Hi! I just bought a 2015 Charger R/T Road and Track. I love it! The previous two owners apparently left it stock; even so, it's awesome. It pulls strong and just wants to run. However, it has 95,000 miles on it, and I turn my own wrenches. So, what do I need to know as far as maintenance, upgrades and things to look out for? Topics include:

Oil (change intervals, if they prefer any thing special, conventional or synthetic, etc.)
Engine maintenance (things like timing chains)
Preferred upgrades (I don't want to go too crazy right now, but still)

I'm a gear head and am always looking to tinker and upgrade. A friend is giving me an intake manifold for a scatpack, and I'm starting research on making it work and if it's worthwhile. I'm also thinking about exhaust, and looking into adding active exhaust with a mid muffler delete.

Thanks everyone!!

 

Check owners manual for recommended maintenance

 

As mentioned, maintenance schedule is in your owner's manual. There is timing chain recall/TSB for the eagle, may or may not pertain to your year. Best thing to do is either look it up your VIN on the Dodge site to see if there are any outstanding (or have a dealer do it). FYI, timing chain is "repair" and not "maintenance" unless you are classifying it as "unscheduled maintenance". To do any real engine upgrades you'll need an unlocked PCM. The 392 manifold (if complete) your friend is giving you is usually about $500-900. It is one of the better upgrades for the eagle you can do without getting into the engine. You'll need to use your stock injectors, the 392 injectors (if there) will be too much and the tune would have to be rescaled to even try to use them. The 6.4/392 manifold is an active intake, it switches internally at about 4800 rpm between long and short runners. This will not give you hp increase per se but vastly improves what is there under the curve. It is a popular swap. To use the SRV you can either find (people online make them) an SRV harness you can plug into the PCM and someone with HP Tuners can turn it on (but may require an unlocked PCM), use the Tazer pigtail or use an rpm switch to activate it. In 2015 only the SRT cars came with the active exhaust; your car is not wired for it nor is your PCM programmed for it. Do you mean cut outs?

 

As far as active exhaust, I was thinking of the factory unit. I haven't had the car long enough to jack the car up and check, but from articles and forums I read the cars seemed so modular and pre-wired for everything I thought it may be possible. This is not a big deal, just do some normal exhaust work. What setups do y'all have, and what are your pros and cons of it?

What about fluids? One forum said these engines love conventional Penzoil. Care to weigh in? At what point in the oil life gauge do y'all recommend changing it? Any special transmission fluid?

 

Even IF it is pre-wired, you will still have to either swap PCM's or change the the program to a newer version to actually make use of it. Whatever your choice of oil that meets the spec. Regardless of any oil monitor (don't trust those things, it once tried to tell me I needed to change it at 1500 miles) I change all of mine at 6000 miles. After oil testing and time this has served me well. I had an 06 R/T with over 180k on the original engine that I would still be driving today and would've crossed 200k if not for the locals here. My SRT has 112k+, my 03 Ram has 160k+ and my 05 Magnum has 130k+. It's expensive as hell but stick with the OEM fluid for the 8sp. As I recall there isn't a periodicity for the fluid because it's supposed to be "lifetime" so that'll be on you to decide when to change it.