5.7L Hemi Registry #1117 chuck-n-michelle

Being installed on 7/18/09!!!!

WooHoo!!! Today's the day!

What a difference!!! No more clunks or thunks over bumps and cracks...Handles like a dream and super nice! Now for the rear...

Here are some pics of the parts...

LX Front Upper Control Arm Bush (adjustable)


LX Front Radius Rod Bush (tension strut bush)


LX Bump Steer Correction Kit


(EP4107)-LX Lower Front Shock Mount & (6568)-LX Front Lower Control Arm Bush


Click link for more install pics!

Link to the Pedders Install Manual we used:

Well, I did the CCFL Halo thing over the Columbus Day weekend...

Only took about 14 hours total and 2 sets of headlights (between baking a used set already in hand, another headlight shipment, baking again and install)..................
(TIP, DO NOT put the headlight covers in to reheat to clean up the sealant face down on the HOT rack in the oven!!!! They warp and bubble up, ya know? :doh: Especially when it is directly over the heat source in a gas oven)

They look really killer!





The only down side is that they were in for 2 weeks and now the high beam on the passengers side is broken! I assume that it is broken because I can see a dark line at the bottom of the ring...

So out they come and stock lights go back in. Will need to decide if I go the replacement ring route or just save my pennies for the LED ones next year...

SEE POST #16 FOR THE LATEST ON THE HALO INSTALL!!

Latest mod...

Had a custom CMR tune/dyno tune (Mustang) done while on vacation in Maine last week! Boy was that fun!:racing:

Went to TDP Performance in Steuben Maine last year (2008) and had some dyno runs done with everything stock except for a drop in K&N air filter. Came in around factory specs.

Dyno Result Chart 10/08


Quarter Mile Results 10/08


On to this years visit with Tim...

We have added in an Airhammer cold air intake, a Corsa catback system, and a Predator tuner this year for our major "performance" mods.

1) We set the tune back to stock to see what the intake and exhaust system added over the stock with drop in filter from last year...We only gained about 2hp! Granted, I have 255/55-18 General Grabber UHP's this year over the stock 225/60-18 Goodyear Assurance tires, so a few horse was lost there...but we were hoping for a little, no a lot better than that!

2) So, we put in the 91 Performance canned tune from Diablo in to see what that did (only have 91 octane available in Maine). Lo and behold.............the tune was really hurting the car over the stock tune!!! It was pulling timing all over the place and losing hp. We decide to drop in a can of NOS fuel additive to the tank and run the 91 tune some more. Still doing the same thing.

3) So, we put in the 93 Performance canned tune. Still pulling timing all over and not doing very well.

4) Tim then decided to give his buddy in FL a call to see what he thought. That lead to sending down my stock tune to him via email and seeing what he could do....Put in the email file to see what it would do. It was basically a Diablo 93 tune with some tweaks to it. Smoke out the back end and still pulling timing.

Another phone call and email. Loaded in the new file which changed some things up and turned off the knock sensors. Some huge smoke out the back end and some back firing taking place...

Another phone call and email file. Turned the knock sensors back on, reset the timing paramaters so that it would only pull about 3-4* of timing instead of 10+ and did some other tweaks. Less smoke this time, but still needed work.

One more phone call and email. Loaded in the file and boy this was much better! Did a few pulls and the timing has been smoothed out a huge amount.

Over all, I now have about an additional 25-30 horse and the same in torque over factory stock. I am up to right around 368 hp / 405 tq now! It rolls along much smoother with hardly a touch on the gas pedal. Haven't really had the opportunity to jump on it really hard yet, but I am loving it so far! Tim did say that there was still more power to be had without going the heads/cam route yet, but we ran out of time...

Dyno Results After Custom Tune 10/09


Quarter Mile Results 1st Run 10/09


Quarter Mile Results 2nd Run 10/09


This was one of the most fun mods so far and am looking forward to the next one in line...

A little more support...

Went in this weekend...BWoody endlinks front and rear!

Products
------------------------------------------------------
1 x BWoody Charger sway bar links (190.9004) = $209.99
Color Candy Red (free powder coat in any color available right now)

Got the link from here...http://www.lxforums.com/board/showthread.php?t=173152



Front


Rear


New front vs old front:


New rear vs old rear:


Passengers side front:


Drivers side front:


Passengers side rear:


Drivers side rear:


Install time was about 2 1/2 hours out in the driveway.

BIG DIFFERENCE in handling!!!

EDIT: Removed these (the fronts) the middle of March or so. Still making lots of noise and found that they were wearing into the metal itself and cutting up the bushing. Boy do I miss the handling!!!

Odyssey Battery

Just installed an Odyssey Battery last week.

It has a shorter length than the stock one (and was chosen by vehicle/year etc and not with dimensions), so a bracket will have to be made up when it is warm enough to get out in the trunk and do it. Right now it is strapped down and has a chunk of 2x4 and some wooden shims holding it in place without movement. It is the same height and width.







http://www.odysseybattery.com/batteries.html

Well, nothing overly fun this time around...


Found out that I had a coolant leak while in VT over Valentine's weekend when we had the car warming up for 5 minutes and still no heat. We had hoped that it was just a broken clamp or bad hose.........no such luck..........leak in the radiator itself (looked like the o-ring at the top may have let go).

Fortunately we were going to have it in the shop on the 20th for Keith (klarmie) to do a complete fluid swap out, do the plugs, swap out to some new used struts and to swap back to the stock headlights so that I can work on getting the broken halo fixed up.

So, it was a long week of checking the coolant level constantly and adding to the tank. When we got it in on the 20th, that was when we found that it wasn't a simple fix and had to order a new radiator, we just went ahead and got new hoses as well. Boy am I glad that we have a guy at the Dodge dealership that gives us a discount on any parts that we order! Got the rear dif fluid swapped, brake fluid swapped, power steering fluid swapped, tranny filter changed but decided to wait on the rest of the tranny flush till we got the radiator swapped, front struts swapped and headlights got swapped out. It was a productive day.

So, on to this past Saturday......Got the old radiator out and new one in, finished the tranny flush and changed the serpentine belt to be on the safe side. We are going to see if the old radiator is able to be fixed and if so, I will have a Police Package radiator up for grabs.



The next entry should be better...Planning on the Pedders rear upgrade kit with the tax return when we get the taxes done...

Few misc changes/updates...

More "routine" maintenance.

Had to replace the passengers side lower ball joint and inner tie rod along with the drivers side backing plate (bolt rusted through and it was flapping around).

MOOG K80996 lower ball joint (non-adjustable) $38 plus shipping at RockAuto.com

Hey, I also just flipped 100,000 miles on my way to work today!!! :thumbs_u:

I also took off the BWoody end links (fronts) about a month ago. They were making quite a bit of noise that never went away from the start and after taking them off I found that they had actually started wearing into the metal itself as well as shearing off part of the bushing. I think they need a redesign on these to make them better before I will go that route again...Got the stock ones back on and now it is quiet as a church mouse although the handling has definitely gone back downhill too...:sad:

Wow! Been a long time since I have added anything in, so here we go...

July 2010:
Finally got the new set of halos in from AAC after some ring diameter issues and the latest/greatest version of inverters. I also decided to get the voltage regulator that plcman makes and sells through Flashtech for use with led halos and give it a shot on the ccfl rings. I figured that it wouldn't hurt to have a constant voltage going to the inverters to try and help with burning any of them out (even though they are the upgraded ones). Raymond said that it would work but to have Flashtech pre-set the voltage to 11.5 and I would be good to go. Neither of them had heard of anyone using this unit with ccfl's but said that it should work just fine. I have not had a single issue with the halos this go round. They are still running perfectly (when it is warm enough out!) 8 months later and I have not had a single issue with an inverter getting too hot or deforming. I guess that having the headlights apart 3 different times and 2 different sets of rings has kind of made us experts to a degree. If anyone wants some help doing this just let us know!

November 2010:
Added the Dynamic Grounding 4 wire kit (all but the trans) in November. We had the car on the dyno a couple of weeks prior to install, so we decided to recreate the conditions (3 weeks later we had an almost perfect temp match, same 91 octane gas with NOS fuel treatment and drove almost 500 miles for the car to adapt). Dyno did not show any real improvement and didn't really notice any SOTP difference either. The car does start much quicker than it used to though (what a monster battery grounding cable!). I am not sure if the lack of improvement is due to my car being a police package or not. I am not sure if there is more/heavier duty grounding due to all of the electronics that are run while in police service or not versus what is in a standard RT. We will be trying the kit on the Magnum 3.5 to see if there is a difference with Chuck's car or not...

February 2011:
Just added in the Oracle HOD bulbs that AAC had a special on in February. All I can say is MAN these are definitely worth every penny!!!!! For those of you out there that do not have HID's this is a perfect route to go. Don't stand there an look directly at them though unless you have a desire to be blind...

-The high beams are absolutely incredible! I wish I could drive around with them more often. Very bright and super white and you can almost see forever with them! Go ahead, flash me thinking I have the highs on when I don't. I dare you!!! :mrgreen:
-The low beams are a much whiter light, but seem to have a funky light pattern to them. I am thinking that it might be due to the shape of the bulb and the way that the light is bouncing off the reflector. There seems to be a pretty good sized "dark spot" from the center of the car and slightly towards the passengers side. I have gotten pretty used to it over the past month of driving, but am going to see if there is anything that I can do to fix that hole. It would be nice if the "cap" was not there over the low beam bulb... They do an excellent job of lighting up the sides of the road, so you can actually see if there is something there that might be coming out into your driving path.
-The fog lights are most excellent too! I didn't usually drive with them on much (I like those who recognize the lights on the Charger at night thinking I might be the police ) but I have started using them more now because they help with lighting up the road a little bit better with the dark spot created in the low beams.

Well, seeing as the General Grabber UHP's are on national backorder for another 6-8 weeks and that will be pushing June, I decided to try a different tire for this summer.

Just put on the Nitto 420s' Monday night. Much quieter and not as harsh of a ride as the Grabbers (even though they are the same size). We will have to see how the quietness does once I've got a few thousand miles on them and see if they get any louder like the Grabbers did.

I can say that these tires are a super all around tire for all kinds of weather. Yes, you all here in the Northeast can blame me for Mother Nature's cruel joke of a spring snow storm. :doh: There was snow on the ground and roads around home this morning and they seemed to have better traction than my winter tires did. Got further down the road and onto a major 2 lane (in each direction) highway that was covered with a couple inches of slush and much deeper than that in places. They handled it very well and there was no white knuckling going on. I just had to keep the speed slower (took and hour and 15 to get to work instead of the normal 55 minutes).

So far, I give these tires 2 thumbs up! :thumbs_u: :thumbs_u:

FRI Sidwinder Cam!

Well, I finally pulled the trigger! Had a Sidwinder Cam installed over the week of May 1st through the 7th. Dropped the car off with Tim at TDP Automotive up in Steuben Maine on Saturday the 30th and went back and picked it up on Mother's Day.

You can see our progress on the dyno starting in October of 2008 through this posting here in my registry pages... 2008 was completely stock; 2009 was after the Airhammer, Corsa exhaust, Predator and a custom tune; 2010 was after the car was used to the custom tune and installed for a year; and now in 2011 the first results from the cam install and new tune.

Here are the details from our last dyno run in October (have only used TDP) and the new one after the cam (cam only, no heads/headers or high-flow cats yet).

October 2010



May 2011 - After cam install



May 2011 - 1/4 mile run



Install included:
Sidewinder, 6.1 pushrods & springs, new timing set (5.7), NGK Copper plugs 1 step cooler than stock, 180° thermostat, new custom tune.

Other work done at the same time:
Lower ball joint on driver's side - Moog
Endlinks - Moog