What Are Some Easy Mods To Increase Performance? - seeking something cheap but workable

So I just bought a 1999 Chrysler Sebring, after my old car (1996 Buick Park Avenue) was totaled in a car accident. The Sebring has the V6 engine, but it is only a 2.5L, which makes it fairly wimpy. I want to increase the performance of the car, even if only slightly. I know two easy things are to get an air intake kit and get a new exhaust system. Should I get the cold air intake, ram air intake, or just replace my air filter with a k&n air filter? Are the offbrand products, which cost a lot less, of similar quality to the namebrand products? What products would you suggest that I try?

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How about a new intake Manifold and a 4 barrel Carb kit? Can you find one of them that will boost the performance level?
Maybe re-curving the distributor to play with the timing sequences for a bigger bang? That might do it.
Yea, a V6 can be made to work better than stock, but it takes some doing. And the gas mileage isn't going to be the same, that's for sure.

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Wait wait wait...
You mean 2.5L is not enough?
I think you're using a lot of petrol with that engine, specially in these days when we know that there's much less petroleum in the world than it was expected a few decades ago.
So, I really can't understand why people, not you only (don't take it as a personal attack please)... Why people uses that kind of engines which uses lots of petrol in cars for cities (like Sebring)?
Because, if we were talking about a car or jeep for transporting or farming stuff, I understand, but otherwise I just can't.
Maybe you really need it, I don't know...

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jlhaslip, thanks for the suggestions. I'll definitely look into them and post back on the possibilities I will find.

Andres, the main reason I bought this car is because I found a good deal on it. My last car was a 3.8L engine. I'm mainly driving the car on the highway every weekend around roughly 350 miles. The mileage (somewhere around 27) is not too bad on the highway, and actually buying an air intake kit not only increases the horsepower, but the fuel economy too. I suppose I am like many other Americans and I'm very image driven. I want to be able to floor my gas pedal when I'm bored on an empty stretch of highway and feel myself being pushed back into my seat. I don't want to drive in a car that's boring for five hours a week. I would much rather be entertained and exhilarated the whole time.

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I see, so maybe the air intake kit would be a good idea then.
And well, just to let you know my opinion on these things, I prefer the bus to driving for that kind of trips. I know that with a car, you can take as much luggage as you want and carry things which maybe important, and there's a lot of comfort and image in driving maybe, but I'd rather take a bus, turn the mp3 player and sleep the whole journey.
But... sorry, I really don't want to change the topic of this discussion. It was like a parenthesis...
As for the changes to your car, maybe you're right, and improving its performance that way would be good.
Thanks for the explanation.

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I think the cheapest thing that you can do would be the cold air intake. To optimize the usage of increased air flow, though, you should try to find a buddy or a shop to do any adjustments to the onboard computer, if need be.

An exhaust system is a very expensive way to go. From what I can remember, those start at about $200 for the complete gig, but it does decrease restriction and allows for a better, smoother circulation of exhaust. Is it worth $200+? I'm thinking not, IMO.

I have a K&N washable reusable air filter for my Honda Civic and I have to say that the idea is awesome, but you have to be careful when "washing" it. Don't bend it too far to get at the dirt and dust, and I would try to clean it out dry before submersing it in water and trying to clean it that way. And of course, it's imperative that it's dry before putting it back into the air filter housing.

You can also work on lightening your load, like taking out your spare (your discretion), any unnecessary items, or heck, take out the backseat.

One thing that did wonders for my car just recently was cleaning out my fuel injection system and throttle. Midas recommended it to me and it made sense, and since I haven't done that in the history of owning the used car for a couple of years, I figured I'd do it (even though the throttle plate wasn't very dirty). After the cleaning, the engine sounds much "throatier" and has that low tone of a ricer with a humongous muffler... all with just a cleaning. Sometimes, performance can be gained or restored with simple maintenance... something that we often overlook.

I was looking at doing this same sort of gig: to increase the performance of a car for cheap. I backed out of it though because I didn't feel like making modifications to a car without actually knowing for sure what I was doing. The cost to improve performance versus the possibility of screwing up not to mention negligible performance gain kind of turned me off to the whole thing... but I'll tell you this: if you do go with a cold-air intake, make sure you don't live in a wet state.

 

 

 

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Alright, so you must like old cars. Most newer cars since the early 90s haven't had carbs in them. As for the distributor, I still need to look into it more, but it's a possibility. Thanks!


I know what you mean. But unfortunately the bus trip takes an hour longer and costs $40 more here


This is what I was really looking for! Thanks for the great post. I just bought a cold air intake with a K&N filter in it. For cleaning out the fuel injection and throttle, do you just use some of the "pour it in your gas tank and it gets clean" stuff or what?

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I actually went to Midas and ate the $80 it cost to clean the whole thing out. It was a three-stage product: one which went straight into the engine that I suppose was a very strong cleaner, one that went into the gas tank, and there was a last stage that I can't seem to remember. Basically, it cleans out the throttle body and throttle plate (which you can see from taking off the manifold cover) and the fuel injection system so that your injectors actually spray out your fuel best without anything possibly hampering it (like clogs or build-up). However, while I was trying to figure out what they used in my car, I ran into this:

Clicky

The respondent seems pretty biased, so I'm guessing that he might have had a bad experience... or it is really that easy to do yourself and not bite the $80 bullet.

The process of cleaning the fuel injection system seems to make sense, but do your research before going out and blowing money. I trust Midas to do a lot of car work, but that's because the guys HERE are pretty cool and usually let me know of problems that even I was unaware of, plus they give me suggestions that don't always include something that they can do exclusively, which either is the best marketing gag ever, or that I feel that I'm talking to a buddy who knows cars and not so much the Midas mechanic trying to pinch every penny from me. (Sometimes, it pays to be cynical.)

More information on fuel injection/intake system cleaning:

Clicky

If I find out what our Midas uses for fuel injection and intake cleaning, I'll post it here.

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As far as the cold air intake, if you have it installed, see if you can get a buddy that can hook you up to a car computer reader... which might be hard to find because I believe that the devices are make and/or model specific. It makes sense to me that if you introduce an improved factor to default computer settings (i.e. introducing even more air into the combustion process), you would probably need to tweak everything else to achieve optimum performance. It probably doesn't make a difference, but I would do some research on that end too. (Because of this thinking, I run my Honda Civic stock instead of throwing on the cold-air intake that I was thinking about installing back in the day.) You're probably good to go, though... but personally, I would try to make sure of it.

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Here's a side question to anyone that can answer it: If I, hypothetically-speaking, were to switch out my fugly, stock steel wheels and replace them with wheels that were significantly lighter, would that improve gas mileage and performance? By how much of a margin of a difference would it make? My brain says that with a lighter metal alloy coupled with less material for the axle to turn requires less torque, you would be able to spin your wheels at the same speed with less effort from the engine. Anyone?

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