If you are serious about this, have the funds and are close enough to Phoenix, Az to drop your car off, Metal Man fabrication can (and has, but not on an SRT-4, yet) do a FWD to AWD conversion. I've talked with him about this, 1/4 way seriously. It is 100% possible, but alot of work. As an estimate I think we came up with about $6-$8k in labor cost alone. By the time you bought all of the materials, paid for the labor and bought all of the "nickle and dime" stuff that adds up quick, you're probably looking at $10 to $12k.

This conversion is not something your average (or even above average) back-yard, shade-tree mechanic can do. It will require the fabrication of just about the entire rear sub-frame along with differential and suspension mounting points. And likely alot of floor-board sheet metal work, esp if the car is lowered. (As the "exhaust tunnel" would need to be increased in order to have both the driveshaft and exhaust run down through it.

And to top it all off, you'll be without your car for MONTHS while the work is being done. But Metal Man can do it, and his work is top notch, landing more than one car in a magazine or two (including, very likely mine, when it is finished). On pg 150 of March 06's Super Street magazine you'll find Mario's AWD Spider Eclipse (AWD Conversion by Metal Man). That conversion was a little simpler since the Eclipse platform was designed for AWD, but there was still alot of work: fabrication of mounting points that were missing and so forth.

http://www.metalmanfab.com

 

Hey MChat, can I have sex with your car when it is finished?? Just curious...

 

Why dont people just find a 5.7 Hemi enigine and tranny, and just build a custom Neon. I think it would be more rewarding...but thats just me. A buddy of mine plans on buying my car after I pay it off and doing what I just said...But he's a Mopar mechanic and has built many custom street rods.

 

wow... sounds like a lot of customization. will an V8 even fit in the engine bay without madd modding? also reenforcing the frame to handle the torque the hemi+rwd would put on the car. but i guess it would be quite the sleeper, i would do it to a base model peon.

 

Does anyone know where or if you can do an awd conversion?

 

Read the thread ! ......

 

Should not be a big issue look into a patriot or compass with awd the drivetrains should be close with the caliber and the bodies should not be much different. If I remember correctly the compass and patriot and caliber were all built on the same platform so the drivetrains should be plug and play. Do remember to get the electronics from the donor to keep the system uniform. Licensing should not be an issue as long as you license it as the donor vehicle though I would check with your local dmv.

 

The compass and patriot are FWD with RWD assist,both are designed off the Dodge caliber.Both do not have a real 2 speed t-case,the CVT versions have a "low range" but nothing like the Liberty.