Souping up?

[ilovemycece8]

Subjectivity is a wonderful thing.
A.) The lowered Suv thing looking nice all comes down to personal taste. Yours will 9 out of 10 times be different then mine.
B.) I don't do what I do to be cool or impress women or anything. I just simply want to. If I honestly wanted to impress women I would save alot more money and buy me a Mustang(note not my first choice in cars, just generally females) or since I live in the south with all the down home folks I'd put my ranger on 35 inch tires.
C.) I've seen a lowered Rodeo before
D.) I wasn't expected massive horsepower gains. I just kinda wanted to stand a change in most stop light challenges.

I'm sorry if you think its a bad idea, but if I get the truck, I'll modify the heck out of it. I prefer the mini truck field so that's probably how I'll go. Big shiny rims, lowered truck, lots of bass, and just a tad bit of extra power. Honestly though, if I don't get the Passport I'll probably just keep my Ranger and mod it up.

[sassee]

With the economy the way it is, it's nice to know that you (your mom) has that kind of money to throw at a Rodeo. It doesn't matter how much money you put in it or what you do to it, it's still a turd. When you started this thread, you said you were a "speedaholic" A Rodeo is a terrible platform for that! That's all EVERYBODY here was trying to say. If want want to throw a ton of money at, go for it! It doesn't cost any of us a dime!

For the record, I never said lowered SUV's look like crap. Some of them actually DO look cool! YOU'RE the one that stated you wanted to make it go FAST and a Rodeo sux at that! I'm not knocking Isuzu's in any manner, afterall I STILL do own 3 of them. But I realized a long time ago that they aren't for speed. Would I lower a Rodeo? NO! You're right, my personal tastes wouldn't allow it! Would I lower a 66 Chevelle and put a 600 HP big block in it? YEP! (DONE IT!!!) Why? Because some vehicles just look cooler than others!

Good Luck!

[ilovemycece8]

My mom is only putting up four hundred of it. I'm paying the rest and then paying her back in installments.
Yes i'm a speedaholic, I don't mean extreme speeds. If I could get it up to almost or at 300 horsepower it'd be great. And it'd fly. My friend has a durango that gets about 325 horsepower and it's terribly fast and its heavier than a Passport.

[Stites]

That Duh-rango has over 100 more hp. It has the engine to do it, too(American V8). How fast are you wanting to go... or by fast, do you mean "quick"? As one who knows, a 10-second car isn't cheap, and 160mph ain't no joke, either.

[sassee]

Obviously nothing anyone on here says is gonna change your mind so just go ahead and do it! Good Luck! (you're gonna need it as well as lots of CA$H)

[IsuzuFire]

Alright me and you are in the same spot here man. I have an Isuzu Rodeo Sport. This is just the two door version of the Rodeo/Passport. Now, listen dude. These things CAN be turned into performance SUV's. How do I know this? because I'm in the process of doing it to mine. BUT, this takes up a ridiculous amount of money, time, and know how to get the job done. As for the 3.2 v6 you have, here's the story with that. There are a few little after market parts that you can use to gain a little power up front. but nothing more then around a 30 horse gain, at max. Like somebody already stated, they are pretty much as maxed out as you can really go with one of these blocks. I was in the same situation as you were. and I was really considering doing a total custom internals rebuild with everything custom. Until one night a had a dream. The dream honestly was where I just had a twin turbo 2jz gte on an engine stand in my garage. and it came to me as that's what I need to do. After running the numbers and rough estimates, I'm in the process of doing the 2jz swap for a lot less then the rebuild on the 3.2 would have costed me. Now, once again, this involves a ton of money, and know how to do. I'm completely ripping out everything. The 3.2 and tranny are all getting ripped out. Like I said to be replaced by the twin turbo 2jz gte and a 6 speed that will bolt up to that. Dude, this project is very intense. And honestly, the only way to go with this really is to do an engine swap. EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING has to be completely custom done. This project is worth it to me, because I love my ride with everything in me. I live, breathe, and dream about speed. It's just the way some people are. As all of these guys have already pointed out, handling an SUV is completely different then a car. I'm slamming mine to the ground, but the fact is, she's still a 3,700 pound SUV with a much higher center of gravity then a car. So be careful. It has nothing to do with how good a driver you are. It's a matter of physics. so just be careful man. As for your suspension, yeah they already have sway bars. but, you can get better ones. It takes a ridiculous amount of research to find parts for these, however I was able to find some things. But the truth is, you're going to need a ton of custom work. As far as carbon fiber goes, you're going to have to by raw sheets of carbon fiber, and have somebody who works with that stuff create your parts for you. that's what i'm doing with my body kit and hood. EVERYTHING pretty much has to be custom made. There are no cheap power adders for these SUV's. sad, but true. If you're still up for the project, I recommend getting the Rodeo, doing those few little things to boost you're performance while you start saving up money for the real deal. Do it right. Don't cut corners, and don't do it cheap. I'm not even keeping track of how much money this project is costing me. But to me, it doesn't even matter. Because it's so worth it to me. If you need any help or advice, feel free to hit me up with a text or something. 609 384 0738. There are VERY few true performance SUV enthusiasts out there. And I'm psyched to find another one out there. I got you all the way if you're going to go through with this. Trust me. It will be MORE then worth it in the end when she's completely finished.