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Just wondering

3K views 16 replies 12 participants last post by  Sandshar 
#1 ·
I love my Challenger, it was my dream car ever since it rolled out back in 2008, and being able to own one always puts a smile on my face. I know that the 3.6 isn't as fast as our bigger brothers, but I don't really care, for a 19 year old, 305HP is probably enough. But one thing that has been hitting me hard lately is since I got my tuner, I have been fighting tooth and nail to reduce all the knock I have been having, now granted I'm in college, so yea I can only do so much, but even then I try to work as hard as I can to keep my lil 3.6 in the best shape possible. But am I trying too hard? I mean, I know I won't get the power or sound of a V8, but is it pointless for me to keep trying to get the most out of the pentastar? I know I don't want to upgrade to a V8, I grew attached to this car the moment I got in the driver's seat, so what do you guys think? Do I keep worrying about performance on this car or should I just leave it as is and just work on improving cosmetics and sound only? This has been bugging me for a while now, and I guess I just need some input from people that know more about this car and how it functions than I do.
 
#2 ·
Beautiful car. Just keep it detailed and enjoy.

Modifying power trains is a hobby. If it is your hobby, go for it. If you have other hobbies, pursue them or your social life. Use that car to go have fun.

Often people get their ego tied up in their hobby. If you get that from anyone in the hot rod community, remember it is the same human flaw as the obnoxious type of jock, intellectual, or socialite. Smile, wave, and do your own thing.
 
#3 ·
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#4 · (Edited)
If there's only one upgrade you are to do as a 3.6 owner, I personally would make it a diablo canned tune at least (should opt for a custom "canned" tune). It will make everything run better and smoother. Look at my sig - I did the custom tune last and it brought EVERYTHING together beautifully, even my quiet exhaust kit became a bit thunderous (it became even more so when I turned "off" ECO mode). In its current form, my 3.6 shifts/delivers power/sounds 5x better than it did stock. Though it still only has about as much torque as my '02 PontiacGTP when that was stock, it now feels like such a solid V6 I don't even want to put a blower on it (for the sake of simplicity/reliability concerns), but that's only because I have a decked out boosted-V6 to play with on the side.

If this is going to be your only vehicle for a while, eventually you may or may not want that V8/supercharged-V6 torque; but I tell you this (speaking as a base SXT owner w/ 2.65 gears), a non-boosted Pentastar CAN be more enjoyable than a lot of people give it credit for. Also, what I love about the base suspension is that it allows me to drive over bumps like an SUV, plus its looseness allows the front end to lift up during sharp acceleration causing people to think I'm about to go fast&furious on them (when in reality I'm just driving around in a waterbed). And I will add that when I floor this thing from a 20~40 mph roll, the guttural scream/acceleration makes all the 4/6/8-cylinders get the fug out of the way...most of the time.
 
#5 ·
Nice to know, I do have a tuner for my 6, but recently when I decided to datalog I was getting 4.5-6 ST Knock and 6-7 LT Knock, which was why I made this thread, I guess seeing that I was losing HP through that and really dont have any idea on how to tackle it is making my morale a bit low, even so, I can agree that the Pentastar is really fun, even in the state she's in now, taking corners and just plain accelerating is just so fun, and call me crazy, but I enjoy my 6's pitched, sharp tone ( I do like the v8 noise, but I think I enjoy the 6's noise since I'm around alot of JDMs from the 90s running I6 and 4s) The suspension is top notch, and while I have the upgraded setup from the Rallye Redline package (says sport, but I think its just R/T's setup in the 6) I enjoy the ride better than the luxury cars I have been in. You're probably right about the SC, being that I won't have the ability to get a second car for a while, adding a SC would be something I would wait on, course, I gotta figure out how to get rid of this horrendous knock first. A BIG issue as well is I can't really up my octane via the pump. Most of my money goes to paying for college and living expenses and insurance, so while I want to make that jump to higher octane I can't do so at this moment. Do you think I can get a tune for 87 that would benefit me?
 
#7 ·
One thing about modding cars is you're never done. So even if you get an RT, SRT, or even a Hellcat, everything becomes "boring" after a while and you'll want to make it faster.

I'm in a somewhat similar boat as you - cept 20+ years older. I love my SXT, probably my favorite car I've ever had. But I really miss the rumble of a V8. And have been fighting whether or not to step up to an RT when my lease is up or just buy this one out and keep it a couple more years.

What I can say for sure though is don't get yourself in trouble financially modding a car when you're young. Spend your cash on Spring Breaks and beaches. When you're older you can buy whatever cars and speed parts you want. You can't buy back 20 year olds in bikinis. Well you can, but they get way more expensive the older you get.
 
#9 ·
I have never been interested in dropping any serious coin into my 3.5L to improve straight line performance. It's a gorgeous, excellent "cruiser" and that's what it's designed as. Without going FI most performance bolt on/additions will only give you marginal gains. I always recommend to anyone on a budget to simply improve the interior/exterior appearance. However, that can get costly as well. Anyway good luck in figuring it out.
 
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#10 ·
IMHO you should first decide what you really want to do (economy or power) but in the mean time here is my suggestion. Hopefully when you say tuner you mean Diablosport ?? If so then fill up with 87 and datalog then do the same thing with 93 octane. Email both logs to a tuner (Johan comes to mind) and ask him for an economy tune for the 87 fuel and a performance tune for the 93.
This will be a back and forth thing until all works well including LT and ST knock.
Neither you nor I can tune out knock properly with a hand held tuner because it cannot access the A/F tables and match STK/LTK occurrences.


87 tune during the week and 93 for the weekend.
 
#11 ·
I have never been interested in dropping any serious coin into my 3.5L to improve straight line performance. It's a gorgeous, excellent "cruiser" and that's what it's designed as. Without going FI most performance bolt on/additions will only give you marginal gains. I always recommend to anyone on a budget to simply improve the interior/exterior appearance. However, that can get costly as well. Anyway good luck in figuring it out.
Montreal, I will do that. I will think on it on what I want for my car at this time, but I will try and see what Johan can do about it, question however, Johan works on donation basis right? I thought you had to pay for his service but a few threads on here said it was donation based, to me, if someones going to help improve my car, I will pay them for their service anyways since its a service. For now I just want to have access to all the HP I'm losing to knock, so I'll focus on that for now.

IMDT, that's been what I have done since I got her last year :grin2:. I'm not ready to have FI on my car, it doesn't seem like a good idea to do on my only car, and as for any other additions, I have the 3.07 axle ratio, so I have the 200MM rear axle, I cant justify spending the coin to have that upgraded, I do plan to get a K&N CAI and am trying to cool the engine as much as I can. Really I just want to reduce knock and keep the engine well maintained so that I have confidence that my car is always going to be reliable. I just feel like I should at least do some degree to the car to level out the cosmetics mods I add. I will think on it, as I am with all the posts on this thread.

This is why I like this thread, you guys are awsome for advice! :grin2:
 
#14 ·
My previous was a 10 SE (3.5L) and I added interior and exterior mods and found that my car drew more attention than other challengers. Even with my new RT, I don't run it on the track, it's for me. Here's a couple of pics of the 3 year span. Let it be what you want.
 

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#16 ·
Challenger is not a cheap car to mod. To get additional power from the car it will cost at least $500+ and that is still very little hp. The tuner with 93 octane is better then any other performance mod you can do including CAI, and $1000 exhaust.

If money is tight go with the 89 tune with 89 octane gas and call it a day. The only other mods that will give more performance is forced induction.
 
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#17 ·
I have an 91 custom tune but use 93 gas. It's less aggressive than the 93 tune but the exhaust note is so much more muscle! Try it on ur canned tunes, it's an sound difference for the better.
 
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