Hello there, guys and gals.
We're nearing completion of a series of major performance upgrades, seeking to make this the fastest Jeep Patriot in the nation without the use of forced induction.
It's been a lot of headache, but in the end, I hope this Pat proves to be the most powerful and fuel efficient 4x4 SUV in all the land, excluding any Hybrid crap with Chinese batteries.
To begin with, the entire exhaust system has been completely overhauled, with a good amount of it having to be custom fabricated. As most Pat owners know, we don't have the benefit of a wide range of aftermarket parts. Thus, a compatible header was not available for my '10, 4x4 model.
Although, there's a shorty Mopar Header that fits a 2007-2009 Caliber/Compass/Patriot, it's for the FWD models only.(P/N# P5153566) This is actually what I purchased and intended on using. After my brother and I had to saw off part of the factory manifold to get it out, we were disappointed to find that my engine, although a similar 2.4L CVVT, did not have the same header bolt threading.
We wound up having to find a good weld shop that could cleanly cut the flange off the OEM Exhaust Manifold so it could be welded onto the aftermarket Mopar shorty header in a quality fashion. ("The Weld Shop" Pasadena, TX) Afterwards, I sent the header back to Jet-Hot to have it coated AGAIN. I gave them the sad story, so they re-coated it with the Jet-Hot 2000 coating at no extra charge and even paid for shipping.
Moore's Machine Shop created a custom header flange for us to tie-in the rest of the exhaust back to the downstream catalytic converter, which is being replaced with a Magnaflow Ceramic Spun High-Flow Cat. Keep in mind, the original exhaust manifold that my custom header replaced contained a highly restrictive, pot-belly style, pre-cat. Thus, there is no more pre-cat and the downstream cat has been upgraded.
I really didn't care to spend a ton of money on a cat-back exhaust, with all the high cost I spent customizing the exhaust, so I purchased the Dynomax which includes a muffler since it has pretty decent reviews.
Considering all the changes I planned for the exhaust, including the previously installed AEM Cold Air kit, I figured there still wouldn't be enough power for my liking throughout most of the RPM band. The fact of the matter is, the Patriot is a magnificent off-road capable vehicle when you have the FDII Off-Road package, is incredibly fuel efficient, but it can be dangerously slow at the worst possible times, like entering the freeway and merging with high speed traffic.
After some deliberation, my brother convinced me the most cost-effective way to give it more mid-range power was through a camshaft upgrade. I searched everywhere for aftermarket cams and found none. Thus, I stumbled upon Crower Performance in CA who agreed to do a Stage 1 regrind for $160 each, which is mild enough for the Pat's engine without requiring any valve train upgrades.(both intake and exhaust camshafts were done)
Finally, after getting all my parts together, I decided to find the best Mopar Performance shop in Houston, which after some research turned out to be FWD Performance. They are affordable, have a great reputation, not to mention they have around 30 yrs experience, a full range of diagnostics and Dyno Tuning. They also have more experience than anyone in this area working on smaller Mopar engines like the 2.0/2.4L Neon SRT-4, and the late model 2.4L Caliber SRT-4. I would not trust anyone else to do my engine work.
A couple of days ago, I dropped everything off with them, instead of trying to do some of it myself and be a cheapskate. This turned out to be a wise decision because Cindy at FWD Performance caught a problem with the flange we had welded on the header before it got mounted. It was just barely warped, but not noticeably and would've resulted in an exhaust leak had we bolted it up ourselves. Right now, they are installing the cams and should have the header issue corrected soon. When all is said and done, we will probably have the ECU flashed to advance the ignition timing by roughly 1 degree as well as a slightly richer Air/Fuel Ratio using a custom tune.
Granted, I've spent a lot more than I'd originally planned on this project, but justified the expense because I saved $5,400 off MSRP by purchasing my Patriot through the Armed Forces Exchange New Car Sales program while working in Iraq.
I also bought a ScanGauge II to monitor the temps, A/F ratio, and horsepower. Pretty soon we are going to see if/what the Pat's limitations are. Anyone who feels like making any performance predictions, or even disrespecting the Pat should speak up now, not after the fact. I expect the dust to settle by the end of next week at the very latest.
I will keep you guys posted as soon as it's done.
{-Stop the financial terrorists.. Crash JP Morgan, Buy SILVER!-}
We're nearing completion of a series of major performance upgrades, seeking to make this the fastest Jeep Patriot in the nation without the use of forced induction.
It's been a lot of headache, but in the end, I hope this Pat proves to be the most powerful and fuel efficient 4x4 SUV in all the land, excluding any Hybrid crap with Chinese batteries.
To begin with, the entire exhaust system has been completely overhauled, with a good amount of it having to be custom fabricated. As most Pat owners know, we don't have the benefit of a wide range of aftermarket parts. Thus, a compatible header was not available for my '10, 4x4 model.
Although, there's a shorty Mopar Header that fits a 2007-2009 Caliber/Compass/Patriot, it's for the FWD models only.(P/N# P5153566) This is actually what I purchased and intended on using. After my brother and I had to saw off part of the factory manifold to get it out, we were disappointed to find that my engine, although a similar 2.4L CVVT, did not have the same header bolt threading.
We wound up having to find a good weld shop that could cleanly cut the flange off the OEM Exhaust Manifold so it could be welded onto the aftermarket Mopar shorty header in a quality fashion. ("The Weld Shop" Pasadena, TX) Afterwards, I sent the header back to Jet-Hot to have it coated AGAIN. I gave them the sad story, so they re-coated it with the Jet-Hot 2000 coating at no extra charge and even paid for shipping.
Moore's Machine Shop created a custom header flange for us to tie-in the rest of the exhaust back to the downstream catalytic converter, which is being replaced with a Magnaflow Ceramic Spun High-Flow Cat. Keep in mind, the original exhaust manifold that my custom header replaced contained a highly restrictive, pot-belly style, pre-cat. Thus, there is no more pre-cat and the downstream cat has been upgraded.
I really didn't care to spend a ton of money on a cat-back exhaust, with all the high cost I spent customizing the exhaust, so I purchased the Dynomax which includes a muffler since it has pretty decent reviews.
Considering all the changes I planned for the exhaust, including the previously installed AEM Cold Air kit, I figured there still wouldn't be enough power for my liking throughout most of the RPM band. The fact of the matter is, the Patriot is a magnificent off-road capable vehicle when you have the FDII Off-Road package, is incredibly fuel efficient, but it can be dangerously slow at the worst possible times, like entering the freeway and merging with high speed traffic.
After some deliberation, my brother convinced me the most cost-effective way to give it more mid-range power was through a camshaft upgrade. I searched everywhere for aftermarket cams and found none. Thus, I stumbled upon Crower Performance in CA who agreed to do a Stage 1 regrind for $160 each, which is mild enough for the Pat's engine without requiring any valve train upgrades.(both intake and exhaust camshafts were done)
Finally, after getting all my parts together, I decided to find the best Mopar Performance shop in Houston, which after some research turned out to be FWD Performance. They are affordable, have a great reputation, not to mention they have around 30 yrs experience, a full range of diagnostics and Dyno Tuning. They also have more experience than anyone in this area working on smaller Mopar engines like the 2.0/2.4L Neon SRT-4, and the late model 2.4L Caliber SRT-4. I would not trust anyone else to do my engine work.
A couple of days ago, I dropped everything off with them, instead of trying to do some of it myself and be a cheapskate. This turned out to be a wise decision because Cindy at FWD Performance caught a problem with the flange we had welded on the header before it got mounted. It was just barely warped, but not noticeably and would've resulted in an exhaust leak had we bolted it up ourselves. Right now, they are installing the cams and should have the header issue corrected soon. When all is said and done, we will probably have the ECU flashed to advance the ignition timing by roughly 1 degree as well as a slightly richer Air/Fuel Ratio using a custom tune.
Granted, I've spent a lot more than I'd originally planned on this project, but justified the expense because I saved $5,400 off MSRP by purchasing my Patriot through the Armed Forces Exchange New Car Sales program while working in Iraq.
I also bought a ScanGauge II to monitor the temps, A/F ratio, and horsepower. Pretty soon we are going to see if/what the Pat's limitations are. Anyone who feels like making any performance predictions, or even disrespecting the Pat should speak up now, not after the fact. I expect the dust to settle by the end of next week at the very latest.
I will keep you guys posted as soon as it's done.
{-Stop the financial terrorists.. Crash JP Morgan, Buy SILVER!-}
