Hello again,

I was wondering what some of the biggest performance bottlenecks are when it comes to acceleration for the Dodge Stratus Coupe SE (2.4L SOHC)

I'm already almost out of 'bolt-on' performance mods, and am trying to find things to boost my acceleration. I'm fine with the top speed (although I really don't know what that is... as there aren't too many places to 'open up' around here), but just like being able to take off fast.

I already ditched the stock air intake, got new plugs and wires (I don't think the wires were changed for the past 82k miles...) That was a fairly significant gain even right there. I'm figuring my next step will be a new exhaust, which I'm currently looking into. (It's not much, but I'm just getting started haha)

The bottlenecks that I've identified are: [ol][*]Engine size - 4cyl 2.4L SOHC, not the most powerful in the world (147HP stock?), but I would hope it has potential ^^[*]Weight - I read in the manual that this car weighs in at ~2.3k lbs, and I've seen numbers online upwards of 3.3k lbs... When I was doing my 0-60, having my brother (140lb) sitting in the car added ~1.5 seconds.[*]Stock Air Intake - The one that comes with the car must have been incredibly restrictive, because when I put on my aftermarket one, there was an surprisingly high performance gain after installation[*]Exhaust - I read everywhere it's one of the major stopping points in stock cars, although Nate(?) said they didn't see any performance gain from them. (perhaps that was on the R/T?) I'll probably do it anyway just for kicks[*]Transmission - Just due to the way it rides through gears 1-2, I'm assuming this is one of the reasons takeoff is poor.. [/ol]I've considered turbo-charging, but there is an incredible lack of information on it for the Stratus. Is there a reason for that? (Well, I guess there's an incredible lack of anything Stratus related, but oh well) I did find alot of pages about supercharing the Eclipse, and more specifically the 4G64, but, I'm not sure how relevent this would be to the Stratus, or if those guides and articles would be completely inapplicable..

Hm, I guess I should summarize my questions: [ul][*]What makes the Stratus takeoff slow? (My 0-60 is 11.5 seconds. Or is that decent?)[*]Is there any benefit from a new Exhaust system? (besides sound haha)[*]How much do the Eclipse mods apply engine-wise? (Well, I guess I should say 4G64 Engine mods?)[*]What causes this car to weigh so much? Is it mostly body size?[*]Has anyone successfully turbocharged a Stratus Coupe 2.4L?[*]Are SOHC->DOHC swaps possible?[/ul]I should note that I'm trying to keep this car streetable, and not take it out of commission for too long haha. (Which is why I started shying away from the turbo route, as it seems like an incredibly intense mod)

Thanks for all of the info, and listening to me ramble.

 

Anything you find for an I4 3g eclipse is aplicable to your car, STRATUS = Mitsubishi Eclipse. After installing my Borla I didn't notice any gains, wasn't expecting to either.