Neon Performance Advice

[ryank82]

Hello everyone this is my first post.

I have a question for ya. Im currently driving a 1997 Plymoth Neon Highline (93,000MI) that I have had for about 8months and have been tuning up. I just had all plugs changed, new wheels, all fluids flushed and refilled, windows tined :sun: and tomarrow im having a new exhaust installed. Now my car is pretty fast but not tons of get up and go and am wondering what else could help for more power? My new exhaust should help quite abit but wondering if there is anything else you can recommend? Im hearing alot of people saything that they are racing Neons and such and smoking other cars and just wondering what would do to pep this thing up. Appreciate any help. Thanks

[DOHcNEON]

TURBO!!!

[ryank82]

Is that quite expensive or not ????


I was thinking of possibly getting a Iceman cold air intake but would that help at all?? Also if so are those hard to install ?





Thanks

[Sluttypatton]

I'm just building my engine so I can give you a few ideas...

First you could go the most common way (can be very pricey for little power)
1)C.A.I. and new air filter
2)full catback exhaust system
3)New cams (if you do this, also replace the lash adjusters and rocker arms so you don't ruin a head in high rev fun, the lash adjusters from a 2001 and up engine will do, and the rocker arms from a 2.4L PT cruiser will do)
4)Exhaust manifold
5)New ECU
6)Short throw shifter (beleive me, it's one of the most cost effective way to reduce your ET)

Then you could go another route and use nitrous
Nitrous shouldn't be used unless on a built engine(forged pistons, billet connecting rods, stainless steel valves, high flow injectors and fuel pump...). With this setup I would run a 50 shot nitrous kit just to be safe, you could run more, but just to be safe.

Then you can take the road less traveled
Turbo it.
Turbocharging is more expensive and more difficult but in my opinion the best way with the 420a engine (Our engine). The characteristics of the 420a are suited to a small, fast spooling turbocharger and I'm working on building a homemade turbo kit for the car. If you want you could buy a turbo kit from hahn-racecraft but they are a lotta $bones$. It all depends on how much you know about cars and how much you are willing to spend. Hahn makes a great kit but its pricey, otherwise your gonna have to do what I did and make your own system, right now I'm just upgrading. Turbos are wicked, theyre the best option I think.

Oh and an Iceman cold air intake is a good idea for any of the options, alone it wont make much power but its a must if your gonna do more to the engine. They arent hard to install and you could probably do it yourself...if not a shop wouldn't charge much. Get one.

[ryank82]

So by me just installing the C.A.I and the new filter what kinda performance gains do you think I might get? I was looking at a Iceman cold air intake and it was around 199$ is that a good price? If so Ill probably get one later this summer or earlier if money is there.

[Sluttypatton]

well, I would geusstimate a power gain on your engine of maybe 3-4 horsepower, its not much but a cold air intake is where I started. Its pretty much a must have if you want to make any serious power with later mods. as for price, shop around, if its common, its probly pretty good.

[ryank82]

Thanks for the tips.




Anyone else have any ideas ? ?

[ryank82]

Got my new exhaust today. Quite abit better now. Next thing will be to add a C.A.I setup. Hopefully Shortly I can get a Iceman c.a.i . New exhaust added the power sound to it too. Got a little bit of a growl to it. As far as speed from 0-60 what should I be getting?? Right now its around 8 seconds. Is that half way decent for my car?

Bye

[ryank82]

I had my catilattic converter taken off (yest i know its illegal) and had a stright pipe exhaust installed but I noticed my check engine light is now on. Just curious but do you think that by removing the converter thats what is triggering the check engine light? If so is there a way to turn it off ?? The sensor was kept in tact and reseated by the installer for the exhaust.


Thanks for any help

[Sluttypatton]

Removing the cat is cool, i dont care about legal aspects much. But it may cause some problems man...Im not sure here but since the neon uses two O2 sensors (one upstream-forget that one, and one downstream-right behind your cat) it uses the downstream sensor to check the efficiency of the catalytic converter...oh yeah thats right, no cat... o2 sensor may have somthing to say about that. That is the first scenario, the second is that the o2 sensor was broken or missinstalled when the new pipe was done. To check the trouble code go to http://neons.org/howtos/diag.shtml and follow the instructions, its probably o2 related. Next step, get a manual for your car like a Haynes from canadian tire or the equiv in your area and get a multimeter, use the manual to help you check the proper resistance for a good O2 sensor and find out if its the O2 sensor thats faulty, if it is replace it. If it isnt...post back and ill see what i can figure out.

[ryank82]

Well I did the system check as you suggested to find out what the system would say was wrong. It came up with CODE: (37 Torque converter clutch solenoid CKT or park/neutral switch failure) oR at least am pretty sure. Anyways I also disconnected the battery for 5 mins and then reconnected and now the check engine light is off. Does that code mean something pretty bad or what? Both my park and my neutral work obviously lol. Everything Seems to be working fine. The car is running fine all day long. I was reading somewhere that one of the o2 sensors check the cattalatic converter and how it is doing. Since I had it taken off when I installed my new exhaust could this also trigger and if so how do i make it ignore that.

Talk to ya later

[ryank82]

Ok I dont no if this is good or not, but after disconnecting the battery for around 10 mins then hooking back up I ran the system test again and all i got was error messege 12 (Direct Battery input to pcm was disconnected in the last 50 key on cycles) which is prob to be expected. Now my question is so now that I disconnected my battery and then had run the system test again and am only getting that error messege do you think everything is fine? Also resetting that like i had said in last post my check engine light is now off. Do you think cause of my new exhaust installed I would have to reset it and thats why its not reporting any errors now?

:licker:

[Sluttypatton]

If there is a problem it will reappear as the same trouble code again...the code 12...dont worry. This sounds completely unrelated to your exhaust so don't worry. Keep an eye on it and if the trouble code resurfaces then take it to get checked as any transmission troubles should be checked asap. If the code never appears again then happy motoring, and go turn some civics into rice paddies.

[Polygon]

I would agree fully with everything that Sluttypatton and DOHcNEON has said. Remember, if you decide to go the turbo route, which I think is the best way to get power from smaller engines, you will want to make sure you get an exhust system that will work with the turbo. Otherwise you will be replacing it when you get the turbo installed.

[ryank82]

My check engine light is back on

Im gona take it to Autozone or similiar to confirm that code its reading and hopefully I can find out whats wrong. Hopefully it isnt something too bad because I had just got done sinking quite abit of money in this bad boy. Also SluttyPatton when you say whoopin some civics are you say most Neon's will beat civics? I always heard they were pretty good. Yea cant decide if I want to buy another car maybe a 1999-2002 range car or sink some more $$ in to this one. Couple people were telling me it might not be worth it considering its going on 93,000miles. Well talk to ya later...