Professor_Brap
Professor_Brap Dork
5/2/19 10:40 a.m.

RTVberry: SOHC, 3.55 MTX, mopar header, no cat, 2.25in exhaust to a magnadrone. Factory intake for now.  93 octane fuel, from same station. 80 mile round trip, 90% freeway, crusie control set on 70-75mph and hard pulls onto freeway ramp. 

37.4 MPG DOHC MTX ecu

35.5 MPG Mopar SOHC ecu. 

Going to try a AFX ecu I have next tank. 
 

Professor_Brap
Professor_Brap Dork
5/3/19 8:49 a.m.

Got a stack of 95 Neon pcms in the mail, two real mopar pcms, one reflash mopar, one boost button, and one  JeffBall cal. 

Gunchsta
Gunchsta HalfDork
5/3/19 9:07 a.m.

In reply to Professor_Brap :

Dang that's pretty impressive. I achieved 30 average over a tank in the Civic last tank and was pretty stoked. 
 

Does the Butt-dyno detect any difference in performance between the 2 ecu's ?

Professor_Brap
Professor_Brap Dork
5/3/19 9:13 a.m.

In reply to Gunchsta :

Butt dyno says yes, per the data I have seen the Mopar makes the most power and has the best power curves.

Professor_Brap
Professor_Brap Dork
5/6/19 9:49 a.m.

I went to advance to get a new tophat/strut bearing for the black rt and boy that didnt go well. 3 tried later and they where all the wrong part. How my weekend went in the nut shell.  

Professor_Brap
Professor_Brap Dork
5/7/19 9:48 a.m.

RTVberry has belts and is all good again. Blue or Black Iceman intake?

Powar
Powar UltraDork
5/7/19 11:16 a.m.
Professor_Brap said:

RTVberry has belts and is all good again. Blue or Black Iceman intake?

Black. And I'm enjoying following along with your Neon adventures. My dad had one years ago that I really enjoyed driving until the head gasket puked. They seem to be nearly extinct in this area now.

Professor_Brap
Professor_Brap Dork
5/7/19 11:23 a.m.

In reply to Powar :

What area are you in? 

They are cheap entertainment, when I was  doing the Toyota truck thing and the Land Rover stuff single parts cost as much as a Neon. 

Professor_Brap
Professor_Brap Dork
5/8/19 8:53 a.m.

Got it on, 80% of the reason this went on is because the PO cut the factory battery box up terribly and I dont really wanna go to the yard. Image

Powar
Powar UltraDork
5/8/19 9:19 a.m.
Professor_Brap said:

In reply to Powar :

What area are you in? 

They are cheap entertainment, when I was  doing the Toyota truck thing and the Land Rover stuff single parts cost as much as a Neon. 

KY

Professor_Brap
Professor_Brap Dork
5/8/19 9:22 a.m.

In reply to Powar :

Thats wild, I buy a ton of rust free 1g Neons up here, of course there is the rotten ones, but still. 

Bent-Valve
Bent-Valve Reader
5/8/19 9:31 a.m.

How closely related ate Neons and PT Cruisers. I see those up for sale cheap around here. Are they the same platform?

Professor_Brap
Professor_Brap Dork
5/8/19 9:33 a.m.
Bent-Valve said:

How closely related ate Neons and PT Cruisers. I see those up for sale cheap around here. Are they the same platform?

They are related, similar platforms, share many of the same parts, but not all. 

Professor_Brap
Professor_Brap Dork
5/9/19 8:30 a.m.

The RTVberry got some questionable upgrades, along the lines of a TTI strut bar and a smaller front roll bar. 

Professor_Brap
Professor_Brap Dork
5/13/19 9:41 a.m.

It was Shadow weekend this weekend. 

First on the list, fixing the locked up driver side rear wheel. 
The wheel would sorta turn, and when you hit the brake would stop it. I adjusted the adjuster all the way in to try to get the shoes off the drum and didnt really help. 

A hour of banging on it, heat and PB blaster and it was off, and welcomed me with a shower of parts. 

 

 

Someone put new shoes and hardware kit on it recently, and we got 2 springs, part of the shoe material, and a cap for the shoe locating cap. 

 

Once I got both off, I decided I would mow the grass, and Tavia wanted to help me move cars, she was so exited to "drive" everything. 

 

Once we got done mowing we moved all the cars back and went to the shop to turn the drums. 


It started to rain once I got back, so I decided I would look into the fan not working. 

Easiest way to check its not the fan or relay on 2.2s it to unplug the temp switch on the side of the thermostat housing and fan will kick on. Once that was confirmed I went to dealership and got me a new switch, I would say the old one was quite bad. 

Professor_Brap
Professor_Brap Dork
5/14/19 8:51 a.m.

Ecu woke the car up a ton. 

Aligned the car up after the new Konis. 

Front: -1.5 degrees camber @ 1/8" toe-out

Rear: -0.5 degrees camber @ 0 toe-out

car rotates pretty good, and has street manors. 

Got the rear molded splash gaurds on and they look great. 

Sorry for the dirty car all it does it rain in Ohio. 

 

Image

Professor_Brap
Professor_Brap Dork
5/15/19 9:11 a.m.

Did some more cleaning on the RTVberry.


Exhaust shop trip and attempted paint correction scheduled for Thursday, hopefully we can get this thing to not sound like ass. Also on the hunt for a SOHC longtube, my shorttube cracked and I welded it up but its on barrowed time. 

Professor_Brap
Professor_Brap Dork
5/16/19 3:09 p.m.

The ol RTVberry got detailed, more pics to come. 

Professor_Brap
Professor_Brap Dork
5/17/19 9:15 a.m.

One of the small things that makes me so so happy installed. Took me forever to track one down. 

Cadman5
Cadman5 New Reader
5/17/19 10:54 p.m.

Since you're the King of all things Neon, I am curious of your opinion of this deal...https://seattle.craigslist.org/kit/cto/d/bremerton-03-dodge-neon-fix-or-parts/6884262619.html

I am looking for something that's cheap, reliable, parts easily available, and can withstand some rallyX. Do you think an R/T fits the bill? Is the transmission the same as non-R/Ts and readily available, or will I have a hard time finding one at a junkyard? I'm kinda done with hard to find parts after dealing wth a Geo Storm Gsi beater racecar.

Thanks for your thoughts. Perhaps Dusterbd13 will weigh in also!

Dusterbd13-michael
Dusterbd13-michael MegaDork
5/18/19 6:40 a.m.

Not sure about the second gen stuff, so I'll have to let the professor answer

Professor_Brap
Professor_Brap Dork
5/20/19 10:06 a.m.

In reply to Cadman5 :

RT is a great car. It has the 3.94 trans, and the magnum motor. Nothing to crazily special. they hold up ultra well to abuse. I would go for it. You can either put in any 2nd gen 5 speed or a NA PT trans (what I would do). I am also willing to be the trans is not broken even. One thing you must do is the timing belt ASAP. 

Cadman5
Cadman5 New Reader
5/20/19 11:28 a.m.

Thanks for the input. I searched junkyards within a 200 mile radius and only came up with a bunch of non-R/T and a single ACR. No R/T's (by looking at the VINs listed). So, no suspension or drive train parts specific to the R/T?

Is the Magnum fairly well supported? It is only a 4 year engine (2001-2004 according to Wiki). Rockauto only lists the 2.0 and 2.4, but perhaps looking for VIN "F" sorts that out within the 2.0 part listings. I fell into the limited-year engine trap with a Geo Storm GSi . Finding replacements in junkyards was like finding hen's teeth. It also had model-specific axles that were hard to source.

I've been down that road, and don't want to again. If i would be better off with a more mainstream Neon setup so I'm not fighting availability, please let me know. I don't want this to be another frustrating exercise. I'm not looking for trophies, just tons of fun. If a lesser Neon will scratch that itch and put me on easy street for parts, I'm glad to go that route.

Professor_Brap
Professor_Brap Dork
5/20/19 11:36 a.m.

The "specific"items: 
Motor (different pistons, rods, higher flowing head and cam, intake and exhaust manifold. You can use any neon parts on that motor. 

Trans has the 3.94. same as ACR also. If you use a NA PT trans you get a taller 5th. 

They have the dual exhaust and side skirts, normally have leather and a cluster are the big items. 

I have DDed one for over 100k along with some auto x and general truck usage. I would highly recommend it. there are no hard to find parts. 

JeremyJ
JeremyJ New Reader
5/20/19 1:22 p.m.

The second gen R/Ts and ACRs are excellent cars. Easy to work on and usually pretty reliable. 

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