have to configure for the 16-18% tranny loss.

I understand your position with tuning, I'm very familiar with hp, and CMR tuning, I've done all the work on my Charger and spent a lot of time on a Mustang Dyno with a local tuner I know.

What I'm tellling you is your not going see 30 hp gains with those mods on an NA motor with a 2.7 displacement, on stock rotating assembly. When you talk turbos to compare to a 3.5 NA motor, you're comparing apples and oranges.

 

@krzy - yah ive read as much online. The HEMI is just too damn big for the taxes and gas prices here...trust me...id love one but its out of my range at least at the moment. So im trying to work with whatever i can get...

@power sedan - hmm...well personally im not to familiar with RWD cars since all the cars ive owned have been FWD. Still, tuners here work a lot on BMW's (which are very popular round here) and most of those are RWD... so i dont see why the Charger would be impossible to work with. As far as i know tuners here can provide a 6-10% power boost on regular(non-turbo) gas engines.

With the risk of sounding silly...please explain what a NA motor is cause im not really familiar with mechanical terms in english. From what i know from my time working in the automotive industry (in advertising, but still) ... there are 3 common types of engines: direct-injection, aspirated(i dont even know if this is a word in english lol) and diesels(most of which are turbo-diesel these days).

 

NA (non-aspirated) not blown, no turbo, all motor.

I'm not trying to discourage you from purchasing a 2.7, you'll still have a great LX platform regardless. I'm simply just sharing what I've learned the past six years owning my '06 Charger, and meeting hundreds of other LX, LY owners as well at meet and greets, dyno day events, etc...

If you can swing a 3.5 (granted the mpg's are really close in compared to the 2.7) you'll better yourself with many more realistic after market modifications, and put you in a position where your looking to be and better economically performance wise. Your not the first thread of a 2.7 (potential) owner looking to improve performance. Unfortunately the LX models are heavy vehicles and it takes more internal work to help lower end power, or an aspirated modification. Even if you found a tuner who promised 10% low end improvement altering your power band, your not going to notice much, if "any" difference on a 2.7 motor.

But as kind jester to help you on your way, check out 3gcustomz, they have what I consider to be the better CAI systems on the market for the 2.7 motor. I applaud your efforts, but answering your question honestly ("Is it worth it?"), my answer would be "No, it's not."